Picture of the Day: Ampelmann

Amplemann outside his store near Berliner Dom

This green guy is called Ampelmann.

He can be found on the crosswalk lights in Berlin.

When it's time to cross, you see Ampelmann have a wide stride in green, and when the light changes, he becomes red and his arms are stretched out like a cross as a signal to stop others from walking.

The story goes in Berlin, the most foot traffic was at Potsdamer Platz, where some 83,000 people crossed the area everyday.

In 1924 the first traffic lights were installed there -- it was actually an 8 metre-tall tower with lights on each of the four sides and manned by a person, but people on the ground didn't pay much attention to it and continued their habits of crossing the road at their own peril.

A traffic psychologist by the name of Karl Peglau developed the traffic men called Ampelmann and in 1961 his designs were submitted to Berlin, specifically East Berlin. The little men have pug noses and slight paunches, and wear a hat. A year later these little men were installed, and it wasn't until after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 that people in West Berlin saw these cute street crossing signs and felt Ampelmann should be saved.

Today Ampelmann is so popular that Berlin has a number of stores selling products related to the red and green crossing men. You can buy mugs, T-shirts, key chains, canvas bags, baseball hats, bracelets, beach towels, and even pacifiers with these iconic logos.

Who knew such an important street safety sign would become emblematic of Berlin!

Cost Trumps Lives in Safety on Coaches?

The mangled taxi after a coach plowed into it in Tsing Yi last Friday

In the early hours of last Friday morning, November 30, there was a fatal accident on the Cheung Tsing Highway in Tsing Yi that killed six people and injured 31.

A taxi had stopped on the side of the highway with its hazard lights on when moments later a coach carrying airport staff to work, crashed into it.

It turns out the 62-year-old driver, Fok Chi-sum, had been involved in a staggering seven other incidents of careless driving and speeding, including an accident (with no casualties) weeks before this fatal crash. Fok succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday.

The coach driver had been working long hours before the crash

Apart from his poor driving record, he had also been working long 12-hour shifts without a proper four-hour rest in between shifts.

Why is it that people who do what are considered lowly-paid jobs have the most dangerous ones that can affect people's lives?

In any event, there are calls for coaches to have seat belts installed in them, but already operators have rebuffed the suggestion, saying it's too costly.

Tang Chi-keung, vice-chairman of the Public Omnibus Operators Association, said industry representatives had agreed at a meeting with the government to install seat belts on new coaches, but not existing ones.

"It's not as easy as just installing the belts. You need to tear up the flooring, replace the seats and then run safety tests," he said after the meeting.

"Doing so on an old vehicle could cost you HK$300,000 (US$38,382). The vehicle itself may only be worth some HK$100,000 to HK$200,000. It's not worth it."

Calls for retrofitting seat belts on coaches has been nixed

On new coaches, the coast would still be about HK$150,000," Tang added and that of the 7,000 coaches in Hong Kong, about half already had seat belts.

So cost trumps lives? Tell that to the grieving families of the victims of last week's crash. They were innocent victims who were only their way to work. It turns out four people, including the driver were thrown out of the coach -- were they wearing seat belts?

Passengers should have the choice to wear seat belts or not -- and so they should be provided in the coaches. Coach operators are working on very thin margins, but at the same time seat belts are an investment, not a liability.

For almost eight years I took a coach to work in the New Territories every morning and I made sure I was strapped in. However, there were sometimes where there were no seat belts or the ones provided were faulty or didn't seem secure. This is not acceptable.

Perhaps even worse is that the Hong Kong government is agreeing with the coach operators to not retro-fit old coaches with seat belts. How can that be? Is the government kowtowing to these coach operators for fear of not getting their support, like the taxi associations?

Even transport minister Frank Chan Fan said today 111 people had been killed in traffic accidents in the first 10 months of this year, up from 86 in the same period last year -- a jump of almost 30 percent.

Surely safety is more important than cost? 

Not Buckling Under Ridicule

A still from the video that spoofs a viral Japanese music video

The Hong Kong Police are working hard to protect the community, and to send out messages to the public on how to keep safe.

The latest is a public service announcement that spoofs a popular Japanese earworm-style music video called Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen by Japanese comedian who goes by the stage name Kosaka Daimaou.

