Traffic accident casualties down, but police warn about driver fatigue

Thirty-seven traffic accidents on Shanghai's expressways in the first half of this year involved casualties, down 13 percent from the same period last year, Shanghai traffic police said on Wednesday.

Almost half of them happened at late night or early morning, between 11pm and 5am, and a large number of fatal accidents were caused by trucks.

Most of the accidents involved rear-end collisions, and the major causes were broken-down vehicles, traffic congestion and other traffic accidents, police said.

In 19 rear-end collisions during traffic congestion, police found that the drivers who bumped into other cars didn't brake in time. 

This could mean that they had low concentration levels when driving, considering the accidents often happened at night or during noontime, police said.

Police said they have been talking to large freight transportation companies about safety rules and asking them to prevent their drivers from driving under fatigue.

The G15 and G60 expressways and the Outer Ring Road registered the largest number of traffic accidents in the first half of this year.