Auto Accident Fatalities in Hokkaido

I recently read an article about automobile accidents in Japan on JapanTimesOnline.  Fatal accidents on expressways increased 24.1 percent during January – June 2012 over the same time six month period in 2011. This was the second year for an increase on the expressways. An official from the National Police Agency was quoted as saying people are less cautious about high speed driving on the expressways. The regular highways all seem to have a speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour and in town where we live the speed limit is 30 kilometers per hour. I don’t know how fast you are allowed to go on the expressways.

Overall traffic deaths during the same six months are down, for the 12^th straight year.  About 50 percent of the deaths were people age 65 and older.  The article didn’t say if the over 65 year olds were the drivers or maybe just more fragile.

By prefecture, Hokkaido had the third most deaths (82) following Aichi (105) and Saitama (97).  Because Hokkaido has so few people, this means a much higher percentage of people die in traffic accidents.  The article didn’t address the cause of the overall traffic deaths, but I’m willing to bet that the snow and winter weather in Hokkaido contribute to the high number.

Dragon Progress

I am so thankful to have the time to work on my projects. I’ve done more on this dragon in the last week than I have in the last couple of years since taking the class.  Yesterday I completed the fins and the wing.