During the first quarter of 2016, there were four traffic fatalities, the NSO said today.
The number of reported traffic accidents in the first quarter reached 3,713, up by 3.9 per cent over the comparative period in 2015. The Northern Harbour district registered the most accidents with 1,460 cases or 39.3 per cent of all accidents.
Traffic casualties increased by 29.0 per cent to 467 over 2015, of which 262 (56.1 per cent) involved drivers. The amount of slight injuries sustained by drivers was 224 and 35 cases were reported as grievous. Another 35 persons (15 passengers and 20 pedestrians) suffered grievous injuries. There were also 124 passengers and 45 pedestrians who were slightly injured. Furthermore, the injuries suffered by three drivers and one passenger were fatal (Tables 3-6).
On a gender basis, slightly-injured persons in the fi rst quarter this year amounted to 393: 218 males and 175 females. Grievously-injured persons totalled 70, the majority being males. The fatalities comprised of one male and three females. The majority of casualties fell in the 26-40 age bracket.
The largest number of traffic casualties (73.0 per cent) were caused by passenger cars, followed by motorcycles (15.4 per cent) and goods-carrying vehicles (6.0 per cent).
The highest traffic casualty rate occurred on Saturdays, accounting for 18.0 per cent of total casualties, while the highest number of accidents was recorded on Thursdays, totalling 616 cases, and the lowest was recorded on Sundays, with 384 cases. Sundays topped the highest casualty-to-accidents ratio, with 19.8 per cent compared to an overall average of 12.6 per cent (Table 9).
The daily time bracket in which most accidents occurred was between 09:00 and 11:59, with 837 cases, or 22.5 per cent of the total. This was followed by the 12:00-14:59 time bracket, with 776 cases. The least number of accidents occurring daily took place between 00:00 and 02:59 (83 cases).
The highest rate of traffic accidents was registered in Birkirkara with 306 cases. Qormi and Marsa were next, with 190 and 158 reported accidents respectively.