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Following is a question by the Hon James To Kun-sun and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (November 19):
Question:
Regarding measures to enhance the road safety of public light buses ("PLBs"), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the Transport Department ("TD") issued guidelines to PLB operators in January this year, urging the trade to make arrangement for replacing the handrail partitions on PLBs with full-screen ones, so as to meet the relevant standard, of the current respective numbers of PLBs in Hong Kong which have and have not been fitted with full-screen handrail partitions; whether there is any plan to assist PLB operators in replacing the handrail partitions expeditiously; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) given that the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) (Amendment: Requirements for Speedometers and Speed Display Devices) Regulation 2007, which came into operation on May 1 this year, provides that every PLB shall be fitted with an approved speed display device and, without the permission of the Commissioner for Transport, no alteration in respect of design, accuracy or position shall be made to it, of the total number of cases of non-compliance with the Regulation to date and the penalties imposed on the convicted persons;
(c) as TD has indicated that it is testing the use of the satellite positioning technology to monitor the speed of PLBs, of the progress of the test; and
(d) apart from launching the "PLB Road Safety Trial Scheme" in March this year, whether the Government has studied implementing other schemes to enhance the road safety of PLBs, so as to safeguard the safety of passengers?
Reply :
President,
(a) The Transport Department (TD) has been examining with the vehicle supplier and the public light bus (PLB) trade on further improvement to the design of the handrail partition next to the door on PLBs. Since February 2007, all newly registered PLBs have been fitted with full-screen handrail partitions to enhance the safety of boarding and alighting passengers. As for PLBs with old-style partitions, the vehicle supplier has submitted to TD a reference drawing of the modification required and offers at-cost modification services for the trade. TD has passed the drawing to the trade immediately afterwards and actively encourages the trade to have the old-style partitions modified.
Modification to the handrail partitions does not require approval from TD. The Department therefore does not have information on the number of PLBs whose old-style handrail partitions have been replaced with the full-screen ones.
(b) Under the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations (Cap 374A), any person who makes unauthorised alteration to a speed display device, or any person who uses or causes or permits to be used on any road any PLB fitted with a speed display device which does not function normally, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $10,000 and to imprisonment for six months upon conviction. Since the Regulations took effect on May 1, 2008, no person has been prosecuted for committing such an offence.
(c) Three green minibus (GMB) operators are using an on-board monitoring system operating with the global positioning system on 31 GMBs on a trial basis. The monitoring system is mainly used for enhancing the safety of GMBs on the road on the one hand, and assisting operators in fleet management on the other. The trial scheme is conducted jointly by the three operators and the system provider with TD's assistance. So far, the system still has room for improvement in its performance in recording data such as vehicle positions and speed. TD has advised the provider to improve the monitoring system accordingly. TD will continue to monitor the progress of the trial scheme closely and encourage the provider to enhance the system performance.
(d) In mid-March 2008, the first phase of the PLB Road Safety Trial Scheme was launched in the Police Kowloon East District. Under the Scheme, notices are posted prominently in the compartment of PLBs to remind passengers that they may report driving misbehaviour or speeding via the traffic police hotline or operators’ hotlines for follow-up actions. The Scheme aims at alerting PLB drivers to maintain a high standard in driving to enhance safety. Upon receipt of complaints from the public, the Police will take appropriate action depending on the nature of the complaints. As the Scheme was supported by both passengers and the PLB trade, the Police and TD have extended and launched the Scheme territory-wide since November this year.
To safeguard the safety of PLB passengers, publicity and education for enhancing road safety awareness among drivers and improving their driving attitude is of vital importance. We will continue to implement and strengthen the following measures:
(i) encourage PLB operators, associations and unions to adopt the published "Code of Practice for Public Light Bus Drivers" and "Guidelines for Picking up/Setting down Passengers for Public Light Bus Drivers" for training purposes so as to instill in PLB drivers a proper driving behaviour and attitude, and to make compliance with the code of practice and guidelines a service requirement;
(ii) organise "PLB Road Safety Workshop" to publicise and disseminate road safety messages to PLB drivers and other trade members, and to update workshop content regularly to tie in with the traffic accident and prosecution trends, as well as newly-implemented legislation or measures;
(iii)a new series of Announcements in the Public Interest on television and radio having been produced jointly with the Road Safety Council to remind drivers of public service vehicles that they should adopt proper driving attitude as advocated by the "Smart Driving with Courtesy" campaign, and shift to a lower gear and activate other auxiliary systems as appropriate when driving down-slope in order to take passengers to their destinations safely; and
(iv) launch regular campaigns on driving safety targeting PLB drivers and draw their attention to road safety via publicity and stringent enforcement.
In addition, a new measure will be implemented early next year to mandate all drivers (including PLB drivers) who have committed serious traffic offences or are repeat traffic offenders to attend driving improvement courses. We expect that this measure will further improve their driving behaviour, attitude and safety awareness.
Ends/Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:14
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