Police operation against failure to wear seat belts on PLB
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Police in a special 24-hour territory-wide operation that ended last Friday (December 12), issued more than 210 summonses and verbal warnings to public light bus drivers and passengers who were not wearing seat belts.

As part of ongoing efforts to encourage drivers and passengers to protect themselves from possible injury, police started the operation at midnight on Thursday (December 11), targeting people who failed to wear seatbelts while on public light buses.

The operation resulted in the issuing of 184 summonses and 31 verbal warnings to PLB passengers. Police issued two verbal warnings, one summons and one Fixed Penalty Ticket to light bus drivers in the operation.

In the first 10 months of this year, there were 852 traffic accidents involving PLBs, resulting in 1,376 people being injured. This was a corresponding 9.5% and 13.7% decrease compared with 941 traffic accidents and 1,593 injuries in the same period last year.

Police stressed that it was the passengers' personal responsibility to ensure that they wore a seat belt where one was fitted. A passenger not wearing a seat belt on a PLB is subject to a maximum fine of $5,000 and three months' imprisonment.

Any PLB driver who fails to wear a seat belt is also liable to a fine of $5,000 and three months' imprisonment.

"Police accord a high priority to the reduction of deaths and injuries arising from traffic accidents and will continue to pro-actively adopt a three-pronged approach of education, publicity and enforcement to tackle the problem to enhance road safety for all road users in Hong Kong," a police spokesman said.

Police Report No. 5
Issued by PPRB

End/Monday, December 15, 2008
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