A latest report from the bureau shows that in the past four months, an average of 19 people died in traffic accidents everyday.

One person was injured in the province every 15 minutes in the past four months, the report said, causing a daily loss of 6 million yuan (US$72,000), which could likely total 2.1 billion yuan (US$253 million) at the end of the year.

"The province's fast developing economy and the recent trend of purchasing cars might be the two major causes for the hazardous road situation," said Zhang Jinghua, vice-director of the provincial public security bureau.

With the growth of the region's economy, more people are on the road, creating more opportunities for accidents, officials said.

"This has far surpassed our present road capacity and has made the road situation more and more difficult," said Zhang.

Nearly 83 percent of the roads in the province are still of low quality, he said.

But the biggest cause for the number of accidents is the rapid increase of vehicles, especially cars, Zhang said.

Statistics show that the prosperous province has seen a 25 percent annual growth in the number of vehicles in recent years. By the end of last year, the total number of vehicles in Zhejiang reached 3.59 million.

In addition, a new policy opening the market even further for private vehicles has allowed more residents to purchase their own cars.

Since many drivers are new to the skill, they are more likely to not follow traffic regulations, Zhang said.

"The speed of the province's improving road facilities and the further increase in the number of road police is still slow," said Zhang.

Local police and experts warned that if nothing is improved, the situation could become even worse in the coming months.

Local authorities vowed to put more effort into re-planning some main roads, improving road quality, strengthening road administration forces and raising the cost of fines.

(China Daily May 29, 2002)