Starting next year, motorists will be able to locate road accident hot spots by searching an online database created by the Institute of Transportation, the institute said yesterday.
The institute is a research arm of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) that offers policy suggestions to the ministry.
Isaac Chen (陳一昌), director of the institute’s transportation safety division, said the online database would provide comprehensive information on traffic accidents.
Using accident statistics, the system will identify the top 10 most dangerous sections of road in a city or town and mark them on a Google Earth map. Users will be able to click on a building-like icon to see the names of the road sections and the number of traffic accidents that occurred between 2003 and 2006.
Motorists can also use the Google Earth application Street View to see photos of the road sections taken from different angles.
Chen said the database would enable motorists to check which sections of road see the most accidents. Local governments could also use it to identify roads where traffic safety needs to be improved.
The institute hopes to make the system accessible to local government agencies this year and the public next year.
Chen said each county would have its own ranking of dangerous road sections.
“The needs of government agencies and motorists differ slightly. We need to figure out what to make available to government agencies and to motorists,” Chen said.
“We also want to double check the dangerous road sections before we announce them to the public,” he said.
Chen said the data could eventually be incorporated into global positioning systems (GPS) to warn drivers as they approach dangerous sections of road.
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