During the same period the rate across the OECD fell by 64%.4 The difference between the two fatality rates arises as the number of registered vehicles grew faster than the population in Korea.5 The number of per 10 000 vehicle fatalities has been used as an important traffic safety indicator in Korea. It is part of the regional safety' index, which is provided by the Korea Road Traffic Authority' (KoROAD) and forms the basis for overall regional traffic safety policies. The high density of cars might explain, to a certain degree, why Korea has a high number of traffic fatalities, even though there are relatively fewer cars in the country.