A fatal traffic accident occurred on Tai Chung Kiu Road in Sha Tin in June this year. A private car was suspected to have misread the "child light" to go through a red light and knocked over a minibus, causing one death and seven injuries.
According to information from the Transport Department, in the past five and a half years there have been 230 traffic accidents on Tai Chung Bridge Road, resulting in 5 deaths and 375 injuries. This means that there are an average of about 40 traffic accidents and 1 person killed each year. All were accused of being the "culprit."
Experts and scholars agree that the "child lights" at the intersections are indeed misleading, and they counted out the five major problems in the design of Dayong Bridge Road, including too wide roads, which is like the excessive speed of the expressway, which exacerbates the risk of accidents and yellowing. The light buffer time is insufficient, the yellow light time is too short, and the traffic black spot system is reviewed.
Some experts bluntly said that only installing temporary traffic pillars at intersections has not solved the problem at all. The Transport Department is urged to thoroughly study the flaws in the design of Tai Chung Bridge Road and prescribe the right remedy.
(Hong Kong Traffic Crisis City Series 4)
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From 2016 to July this year, there were 230 traffic accidents on Tai Chung Bridge Road, resulting in 5 deaths and 379 injuries. In the first 7 months of this year alone, there were 20 cases.
According to the information provided by the Transport Department, the traffic flow of various sections of Tai Chung Kiu Road has increased by more than 10% in the past 10 years, and the increase rate of Sha Tin Wai Road, where repeated accidents have occurred, has increased by nearly 30%. However, it is still calmer than other arterial roads in the same district. However, traffic accidents on this section already accounted for 2.3% of the entire Sha Tin District, which is not significantly different from the relatively busy Sha Tin section of Tai Po Road.
Looking at past reports, many accidents were attributed to the misleading "Small Lights". However, the Transport Department concluded that the causes of the accidents were directed at the driver, including "driving inattentively", "not following the instructions of the traffic lights" and " "Inadvertently changing lanes" and refusing to remove the "child lights", worried that it would slow down the traffic flow and cause congestion.
The government and the people hold their own words. If the "baby lights" cause trouble, why are there more than a hundred sets of "baby lights" in Hong Kong, so that Tai Chung Bridge Road has been criticized by all means, and why the drivers passing through this intersection are particularly careless when driving ?
Kwong Zixian, a road traffic safety consultant who is also the chairman of the Road Safety Research Group, said that after analyzing a car accident, he believes that the "baby light" does have a chance to make a driver misjudgment. If the green light only applies to some traffic lanes, drivers on adjacent lanes may not be aware of it. Follow the start, and emphasize that the authorities should not use the lights to meet the standards, and ignore the problem of "baby lights".
Scholars were also misled by the "child lantern"
Also think that Tai Chung Bridge Road is difficult to control, and Professor Lu Pei-ying of the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong revealed that when she drove along Tai Chung Bridge Road with her husband at the beginning of the month, she was also misled by the "child lanterns" involved, "I saw the green light. But he stopped and stopped, and it turned out that the green light was not our (watch)." Fortunately, it was her husband who drove the car and escaped.
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As wide as a highway
She said categorically, "It is dangerous to use small lights." The danger is that the road is as wide as a highway. "There is no light at all." "There are always many lights." Line, when you have multiple lines, there are already a few traffic lights, which will cause confusion, and whether green means going straight, and setting green means turning lights? If you don’t standardise it, It is a potential danger."
Regarding the installation of red light cameras by the Transport Department at the intersections near Sha Tin Wai Road and Fo Tan Road, she believes that this is not the right medicine, because the driver who caused the accident read the wrong lights instead of deliberately flashing the lights.
Revisiting the accidental footage two months ago, it can be seen that the two private cars that were under the lights were only just getting off the ground and the speed was slow. Dr. Cai Jiahao from the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong, who studied the dangerous sections of Hong Kong with Professor Lu, said that the culprit behind the overturning of the minibus was actually The speed of the minibus is too fast. He thinks that the intersection of the whole section of Tai Chung Bridge Road should be reduced to 30 kilometers per hour, "otherwise it will be the driver’s illusion. Anyway, there is a car canal in front of you." However, at present, only the location outside Regal Garden Two "quick cameras" are installed, "If you want to put it clearly, put it in the middle, and wait until people know that it's going to be reduced."
