Elderly e-bikers key group in deadly traffic accidents
About 85 percent of all e-bikers involved in deadly traffic accidents since March were over 60 years old, Shanghai traffic police said on Friday.
There have been 14 such accidents since March, and in all of them, the e-bikers committed serious traffic offenses and were eventually assigned full or major responsibility.
In 10 of the cases, the e-bikers ignored traffic lights, while in other cases, they rode their e-bikes in the wrong direction, rode onto elevated roads, sped or failed to properly give way to other traffic participants.
Most of the e-bikers who caused these latest accidents were locals, according to the police.
For instance, a 65-year-old e-biker was killed in an accident that took place at 7:49pm on March 15 in Jing’an District. The woman, surnamed Chen, rode her e-bike through a red light at the intersection of Wuzhen Road and Hentong Road E. when a heavy truck coming from another direction hit her. She was killed on the scene, police said.
Footage of a deadly traffic accident in Jing'an District
The Xuhui case
In an accident which happened in Xuhui District at 6:16pm on March 22, a 64-year-old e-biker was killed. The man surnamed Zhang ignored a red light at the intersection of Huajing and Longwu roads and was hit by a car. He died at hospital, police said.
Lethal mornings
The number of traffic accidents involving casualties with participation on e-bikers since the beginning of this year was a drastic drop from the same period last year, police said.
However, the number of such accidents which took place in urban districts was on par with the same period last year, according to the police.
Among the 14 cases since March, five took place between 4am and 7am, with three between 10am and 1pm and three between 5pm and 7pm.
