Blitz against drink driving during festive season
In conjunction with the Road Safety Council, Traffic Branch launched a publicity campaign to heighten public awareness of anti-drink driving during the festive season.
Following the campaign's kick-off ceremony at Lan Kwai Fong on December 17, the road safety ambassador, "Road Safety Guard", and officers of Regional Road Safety Teams handed out publicity leaflets and souvenirs to members of the public at bar areas. The campaign is scheduled to conclude after the upcoming Lunar New Year.
Apart from targeting at drink driving, the kick-off ceremony also promoted the Road Traffic (Amendment) Ordinance 2010, which came into effect on the same day. Speaking at the ceremony, Chief Superintendent (Traffic) Steve Verralls pointed out that the amendment ordinance had introduced new measures to combat drink driving and other inappropriate driving behaviour. The new measures include a three-tier penalty system with a sliding scale.
"Introduction of the system brings out a very clear message: the more a driver exceeds the prescribed alcohol limit, the longer the driving disqualification period will be," CSP Verralls stressed.
Combining education, publicity and enforcement action, police will mount a series of operations against drink driving during festive season. These operations will be conducted at anytime and anywhere throughout the territory, so motorists better heed the police message: "If You Drink, Don't Drive!" Meanwhile, the Road Safety Council, using the image of the "Road Safety Guard" as a theme, launched a specially designed Anti-drink driving Publicity Car to broadcast the message.
The Chairman of the Road Safety Campaign Committee, Mr Lawrence Yu, has described the publicity car as a means "to get closer to motorists and passengers" in promoting road safety and highlighting the serious consequences of drink driving.
T NTS Campaign
In support of the territory-wide anti-drink driving campaign before the Christmas, the Road Safety Team of Traffic New Territories South (NTS), Tsuen Wan District Traffic Team, and Sha Tin District Traffic Team, together with District Councillors, conducted an anti-drink driving campaign and distributed leaflets to customers in bars and restaurants in the evening of December 18 in Tsuen Wan and Sha Tin.
Furthermore, drivers were reminded that the new Road Traffic (Amendment) Ordinance had come into effect and that random breath tests on roads would be stepped up before and during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
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