Highway Safety Enhancement Project in China

At the turn of the century, the road traffic status in China became severe. From 2001 to 2004, annual road accident fatalities exceeded 100,000 for four consecutive years. The number of road fatalities peaked in 2002 when on average 300 people were killed on China's roadways each day. Included here is a table which provides a breakdown of deaths and injuries by road users in 2002, China was facing unprecedented road safety problems. In China, road-related factors, such as dangerous road sections, insufficient safety guarantee, and unstable maneuverability for vehicles played a particular role in the high frequency of crashes. In response, the Chinese government adopted a series of countermeasures to comprehensively improve highway safety. In 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Transport launched the Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP) with an initial project duration of three years. The initial mission was to handle dangerous sections on national and provincial highways via comprehensive measures with traffic casualties and reduce the fatality rate. In 2007, rural highways were incorporated into the HSEP.