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Following is a question by the Hon Li Fung-ying and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (February 4):
Question:
It has been reported that several incidents of buses braking resulting in passenger casualties occurred one after another recently. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the number of such kind of incidents in the past three years, the reasons for the buses braking, other factors contributing to the casualties of those passengers, as well as a breakdown of the number of those passengers by age and sex;
(b) of the number of bus drivers involved in such kind of incidents who were prosecuted in the past three years, with a breakdown by charge and court verdict; and
(c) whether measures are in place to prevent recurrence of such kind of incidents; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
With regard to the 3 parts of the question, my replies are as follows:
(a) Our statistics are based on 'Non-collision franchised bus accidents involving passengers lost balance and injured inside bus compartments', and not incidents of bus braking resulting in passenger casualties. In the past three years, there were 566, 567 and 496 'Non-collision franchised bus accidents involving passengers lost balance and injured inside bus compartments' respectively, and most of them were slight accidents.
Of the accidents mentioned above, about 30% were caused by factors relating to bus captains, including their attempts to avoid collisions with other vehicles, and their driving behaviour. The remaining 70% were caused by other factors, including the failure of bus passengers to hold handrails, negligence of other motorists, or environmental factors like slippery road surface.
The numbers of casualties due to loss of balance inside franchised bus compartments, with breakdown by age and sex, are set out in the Annex.
(b) The Police may institute prosecution against bus captains for failing to ensure the safety of passengers, such as stopping abruptly or starting the bus negligently under regulations 11(d) and 25(3) of the Public Bus Services Regulations. The number of prosecutions instituted by summons under the above Regulations in the past three years and the fine imposed by the court are as follows:
Year 2006 2007 2008
Number of 38 69 60
Prosecutions
Fine Imposed $600-$3,500 $700-$1,800 $350-$2,000
by Court
We do not have prosecution figures that limit to bus braking incidents resulting in passenger casualties.
(c) We are very concerned about the safety of bus passengers. Apart from police enforcement, we also emphasise that bus companies should provide sufficient training to bus captains. We will continue to enhance road safety in a comprehensive manner through education and publicity.
On training, the Transport Department (TD) requires franchised bus companies to provide bus captains with various training courses, including basic training for new drivers and refresher training for serving ones, with a view to improving their safe driving skills, awareness and driving behaviour. The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited and Long Win Bus Company Limited have introduced a training programme using driving simulators to help sharpen bus captains' reaction to different road traffic situations. Citybus Limited and New World First Bus Services Limited issue to every bus captain a pocket size booklet on safe driving behaviour as a handy reference. To ensure that driving attitude and behaviour are maintained at high standards, franchised bus companies also arrange checks from time to time on the driving behaviour of their bus captains.
In addition, TD, in collaboration with the Police, conducts regular Road Safety Seminars for franchised bus captains. In 2008, a total of six seminars were held for 500 bus captains to put across the message of road safety, and to urge strongly the need for them to adopt a proper driving behaviour and transport passengers to their destinations in a safe manner.
On education and publicity, we arrange frequent broadcast of Announcements in the Public Interest (API) on radio to remind motorists to give way to buses, so that abrupt braking of buses and thus the impact on passengers could be reduced to a minimum. Television APIs are also broadcast to remind passengers of safety precautions such as holding handrails tightly, taking care when walking up or down the stairs, and refraining from standing on staircases. In view of the recent incidents of passengers falling inside bus compartments, we have strengthened these publicity efforts. Franchised bus companies also make use of television APIs, light box advertisements, on-board broadcast, bus body advertisements and signs to remind passengers of safety precautions on buses, and to convey the message of giving way to buses to motorists.
Ends/Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:32
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