ALTHOUGH there are fewer cars on the roads of Yangon at night, the chances of being involved in an accident after the sun goes down are nearly 70 percent higher than in the daytime, according to statistics released by the Yangon Division Wireless and Traffic Police Force.

Last year in the city, 454 accidents resulting in 52 deaths and 577 injuries occurred between 6:00pm to 6:00am. Between the hours of 6:00am to 6:00pm, there were 452 accidents that left 46 dead and 782 injured.

The figures also showed that up to the end of June this year, there were 339 daytime accidents that resulted in 31 deaths and 604 injuries. After dark, 348 accidents killed 46 and injured 441.

The differences between the daytime and nighttime statistics are not great, but the fact that there are only 50,000 vehicles on Yangon’s nighttime roads, compared with about 150,000 in the daytime, is cause for alarm, said Traffic Police Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing, commander of the force.

“If we can control the number of nighttime accidents, the total number will drop sharply,” he said.

To help combat the problem, on July 8 the Traffic Police Force issued an announcement warning drivers, trishaw operators and pedestrians to take more care to avoid accidents after dark.

The force has also assigned eight additional teams of police to patrol the streets of Yangon after dark, Lt Col Aung Naing said.

He said many nighttime accidents are caused by the city’s poor street lighting system, bad road conditions, heavy rains and intoxi-cation.

“When it rains at night, visibility is reduced, and if the driver is intoxicated on top of this, an accident is almost certain to happen,” he said.

Lt Col Aung Naing said drivers should control their speed at night, use their turn signals and avoid using powerful headlights that can blind oncoming drivers.