2008-07-16 18:40 Please see Form B for details. 2008-07-16 18:41 Police issued more than 260 summonses and verbal warnings to public light bus passengers for not wearing seat belts in a special 24-hour territory-wide operation that ended this morning (July 16). As part of ongoing efforts to encourage drivers and passengers to protect themselves from injury, police started the operation yesterday (July 15), targeting people who failed to wear seatbelts while on a public light bus. The operation resulted in the issuing of 49 verbal warnings and 220 summonses to PLB passengers. As for the light bus drivers, Police issued four fixed penalty tickets in the operation. In the first six months of this year, there were 546 traffic accidents involving public light buses, resulting in 889 casualties. This compared with 544 traffic accidents and 870 casualties in the same period last year. Police stress that it is the passengers' personal responsibility to ensure that they wear a seatbelt where one is fitted. Any light bus passenger not wearing a seatbelt is subject to a maximum fine of $5,000 and three months' imprisonment. Any light bus driver who fails to wear a seat belt is also liable to a fine of $5,000 and three months' imprisonment. "Police have given a high priority to reducing deaths and injuries arising from traffic accidents and will continue to 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. |