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.