Revised road traffic safety law and years of life lost due to traffic deaths in China, 2002–2019

Legal intervention is a powerful tool to reduce road traffic injuries (RTIs). China amended the Road Traffic Safety Law in 2011, but the impact of amended law on traffic crash deaths is still unknown. In this study, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis and examined years of life lost (YLLs) per 100,000 population as the assessment indicator to evaluate the association of road traffic safety law and traffic crash mortality. Annual YLLs data due to traffic deaths from 2002 to 2019 in China were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019. After implementation of the revised law, the average level of total YLLs per 100,000 population due to traffic deaths decreased from 1133.14 to 848.87, and the slope of annual YLLs per 100,000 population decreased by 30.11 (95% CI: 22.46, 37.75), indicating a steeper downward trend. The revised traffic law was associated with YLLs reduction due to traffic deaths for males, females, all age groups, pedestrians, motor vehicle users, and other road users, as well as traffic deaths attributed to alcohol use and tobacco use. These findings suggested that the revised Road Traffic Safety Law improved road safety by decreasing YLLs due to traffic deaths in China. However, the burden of RTIs is still heavy and efforts to further improve traffic laws and the adoption of other interventions are urgently needed.