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Members of the Transport Advisory Committee (TAC) discussed today (March 4) measures to combat drink driving and agreed that a three-pronged approach be taken, entailing tightening of legislation, strengthening of enforcement and enhancing education and publicity.
ˇ§Members support the Government's plan to explore the feasibility of introducing a scale of penalties according to different levels of blood alcohol concentration, a new offence of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm, as well as bringing in 'aggravating factors' such as drink driving to all dangerous driving cases, so that these cases may be subject to heavier penalties,ˇ¨said the TAC Chairman, Ms Teresa Cheng.
The TAC agreed that the random breath test would be a powerful means to combat drink driving. Members considered that the Government should sustain its efforts on the random breath test and closely monitor its effectiveness, so that any legislative amendments to be proposed would be reasonable, proportionate and effective.
Education and publicity should always be the most important means in the long term. Government should step up efforts and arrange thematic publicity campaigns against drink driving. "We also appeal to all drivers not to drive if they drink, as serious damage, injuries and deaths can result from drink driving traffic accidents,ˇ¨ Ms Cheng added.
The TAC was also briefed on the Public Transport Enquiry Service (PTES) expected to be available to the public in the second quarter of 2009.
ˇ§We welcome the introduction of the PTES, a one-stop multi-modal public transport search system with map information. The system will enable users to search for possible routes based on cost, number of interchanges and estimated journey time,ˇ¨said Ms Cheng.
Members noted that the PTES is able to display the origin/destination, public transport stops and interchange points on the map.
Ends/Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:43
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