LCQ1: Proposed ban on aggressive bull bars at the front of vehicles

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Following is a question by the Hon Miriam Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Nicholas Ng, in the Legislative Council today (March 6).

Question:

It is learnt that the Transport Department (TD) is planning to prohibit the installation of hazardous bull bars at the front of vehicles. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the number of traffic accidents involving vehicles installed with such bull bars in the past three years, together with the casualties involved;

(b) of the types and number of vehicles to be affected by the plan to have their bull bars removed;

(d) whether there are bull bars available on the market that can safeguard the safety of both drivers and road users; if so, of the prescribed standards of their design and installation; whether the TD will approve the installation of this type of bull bars on vehicles?

Reply:

Madam President,

Regulation 36 of the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations provides that "no mascot or other unnecessary attachment shall be carried by a motor vehicle in any position where it is likely to strike any person with whom the vehicle may collide unless the mascot or attachment is not liable to cause injury to such person by reason of any projection thereon".

In the past few years, there is a growing awareness of the potential danger of aggressive bull bars installed at the front of vehicles. A bull bar is not essentially designed for the protection of the driver against impact in an accident but designed for use in the more remote areas off road to shield against wild animals and minor accidents that would damage and strand the vehicle in wilderness.

Overseas research and experiments indicate that bull bars not meeting road safety standards or installed improperly would create adverse effects during impact and may defeat the effectiveness of the protection already provided by the design of vehicles during accidents. There are crumple zones in vehicles to cushion off and absorb the impact energy in accidents so that the least possible energy is transmitted to the drivers. Rigid bull bars, mostly installed on the vehicle chassis, may impair the function and effectiveness of the crumple zone in case of accidents, thus transmitting most of the impact energy onto the drivers, causing serious injury.

Research also shows that most pedestrian injuries are normally caused by frontal impact. Given that aggressive bull bars are often installed at the chassis and made of material harder than the vehicle fronts, they are more likely to inflict more injury on pedestrians than vehicles without such an attachment. Their higher position in the vehicle fronts also makes such bull bars particularly hazardous to young children, as the main heavy-duty cross bar is at head-height or above.

To enhance the safety of all road users, the Administration proposes to ban all aggressive bull bars fitted to the front of all vehicles. Bull bars which are considered non-aggressive or meet international standards will continue to be allowed in Hong Kong. We are seeking public views on the proposal and the consultation period will end in early April.

In the past three years, the average number of pedestrian casualties due to vehicle frontal impact in Hong Kong was over 2,500. Of these, about 30 per cent were seriously injured and about 3 per cent were fatal. The Administration does not keep separate statistics on whether the vehicles involved were installed with bull bars.

According to a cursory survey conducted by the Transport Department, about 8,500 vehicles in Hong Kong are fitted with bull bars. This represents about 1.6 per cent of the 530,000 licensed vehicles in Hong Kong. Breakdown of these 8,500 vehicles by vehicle types is shown in the Annex.

Our preliminary assessment is that a significant number of these bull bars falls into the aggressive category.

Not all bull bars are aggressive, however. There are bull bars of acceptable standards available in the market. They are usually more flexible and made of softer material such as plastics and polycarbonate meeting international or overseas standards. The Transport Department is drawing up a list of type-approved bull bars in Hong Kong with reference to the international standards and will release the list for public information. The list will be updated from time to time to include new models. After-market bull bars will also be approved if the manufacturers can produce acceptable laboratory certificates which prove that the respective model is non-aggressive.

End/Wednesday, March 6, 2002

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