In the Hong Kong police version, the 33-second clip starts off with a man and woman in blue T-shirts and wearing sunglasses and they lip sync the words: "I have a belt, I have a buckle, ah, car seat belt".

Then two officers in uniform sit in the back of a police van and lip sync the same words before ending with the tagline: "Buckle up, it could save your life".

Uh right.

The video was meant to be fun and educational, but instead it was ridiculed, with over a million views in less than 24 hours. It got a deluge of comments from the public, while a senior police officer who declined to be named, said, "It's an embarrassment, the force looks more like a farce with this video. What were they thinking?"

The unidentified officer said comments internally and from ex-officers were even more scathing, saying they could not be published in a newspaper.

That bad.

However the force is taking the comments, good and bad in stride.

"HKP Facebook will continue to utilize the advantages of multimedia including videos, images, texts and other innovative means to engage the community. The HKP Facebook post on 28 September was one of many different types and styles to illustrate our diversified nature of police work, and had attracted a large number of 'Likes' and positive comments," the force said in a statement.

Safety First

The green minibus on its side, with four dead after a truck rammed into it

On the day I left for Vancouver there was a tragic accident in Pat Heung, New Territories involving a minibus and a truck.

The two vehicles collided in an intersection in broad daylight. From a video taken from a vehicle on the opposite side of the intersection the truck was traveling on, it seems the truck did not stop, though a double-decker bus did, and the green minibus did not.

The minibus fell on its side and slid to the other side of the intersection. Four people died, including a three-month-old baby girl, and 14 others injured.

There are calls for passengers traveling in any vehicles to wear seat belts, and this is absolutely important. Maybe some of those lives could have been saved. And perhaps the Legislative Council should consider making it mandatory for anyone in a moving vehicle to wear a seat belt.

By the same token, these minibus drivers are notorious for driving recklessly. Everyone knows that getting into one of these tin cans, especially those going to and from the New Territories, means putting their lives at risk, even if they used to joke about it until now.

Why hasn't the police cracked down on these drivers for going beyond the speed limit? They are responsible for everyone who sits in their minibuses. But no, they are thinking more about how much money they can make, which means driving faster to get as many trips in as possible.

This thinking is completely wrong and has to stop.

Also -- there are many buses, mini buses and taxis where the seat belts aren't working or no where to be found. Again this issue must be fixed as soon as possible, particularly on mini buses and taxis.

It's time Hong Kong people demand safety as a priority when it comes to public transport. And buckle up.

Crash Course on Deadly Statistics

One of the many road accidents that happen daily across China

The World Health Organization has revealed the shocking statistic of 10,000 children killed in traffic accidents in China each year. This is directly due to the ongoing increase of car ownership.

"That's almost 30 [children dying in road accidents] each day... They're kids just doing what normal kids do -- traveling in cars with their families, walking or playing in the streets, going to and from school," said Bernhard Schwartlander, a WHO representative who spoke at the UN's Global Road Safety Week, held in Beijing.

In the majority of cases, that's 10,000 families who have lost their only child.

He urged lawmakers to put stricter road safety laws in place and ensure they were enforced. Schwartlander also called on manufacturers to produce good quality cars, and parents to make sure their children wore helmets when riding bicycles.

The figure did not take into account children who were injured by not killed.

The WHO said at least 200,000 people died each year on the mainland due to road accidents. Interesting to note the figure was much higher than the country's official statistics.

The Ministry of Public Security said about 87,200 people died in about 426,000 road accidents in the first 10 months of last year.

Last year a global study published in medical journal The Lancet found road injuries were the third-leading cause of death in China, ahead of a range of cancers, compared with eighth in the developing world.

Experts said the high fatality rate was due to poor driving behaviour exacerbated by the rapid rise on car ownership. They also said traffic accidents were becoming more alarming than other disasters like mining accidents.

In 2003 there were 24 million cars in China, but by last year it had grown to 154 million, according to the public security ministry.

Thirty-one cities had more than 1 million cars each. Eight cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hanzhou had over 2 million cars, while Beijing had 5 million.

One would think these statistic would shock mainlanders into improving their driving habits, but until an accident happens to them, they will not care.

Meanwhile those who grieve loved ones they lost probably have anger bubbling near the surface. And until they explode with frustration and grief, the public will never understand how crucial it is to drive safely on the roads.