TRANSPORT
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contain the size of the civil service, it was decided to contract out the operation of this centre to the private sector, and arrangements were made for contractors to be appointed by mid-1992. In the interim, the centre was partially opened, using staff deployed from other vehicle examination centres.
To cope with these staff movements, So Kun Po Centre was temporarily closed in June and inspection activities in four other centres were rearranged.
With effect from October 1, 1991, the age of goods vehicles and trailers, which were subject to annual inspection, was advanced from the former pre-1978 year of manufacture to pre-1983. Further advancement will be arranged in the coming years to achieve the policy objective of inspecting annually all over one-year-old goods vehicles and trailers.
All private cars and light goods vehicles with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 1.9 tonnes and over six years old, have to be inspected and passed at one of the 17 designated car testing centres before relicensing. In 1991, 71 800 cars and 1 710 light goods vehicles were inspected.
Airport service vehicles are inspected within the airport restricted area. To cope with increasing demand, a new vehicle examination centre was constructed within Kai Tak Airport, and became operational in August 1991.
The maintenance of franchised buses is monitored closely by the Bus Engineering Unit. Besides Certificate of Fitness and Certificate of Road Worthiness inspections, spot checks were conducted to enhance maintenance standards. For non-franchised buses, an - additional inspection pit was under construction at the To Kwa Wan Centre to provide
more capacity.
As from January 1, 1992, all newly-registered private cars will have to comply with the new exhaust emission standards. To prepare for this introduction, the Transport Department started to take the new standards into account when giving type approval of imported private cars from May 1991.
To reduce the number of vehicles emitting excessive exhaust smoke, the Environmental Protection Department has expanded the smoke testing programme to include certain private sector garages. The scheme became operational in late 1991.
To promote road safety, new legislation is underway to require school light buses to install warning devices to alert the driver if the emergency door is not properly closed, and to require goods vehicles to be fitted with a warning horn to alert pedestrians when vehicles are reversing.
Road Safety
Traffic accidents involving injury decreased by one per cent in 1991. During the year there were 15 069 accidents, of which 3 514 were serious and 301 fatal. This compares with 15255 in 1990 (3 576 serious, 314 fatal). In-depth investigations using computerised records were carried out at 101 traffic accident blackspots in order to identify accident causes. Remedial accident prevention measures were recommended at 70 of these locations. Remedial measures, when implemented, have been shown to reduce accidents con- siderably.
Accident statistics are at Appendix 39.
Road Safety campaigns continued to play an important role in reducing traffic accidents. The major campaign themes in 1991 were adult pedestrian safety, particularly the elderly, and promoting road safety for drivers, especially light goods vehicle drivers and