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Following is the transcript of remarks in English made by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at a stand-up media session after chairing an inter-departmental meeting on drink driving today (February 6):
We have met all the key stakeholders this morning. We had a very useful discussion on three fronts. One is on the legal provisions, also on enforcement as well as education and promotion. There are a few areas where we agreed that we would focus on and do more studies. One is introducing different penalties in relation to the seriousness of the offence, i.e., depending on the alcohol content in their blood, the suggestion is that we should administer heavier penalties. The other suggestion that we floated and was met with very positive response is that we should introduce a provision on dangerous driving not just on causing death, which is the existing provision, but causing serious bodily harm. The other concept that we will also study is to introduce aggravating factors in the law. On the introduction of random breath tests that is only a few days away, from midnight on the eighth and the early hours of the ninth, all the stakeholders agreed that this is going to have a very effective deterrent effect on drivers. So we would need to monitor the progress seriously. While we are monitoring the progress of this very important new instrument, we would also develop the proposals we have just outlined. The third throng, which is very important that I will ask Mr Yu to supplement in a moment, is the work of the Road Safety Council in promoting the message of "when you drink, don't drive".
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)
Ends/Friday, February 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:00
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