Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

The rapid development of vehicular-electronic technologies can help wipe out traffic accidents, experts predicted at the International Conference on Vehicular Electronics and Safety yesterday.
According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1.2 million people in the world are killed by traffic accidents every year, with nearly 50 million injured. Last year, China saw more than 450,000 traffic accidents, causing over 98,000 deaths and 460,000 injuries.
In China, most traffic accidents on highways are caused by vehicle collisions, with more than 30 percent resulting from tire-bursts, said Guo Konghui, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering at the conference. A research team, led by Guo, has linked tire-pressure testing equipment with vehicle brakes, so cars can stop automatically within 0.15 of a minute once a tire-burst is detected instead of the more than two minutes it takes a person to respond to a tire-burst. No accidents have been reported for the past 21 road tests, Guo said.