TOKYO, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday issued orders to better improve road safety conditions for preschool-aged children in the wake of a number of high-profile fatal traffic accidents recently.
Abe instructed his relevant ministers, including Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, minister in charge of traffic safety, to compile plans to better protect the lives of children when they are commuting on foot to school.
"In order to protect the lives of children who will be responsible for the next generation, I'd like you to swiftly compile measures ensuring safety of routes that groups of children take on a daily basis," Abe said.
His instructions were made to the heads of education and welfare ministries and police officials, with the Japanese leader also calling for technology to be incorporated into vehicles to enhance their safety, especially those being driven by the elderly, such as automatic braking.
Earlier this month, in the western city of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture, two two-year olds were killed and 14 others were injured when a vehicle collided with another and fatally plowed into the toddlers who were waiting with their carers and other preschoolers at a crossroads for the signal to change green.
In April, a three-year old girl and her mother were killed when an 87-year-old driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on two sidewalks in Tokyo's bustling Ikebukuro district. Eight other people were also injured in the travesty.
Accidents caused by senior citizens have seen an uptick recently, with drivers aged 75 or older, including those who had not taken a cognition test, causing 418 fatal accidents in 2017 alone, of which 41 percent were vehicle collisions and 19 percent involved collisions between vehicles and pedestrians.
According to the data from Japan's National Police Agency (NPA), 194 people died in accidents caused by drivers suspected of having dementia or impaired cognition, and cases where drivers mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal before causing a fatal accident were almost eight times higher among the elderly during the reporting period.
As well as revising the laws regarding cognitive tests for elderly drivers, the government here said this month that it is planning to reduce the number of people with dementia by setting quantifiable targets to lower the ratio of patients in their 70s, over a six-year period until 2025.
The government has estimated that the number of dementia sufferers will increase to between 7 million to 8 million people, or 6 percent to 7 percent of the total population, by 2030.
The rising number of dementia patients correlates with the rise in traffic accidents caused by the elderly, the NPA has said.
"Heartbreaking accidents have continuously occurred although measures have been taken," the Japanese premiere said Tuesday, with reference to stricter cognitive tests for senior citizens who wish to continue driving.
