Probability of getting into a car accident in Singapore

Say we ask you to think of the downsides of using a car as your primary means of transport. If you’re like most car owners (or potential car owners!), you’ll probably think about how petrol prices are expensive, and how your car starts to depreciate pretty much the second you get your keys. There’s a high chance you’ll overlook this other factor… which is the chance that you might get into a car accident!

Isn’t Singapore a safe place to drive?

For most drivers, your knee-jerk reaction might be something along the lines of: “Isn’t Singapore a safe place to drive? The traffic here is nowhere as crazy as that of Vietnam or China!”

Yes, that’s true. Singapore has many things going for it, including its high quality roads and low congestion levels. In fact, in a survey on the quality of driving by German car parts retailer kfzteile24, Singapore placed an impressive sixth out of 100 cities. (We came in just behind Dusseldorf, Dubai, Zurich, Tokyo and Basel!)

On top of that, we also know that Singapore has among the lowest road mortality rates per capita in the entire world. According to statistics from Singapore Traffic Police and World Health Organization, Singapore had the 6th least number of road accident-caused fatalities per capita out of the 178 countries assessed for the year of 2013. All in all, we only experienced 2.96 fatalities per 100,000 people in 2013.

In case you’re wondering if anything’s changed between now and then, the answer is -- no! Singapore's road mortality rate per capita has been on a steady downward trend since 2013; and the numbers decreased to 2.51 road fatalities per 100,000 persons in 2016.

But that’s only part of the picture…

It’s great the road fatalities per capita in Singapore is low, but don’t let that fool you -- it’s still more dangerous to drive in Singapore as opposed to other well-developed countries.

If you look at road fatalities per VEHICLE (not per capita), for example, you’ll realize that there were 14.8 fatalities per 100,000 motor vehicles in 2016. Obviously, this is a lot higher than the previous figure of 2.51 road fatalities per 100,1000 persons. Now, when it comes to road fatalities per vehicle, Singapore loses out to a number of first-world countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Australia.

Now you know: driving in Singapore isn’t that safe after all.

As drivers, we tend to think positively, but the truth is that an accident could befall you at any time. Bearing this in mind, don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security, and always make sure you drive safely. Also, because you want to protect yourself from other careless or reckless drivers on the road, be sure to purchase car insurance!

Have you ever gotten into a car accident in Singapore? How do you find driving in Singapore (as compared to driving in other countries)?