Korea ranked 6th among dangerous countries to drive

Korea is ranked 6th in the list of dangerous countries to drive by American business magazine Forbes.



The magazine announced the list of "Ten Dangerous Countries to Drive" on the basis of a May 19 report by the by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on road fatalities.



The OECD conducted a survey among its member countries, tracking both deaths per million individuals and deaths per million drivers in 2007.



Forbes used the result by averaging a country`s ranking on each data point for a composite result.



Russia, recording 939 deaths per million cars, was selected as the most dangerous country to drive. Forbes cited Russian government`s failure to regulate speed limit and loose laws against drunk drivers as major reasons.



Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Hungary and Korea followed Russia.



Greece, the United States, the Czech Republic and Belgium were included in the list as well.



The magazine said the inclusion of many Eastern European nations in the list was due to their disorganized political infrastructure. Korea was positioned at 6th with 121 deaths per million individuals, and 939 deaths per million drivers.



The inclusion of the United States (8th) and Belgium (10th) in the list was a surprise because they have well-developed road and traffic systems and a relatively low number of deaths from car accidents. Forbes pointed out that the two countries have a growing number of accidents by teenage drunk drivers.



Most of non-OECD member countries were not covered by the Forbes` list although developing countries like China, India and South Africa suffer the greatest number of traffic fatalities.



Forbes said that the economy in those countries is growing so fast, super-highways give people a culture shock. New vehicles appear on the road too quickly, thus increasing traffic accident rates.



But Forbes said it had difficulties to keep track of developing countries` data, saying these countries` governments can be lax about driver registration, while hospitals keep imperfect records of causes of death.



By Hwang Aesol



(csa919@gmail.com)