forum 090611 - On other matters

On other matters...

I refer to the report "Pedestrian safety push as elderly deaths rise", (June 6).

You report that police are to "launch a campaign this month to promote pedestrian road safety". It appears that the campaign will last for two weeks and that "stringent enforcement action will also be taken against careless drivers in the second week".

Why is this action not being taken during both weeks? Other questions then arise. Shouldn't the police be doing this all the time? Isn't it part of their job? Why does it take five months to compile statistics on 88 road deaths?

Also, isn't the peak time for these accidents, 5am to 7am, also a time when few drivers bother to switch on their lights?

These and other questions will, I have no doubt, go unanswered, as have all the other questions that I have expressed or implied in recent letters. All, that is, except one, relating to the number of prosecutions for drinking and driving arising from the campaign earlier this year.

Are the others too hard, too embarrassing or not worthy of a reply?

One does not have to drive very far or very often in Hong Kong to realise that pedestrians put themselves at risk by, for example, crossing roads irresponsibly, walking on the road instead of on the pavement, walking across the paths of reversing vehicles, and stepping into the road without warning and their backs towards oncoming traffic.

Improving road safety in general requires more than the occasional short-lived campaign, token radio and television promotions, and meaningless slogans. It requires radical thinking.

A booklet on the lines of the British Highway Code, issued free to all households, would be a good start.

Police officers could help by issuing warnings or prosecutions to offending road users on a regular basis instead of only when specifically instructed to do so. A programme of training for all police drivers would be valuable - covering correct signalling; when to use lights; which lane to use, particularly at roundabouts; and why the zig-zag lines at the approach to pedestrian crossings are there.

A brief but prominent paragraph on the front page of every daily newspaper in Hong Kong covering one aspect of driving each day could also help. Many things could be done.

Please, let's do something.

Peter Robertson, Sai Kung