XN000022-1995-06-07 — Page 37

-

27

Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 1995: second reading

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Haider Barma, in the resumption of the second reading of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 1995 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

May I begin by expressing the Administration's gratitude to the Hon Zachary Wong Wai-yin and all other Hon Members who served on the Bills Committee, for their thorough and painstaking study of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 1995.

There is now clear evidence based on autopsy reports conducted on drivers killed in traffic accidents, that drunken driving is a real problem in Hong Kong. Indeed, drunken driving is already an offence under the Road Traffic Ordinance but enforcement and prosecution have proven to be very difficult because the present legislation does not specify a blood alcohol limit, nor are suspected offenders required by law to provide samples of their breath, blood or urine. Drink driving results in traffic accidents causing death and injuries, often to innocent third parties, and Hong Kong is one of the few places that does not have effective legislation to tackle the problem. Action is needed.

I

The main purpose of the legislation now before Hon Members is to provide the necessary legislative teeth by stipulating a prescribed limit for the permitted alcohol concentration in a driver's blood, urine and breath, and to imposing a legal obligation on drivers to provide samples of blood, urine or breath for testing in certain specified circumstances. We are not introducing random breath testing, but drivers may be required to take a breath test if they are involved in traffic accidents, commit a moving traffic offence or if the Police have reasonable grounds to suspect that they have been drinking. As the Hon Zachary Wong has said members of the Bills Committee have been briefed on internal guidelines for applying these procedures.

:

We propose setting the prescribed alcohol limit at 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood because we believe it provides a reasonable starting point in Hong Kong, since, as I have explained, our present legislation contains no blood/alcohol limit whatsoever. Indeed, this follows the standard adopted in most European Union countries and is also the practice in many states in the US and elsewhere.

IC