There were a total of 118 traffic accidents overseas last year in which Taiwanese were involved, including 12 who died, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Bureau of Consular Affairs said.
The number of such accidents has risen for two years in a row, the bureau said, noting that in 2012, there were 110 accidents involving Taiwanese reported, and 115 in 2013, bureau statistics showed.
Most of the accidents resulted from drivers’ unfamiliarity with driving on the left side of the road when visiting countries such as Japan, Australia and the UK, as well as a lack of familiarity with rented vehicles, the bureau said last week.
The cases in Japan included Taiwanese drivers accidentally hitting a car in front of them or colliding with taxis at intersections, the bureau said.
Driving at night, speeding, hitting wild animals and driver fatigue were the causes of most accidents involving Taiwanese drivers in Australia and New Zealand, the bureau said. Other cases in the two countries involved colliding with another car when driving through an intersection or driving around a traffic circle, it said.
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