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Call members to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme are currently undergoing training at Fanling Depot to qualify for the scheme's Bronze Award.
Village Patrol Unit
The Village Patrol Unit, popularly known as the Chuen Shan Kap (pangolin), is manned by locally-born volunteers who speak the Hakka dialect. Patrols from the unit are a familiar sight in the more remote villages of the New Territories. They also patrol picnic areas off the regular tracks and maintain a police presence on Kat O and Peng Chau Islands in Mirs Bay.
Traffic
The New Territories is by no means immune from the traffic problems experienced elsewhere in Hong Kong although they are often of a different nature.
Apart from congestion occurring in urban areas during peak hours, control problems are caused by the thousands of visitors to beaches in the west during the summer months and the equal numbers who flock to scenic areas mainly in the east in cooler weather.
Cyclists are a particular problem especially along the Ting Kok Road in Tai Po and the avoidance of hundreds of inexperienced and young cyclists, mainly on hired
machines, riding (or more often falling off) there, is a major preoccupation of motorists using the road. In the absence of legal powers to control the hiring of bicycles, the main effort to reduce the hazard is directed at education and, as a last resort, enforcement action against offending riders. Traffic problems increase during the numerous festivals which occur annually. During the year, large crowds at- tended the dragon boat races at Tai Po and Tuen Mun, visited temples, attended the Tin Hau festival in Yuen Long, and visited the graves of ancestors during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals.
In coping with these many and complex problems, a heavy burden was placed on traffic officers and it is a tribute to their expertise, experience and tact that a relatively free traffic flow was maintained.
The number of traffic accidents involving death or injury increased from 2,380 in 1975 to 2,494. Public light buses continued to be involved in a high ratio of accidents disproportionate to their number.
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Enforcement and control was divided into four zones, each patrolled by motorcyclists and by patrol (Panda) cars except for Frontier Division, in which only motor- cycle patrols operated. The primary objective of Panda cars was the education of motorists and pedestrians in safe driving and the correct use of the road.
WWEZ
Officers of the Village Patrol Unit lend a helping hand to a farmer on their rural beat.
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