TNAG-0685-FCO40-834-Royal-Hong-Kong-police-annual-review-for-1976-1977 — Page 36

REMEME

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The road safety message was put across to the public in dramatic form. These School Road Safety Patrol members graphically illustrate the grim harvest of carelessness and ignorance.

A total of 104 schools operate school road safety patrols under the direction of the Road Safety Association. More than 3,500 students who are patrol members perform a public-spirited service by helping schoolchildren at road. crossings at many locations.

Prosecutions

During the year a total of 178,387 prosecutions were in- stituted for a wide variety of traffic offences. Although action against illegally parked vehicles was taken only in blatant cases, it was necessary to issue almost 600,000 fixed penalty tickets.

The year also marked the extension of the fixed penalty system to deal with offences committed by motorists while driving - 'moving offences'. The object of the scheme is to achieve higher standards of and care in driving as well as to reduce the time and effort involved in court prosecutions. Although during its initial stages the process was strictly controlled, nearly 4,000 tickets were issued during the first month. Under the new regulations, all motorists are re-

quired to carry driving licences and evasion of the process of the law will be far more difficult than previously.

Planning and Management

The Traffic Management Section maintains close liaison with the Transport Department and the Public Works Department in the study, design and execution of projects to ease traffic congestion and generally to promote safety for both motorists and pedestrians. The section was consulted on many major road improvements, including an elevated roadway for Connaught Road, the Aberdeen tunnel and the Garden Road flyover in Hong Kong Island, and the airport tunnel access roads and the Cheung Sha Wan flyover in Kowloon.

The construction of the mass transit railway involved considerable police planning to provide alternative routes to roads affected by construction work and many major diversions to traffic flow had to be implemented, mainly in Kowloon.

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