Traffic officers test new patrol car in Germany
Two officers from regional traffic formations accompanied Force Motor Transport Officer Robin Jolly to Munich, Germany between October 20 and 23 to conduct pre-delivery inspection of the next generation of traffic patrol cars for the Force.
Thirteen BMW 535i Touring models were ordered from the German manufacturer in the summer, following an open tender exercise. The purpose of the pre-delivery inspection was to ensure that engineering work and fitting of speed detection, communications and other auxiliary equipment met end-user requirements.
The three officers met BMW representatives at Haberl's authority vehicle workshops in Armstorf, some 150 km outside Munich and close to the BMW 5-series production line in Dingolfing. After discussions with engineers on the special features of the installations that are largely integrated into the vehicle's systems, the two traffic officers took the vehicle out onto the public road for testing.
Police Constable (PC) Lai Fai-loi from Traffic New Territories South was the first officer to take the wheel, while PC Ho Wai-shing from Traffic New Territories North evaluated the speed detection equipment performance to ensure that the speed calibration and various functions of the system were working properly. This was all done under the watchful eyes of Mr Jolly and a BMW executive, Mr Dirk Buyken, who acted as navigator.
PC Lai has some experience of driving on the right hand side of the road and quickly settled to the task, moving from small country roads through some beautiful Bavarian countryside to a high capacity autobahn with fast-moving traffic. Germany's autobahns are famous for their unrestricted speed limits in many areas and PC Lai comfortably and skilfully put the new estate car through its paces. This process was later repeated with PC Ho taking the wheel of the vehicle while PC Lai operated and tested the speed detection equipment.
Both Constables later reported that the new vehicle performed exceptionally well and proved a real pleasure to drive with a smooth automatic transmission and a quiet engine. The added benefit of traction control inspires confidence through the whole operating range and the handling was superb.
Mr Buyken was most complimentary about the two officers' driving skills and they were later invited to give their views on the vehicle, its fixtures and fittings to a product development team. As a result of their observations and recommendations on further improvements, workshop staff will make some slight adjustments before the first vehicle is shipped to Hong Kong in November.
On returning to Hong Kong, PC Lai expressed his gratitude for being chosen for this"once in a lifetime opportunity" and said:"I'm very grateful to the Force for giving frontline officers an opportunity to participate in the vehicle commissioning and testing process. I learned a great deal from this trip, especially the advanced automotive engineering from one of the top motor vehicle manufacturers in the world. Hopefully, the suggestions we've made to the manufacturer would be beneficial as they appeared to be genuinely interested in the views of end users and the operational needs of law enforcement agencies world-wide."
Sharing the same sentiment, PC Ho commented:"Officers should be proud of driving these new vehicles which will undoubtedly help improve traffic enforcement and control operations. The overall design and specifications show that a lot of thought has gone into procurement of these new vehicles."
Thirteen new vehicles will be delivered to regional traffic formations over the next few months.
PC
Ho
presents
a
Force
souvenir to the German manufacturer's
representative after the road test