I found this article on the www.safetyonline.com website on 20 March 2000
Poor Traffic Administration, Driving Skills Blamed for Highway Carnage
2/20/00
BEIJING (Feb. 21, 2000) XINHUA - A total of 83,529 people were killed and 286,000 people injured in 412,860 traffic accidents in China in 1999, the "China Daily" reported today.
The figures represent a 7-percent increase in deaths, a 28.4- percent rise in injuries and a 19.3-percent surge in accidents when compared to 1998 figures, the English-language newspaper said, quoting a report of the Public Security Ministry.
Traffic accidents along expressways increased to 12,634, resulting in the deaths of 1,687 people, about 19.5 percent and 13. 4 percent more than the previous year.
Inefficient expressway administration and safety equipment as well as poor driving skills were blamed for such accidents. Drivers were responsible for 351,881 traffic accidents, 85.2 percent of all such accidents.
Accidents were more frequent on highways and in rural areas. In 1999, 256,474 traffic accidents were reported on highways and in rural areas, killing 51,889 people.
Many traffic accidents involved drivers with less than three years of driving experience, though their proportion in the toll dropped from the previous year. The decrease was attributed to tougher examinations during drivers' training.
A total of 24,840 people were killed in 156,619 accidents involving these new drivers.
In recent years, more Chinese have purchased private cars, and many more people, though without their own cars, have obtained drivers' licenses. The ministry of Public Security issued stricter driving license examination standards in 1996 to ensure drivers' skills.
(PS - in comparison - about 40,000 people die in MVAs in the USA each year.)