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The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, today (December 13) encouraged transport trade members and commercial vehicle drivers to participate in the activities of the Safe Driving and Health Campaign and work together to promote road safety by enhancing safe driving and health awareness among professional drivers.
"The legislative amendments introduced in 2010 and in mid-March last year to combat drink driving and drug driving respectively have begun to produce results," Professor Cheung said at the ceremony in support of the ongoing campaign today.
Noting that Police are empowered to conduct random breath tests and preliminary drug tests on drivers to assess whether they have violated law, he added that Police will continue to take stringent action against illegal acts of drivers to safeguard road users' safety.
Professor Cheung also noted that traffic accidents were often caused by improper driving behaviour. He called on drivers not to drive too close to the vehicles in front or change lane carelessly. They should also stay alert to other road users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
He noted that cycling has become increasingly popular and appealed to motorists and cyclists to always pay attention to road conditions and give way to one another so as to avoid traffic accidents.
This is the fifth consecutive year that the Transport Department (TD) has organised the Safe Driving and Health Campaign. The campaign aims to promote road safety by enhancing safe driving and health awareness among commercial vehicle drivers through a series of promotional activities.
The campaign this year has four main themes: not driving after drinking and taking drugs, observing good driving behaviour, respecting other road users, and being aware of health conditions.
Participating commercial vehicle drivers can enjoy free health checks at five designated health check centres in the territory. They are also encouraged to take part in seminars and workshops to obtain more information on safe driving and health tips.
Other officiating guests at today's ceremony included the Commissioner for Transport, Mrs Ingrid Yeung; the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Mr Wong Chi-hung; the Chairman of the Transport Advisory Committee, Mr Larry Kwok; and the Chairman of the Road Safety Campaign Committee of the Road Safety Council, Dr Eric Cheng.
Ends/Friday, December 13, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:49
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