T HKI will carry out more pedestrian safety promotion elsewhere on Hong Kong Island
Raising the elderly's awareness of road safety has always been a priority of Traffic Hong Kong Island's (T HKI) promotion efforts. Therefore, following the successful "Elderly Road Safety Talk Competition" in March, T HKI invited members of the Hong Kong Road Safety Patrol (HK&I) Region (HKRSP) to participate in a promotion event called "Pedestrian Safety Education Day" earlier this month. Prior to commencement of the event, Senior Superintendent Wise Choy and Superintendent Shek Wai-wah, both from T HKI, cheered on the RSP members and thanked them for assisting the police in promoting road safety. On the "Pedestrian Safety Education Day", T HKI Road Safety Team, Eastern District Traffic Team and Western District officers, together with RSP officers and elderly RSP members from "The Volunteers" and "The Caritas Elderly Centre", arrived at the places frequented by the elderly, such as Sai Wan Ho Market, Chai Wan MTR Station, Shek Tong Tsui Municipal Services Building and Aberdeen Centre Square, to educate pedestrians on road safety. The party called on the pedestrians to use road-crossing facilities and comply with traffic law. They also emphasised that the police would take stringent enforcement action against jay walking, and that the offence could fetch a fine of as much as $2,000. Following this operation, Dr Liu Kai-ming and officers of HKRSP thanked the Road Safety Team for planning the whole exercise. They hope the operation would halt the rising trend of traffic accidents involving the elderly. Encouraged by the success of the "Pedestrian Safety Education Day", T HKI and HKRSP are expected to continue working hand in hand in Central and Wan Chai next month in a bid to achieve the target of "Zero Accidents on the Road, Hong Kong's Goal". 
Guests, cyclists and officers spreading safe cycling messages on the Tolo Harbour Cycling Track
The "Let's be smart drivers!" lucky draw, the latest joint-publicity programme organised by RSC and Wilson Parking Ltd, started on July 1, with the aim of promoting awareness of safe driving among motorists. Application packages for the lucky draw, each consisting of safe driving publicity leaflets supplied by TBHQ and other items, are being distributed to patrons of carparks of the parking company. To qualify for the lucky draw, applicants are required to provide correct answers to three road-safety-related questions, as well as to undertake to support safe driving. Statistics show that over the past five years, private car drivers have accounted for an average of 34 per cent of all the traffic accidents involving injuries. Unlike other transport trade drivers, private car drivers have no organisations to co-ordinate road safety lectures and educational activities for them. Therefore, the partnership with the company provides a platform for delivering messages on road safety and proper driving behaviours to private car drivers. Road safety promotion for elderly Road safety is one of the Commissioner's operational priorities. Promoting road safety among elderly pedestrians is one of the emphases of Traffic Branch. The policy of giving verbal warnings to elderly pedestrians for blatantly contravening offences has been stepped up since the end of last year to enhance their safety through education, publicity and enforcement. Between June 25 and July 8, a two-week territory-wide pedestrian safety campaign was held to educate pedestrians, in particular senior citizens, on the safe measures of crossing roads. With the help of the senior members of the RSP, officers from regional road safety teams distributed publicity leaflets at numerous locations across Hong Kong, including traffic accident black spots where the elderly can be easily found. During the operation, 23,309 leaflets were distributed at 735 locations. |