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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Wong-fat and a reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, in the Legislative Council today (December 9):
Question:
In recent years, traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles such as franchised buses, tourist coaches, lorries, container trucks and resulting in serious casualties occurred from time to time. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the total number of traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles in each of the past 10 years and the related casualties, as well as the major causes of such accidents; and
(b) the improvement measures currently implemented and to be implemented by the authorities to reduce traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles?
Reply:
President,
Road safety is of utmost importance. We closely monitor the statistics of traffic accidents and their trends, analyse their causes, and introduce corresponding improvement measures with a view to improving road safety.
My reply to the two parts of the question raised by Councillor Lau is as follows :
(a) In the past ten years, there were 2,996 to 3,419 traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles every year, or around 3,220 per year on average, accounting for 21% of the total number of traffic accidents. The annual casualty was about 4,680 persons, of which 86% suffered slight injury, 13% were inflicted with more serious injury, and 1% died. The Killed and Serious Injuries Rate of traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles has dropped from its peak of 21% in 2002 to 15% in 2008. Detailed figures are set out in the Annex.
Causes leading to traffic accidents can be grouped under four categories, namely environmental factors (such as wet floor or obstructed sightline); vehicle factors (such as vehicle operation and functioning of vehicle parts); driver factors (such as drivers' driving behaviour); and factors of other road users (such as safety awareness of passengers and pedestrians). According to the analyses of the Transport Department (TD), in the past ten years, 2% of the traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles involved environmental factors; 4% of the accidents involved vehicle factors; 50% involved driver factors (mainly inappropriate driving); and over 40% involved factors of other road users (mainly inattention of pedestrians and failure of passengers to hold on handrails etc).
(b) We have all along adopted a multi-pronged approach through legislation, enforcement, improvement in traffic facilities and management, as well as publicity and education to enhance road safety, raise the awareness of road users and to improve the driving attitude of motorists.
On legislation, we review the traffic legislation from time to time, introduce new legislation and adjust the penalties as appropriate with a view to enhancing road safety. In recent years, we have been making legislative amendments in response to the public concerns over serious traffic offences such as dangerous driving and drink driving. Tougher penalties have been imposed to deter and combat traffic offences. For example, with the support of the Legislative Council, we amended the Road Traffic Ordinance in the 2007/08 legislative session to increase substantially the term of imprisonment for the offence of causing death by dangerous driving from five years to ten years. The relevant provisions came into effect on 4 July 2008. Furthermore, a series of measures targeting inappropriate driving and drink driving behaviour have been implemented since 9 February 2009. The measures include increasing the penalty on drink driving; empowering the Police to carry out the Random Breath Test (RBT); mandating repeated traffic offenders and offenders of more serious traffic offences to attend driving improvement courses; and extending the probationary driving licence scheme to cover novice drivers of private cars and light goods vehicles.
From February to November this year, the Police conducted over 1,900 RBT operations involving about 34,000 drivers. Out of these drivers, 182 of them have been/will be prosecuted for having alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit or refusing to provide breath specimen. The accidents involving drink driving decreased by 62% between February and October 2009 compared with the same period last year. To further combat drink driving and dangerous driving, we are drafting some legislative proposals to increase the penalties for such offences. If our proposals are supported, the penalties of the relevant serious traffic offences, particularly their minimum driving disqualification period, will be significantly increased, thus prohibiting offenders from driving on the road for a longer period of time. We are actively pursuing the legislative procedures for introducing the proposal into the Legislative Council for deliberation in the second quarter of 2010.
On enforcement, the Police have been strengthening their manpower in recent years to combat inappropriate driving behaviour. The Police make use of red light cameras and speed enforcement cameras, and deploy laser guns, mobile radar and in-car video recording systems in surprise and mobile enforcement actions. The expansion projects on red light camera system and speed enforcement system just commenced in August this year. Traffic offences concerned will be further combated when the projects are completed by end of next year. In addition, the Police will launch regional and territory-wide traffic enforcement operations regularly to combat overloading of goods vehicles. Roadside vehicle examination stations are set up to conduct checks and institute prosecution against overloaded trucks with the assistance of motor vehicle examiners.
Appropriate road design and facilities are an important factor to ensure road safety. TD will conduct systematic analyses on statistics, trend and causes of traffic accidents so that corresponding standards and measures can be formulated in order to reduce and prevent the happening of traffic accidents. TD will periodically select locations with more traffic accidents (generally called traffic accident black spots) for detailed investigations and improvements, having regard to the road conditions, timing, and behaviour of drivers and pedestrians involved in accidents. In 2008, TD carried out detailed investigations at 100 locations and formulated improvement measures for 83 sites.
TD is also very concerned about the adequacy of safety equipment on heavy vehicles, and will review from time to time whether improvement is required for such equipment.
Raising road safety awareness among motorists and road users is an effective means to enhance road safety. On this front, publicity and education are very important. All along, we have been carrying out publicity and education activities in conjunction with the Road Safety Council.
This year, the main theme of the publicity campaign of the Road Safety Council is "3C Responsible Drivers". In September, the Council held a pledging campaign to appeal to drivers to exercise due "Care" on the road, show "Concern" for the safety and rights of other road users, and make "Commitment" to be a responsible driver by adopting proper driving behaviour, such as not driving after drinking and following road safety codes. To remind drivers of road safety, we will continue to broadcast TV and radio Announcements in the Public Interest, including the series entitled "Be a true master of the road" which target especially at heavy vehicle drivers. We will display road safety messages on advertising panels at tunnel entrances and exits, and on the bodies of buses.
TD and the Police will continue to organise training programmes and safety workshops for professional drivers. In 2009, the Police organised a total of 72 talks and seminars to promote road safety awareness to over 4,000 heavy vehicle drivers. The Police will continue to carry out on-street publicity and promotional activities at venues such as elderly centres and schools to disseminate as much as possible safety knowledge among road users at district level. In addition, TD plans to launch a "Safe Driving and Health Campaign for Professional Drivers" from end 2009 to April 2010. The campaign will include provision of free simple health checks for professional drivers with a view to raising the awareness of drivers on the importance of safe driving and good health condition.
Ends/Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:29
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