For example, traffic fatalities increased by 59% in 1988, the year of the Seoul Olympics. It was also the year with the largest increase in the ownership of passenger vehicles and considered an impetus for economic progress.7 Similarly large fluctuations coincide with the 1997 financial crisis that affected Korea and many other East Asian countries. In the run-up of the crisis, the traffic fatality growth rate increased by 22% in 1996, followed by a 9% decline in the growth rate in 1997.