Police will not slacken the efforts in ensuring road safety
Police will not slacken the efforts in ensuring road safety despite a steady decrease in the number of traffic accidents and fatalities in 2005 and the first half of 2006.
Speaking at a press conference today (July 25) to review the work of the Police in the first half of 2006, the Police Director of Operations, Mr Peter Yam Tat-wing, said there were 7,158 traffic accidents in the first six months, a slight decrease of 1.5 per cent when compared with the same period last year.
Both the number of fatal traffic accidents and death caused by traffic accidents registered a drop of 19.7 per cent and 22.1 per cent respectively during the periods in comparison.
Mr Yam said that despite such decrease, the Commissioner had continued to keep "Enhancement of Road Safety" as one of his Operational Targets this year.
Mr Yam said the recent focus of traffic accidents was on casualties caused by drink driving. In the first half of last year, 43 cases of traffic accidents with casualties were caused by drink driving, an increase of nine cases when compared with 34 cases in the corresponding period in 2005.
"The total number of casualties amounted to 82, which was 17 more than the same period last year. The number of deaths was two, which was one less than the same period last year while the number of serious injuries was 16, an increase of four when compared with that of last year."
"Professional drivers are the first priority of our road safety campaigns and efforts will be made to approach individual drivers through various means of publicity," he said.
"A road safety campaign on Smart Driving with Courtesy will be held in 2006/07 to instil a more positive attitude among drivers so that all road users can stay alert, be courteous and obey the law," he added.
Mr Yam also pointed out that of the 60 traffic fatalities, 33 were pedestrains, amounting to 55 per cent of the total number of deaths. The pedestrain group was the most vulnerable to traffic accidents and 22 pedestrains (66.7 per cent) died in traffic accidents were senior citizens aged over 60.
"A road safety campaign will be held for this most vulnerable group. Road safety message will be disseminated to the elderly pedestrains to raise their awareness of road safety and other pedestrains are also encouraged to offer assistance to them," he said.
"Partnership with road safety stakeholder, commercial organisations, media and other related organisations will be strengthened to continue the concerted efforts in road safety."
Regarding the crimes committed by mainland visitors (MVs), Mr Yam said that in the first six months, out of the 6.62 million arrivals, a total of 831 MVs were arrested for committing criminal offences, a decrease of 211 persons when compared with 1, 042 MVs arrested in the same period last year. The main offences committed were theft, forgery and serious immigration offences.
The involvement of MVs in prostitution and illegal employment in the territory also registered a significant drop. In the first half of this year, a total of 3,064 and 2,197 MVs were arrested for involvement in prostitution and illegal employment respectively, representing a respective decrease of 12 per cent and 20.1 per cent when compared with the same spell of last year.
Concerning street deception cases committed by MVs, Mr Yam said, "Enhanced publicity programmes will continue to be launched and focused on elderly people who are prime targets of such crime. All frontline officers will maintain vigilance in the prevention and detection of the crime."
On the anti-terrorism front, Mr Yam said a major international event, the International Telecommunication Union Telecom World 2006, would be held in Hong Kong in December and the Force was particularly concerned with the counter-terrorism in addition to the maintenance of law and order.
"This is the first world-class telecom event to be held outside Geneva. It is estimated that 50,000 overseas participants and 10,000 local participants will be presented at the event and attend the related forums," he said.
"Police will maintain effective intelligence exchanges with both the Mainland and overseas security and law enforcement agencies, timely intelligence and situation assessment to ensure that the Force's level of coverage and operational readiness commensurate with the prevailing threat level."
"We will conduct regular exercises of various scales and nature to test the relevant contingency plans as well as to enhance our counter-terrorist capability and coordination efficiency," he added.
Second Add Police Report No. 6
Issued by PPRB
Ends/Tuesday, July 25, 2006