June 13th, Tai Chung Bridge Road accident
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Lu Peiying added that the fast speed will affect the line of sight, "When the speed is fast, you will only look so narrow. You are left looking at the car in front of you. When the end of your eyes is green, you will basically be able to go easily. In addition to slowing down, she also suggested planting a row of trees or installing railings beside the two left-turning lines to narrow the road visually, and remove the current left-turning lights to prevent " "Looking at the wrong lights" crisis.
Kwong Zixian also agreed that the speed of the road section was too fast. After checking the information, he found that the speed limit on Dayongqiao Road had been changed over the past 20 years. After inspecting the area around Dayongqiao Road, he and reporters also found that the speed of cars is generally higher The speed limit is described as "barely" at the current speed limit of 70 kilometers per hour. If a car at another intersection collides with the waist, the side of the body is very fragile, and the crashed vehicle may roll over or even run out of the roadside out of control.
"Yellow Light Dilemma Zone" makes it easy for drivers to "rush to the tail"
Too fast a car will also cause a "Yellow Light Dilemma Zone". Kwong Tzu-hsien explained that Hong Kong follows the British standard, setting the yellow light time to 3 seconds and driving at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour. I see that the light turns from green to green. When Huang is yellow, he will be caught in a dilemma where he should speed up and "push the tail of the light" or brake immediately. If the driver makes a mistake in his judgment, it may cause serious accidents. The situation of large vehicles such as buses is particularly serious. He took the United Kingdom as an example, and the local speed reached an hour. The 56-kilometer section needs to be equipped with a speed sensing device to automatically adjust the light signal time in real time, reducing the chance of vehicle flashing lights and the risk of collisions.
In response to enquiries, the Transport Department stated that it had reviewed the speed limit of Tai Chung Bridge Road in 2018, and the results showed that the speed limit of 70 kilometers per hour was reasonable, while the speed limit of the remaining sections was 50 kilometers per hour. It considered the road environment of this section in the past few years. There are no major changes. Initially, it is believed that the current speed limit is still applicable, and it is revealed that the speed inspection system is being reviewed again and is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
Cai Jiahao, who grew up in Sha Tin, also mentioned that the buffer time of the turn lights on Tai Chung Bridge Road is insufficient. "If someone rushes to the yellow light, they will crash as soon as they drive (the car)." According to the information provided by the Transport Department, Tai Chung The buffer time for the four intersections of the bridge road, that is, the green light signal interval is only 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Cai He suggested that the government slow down the buffer time so that drivers at other intersections have enough time to observe the state of the intersection before speeding up before turning the lights. .
"Basically solve the problem"
Experts and scholars have counted out a number of design pitfalls of Dayong Bridge Road. Why does the government still only make minor repairs when there are continuous traffic accidents?
Pei-ying Lu, who only removed her status as a member of the Road Safety Council in recent years, said that the Transport Department relies on the traffic blackspots released every quarter to study the intersections on the list. "But it is not a traffic blackspot." Record the accident within 70 meters of the intersection, "The spatial distribution of the accident is random, even if there is a crash, it will happen exactly at this point."
Pei-Ying Lu and Cai Jiahao conducted a study on dangerous locations in 2017 and found that Tai Chung Bridge Road alone has four sections of road rankings, and Sha Tin is the worst-hit area in the northeast of the New Territories.
(Provided by Lu Peiying and Cai Jiahao)
She began to develop "hot-zone methodology" in 2007. In 2017, her research with Cai Jiahao found that Tai Chung Bridge Road alone has four sections of road rankings, and Sha Tin is the worst-hit area in the northeast of the New Territories. .
She continued that accidents generally have patterns. Only by considering all the dangerous sections of the road, and even the traffic in Sha Tin, can we find the cause and prescribe the right remedy. Basically, it is to solve the problem."
After the fatal accident two months ago, the Transport Department immediately added hatched road markings and temporary traffic cylinders to separate the left turn and go straight to the traffic lane. However, a reporter from "Hong Kong 01" inspected Tai Chung Bridge Road for several days. It was discovered that the glue column was often smashed. Lu Peiying pointedly pointed out that the method was "a headache", and it was not this "pain killer" that solved the problem.
Double white lines in front of the intersection "too late"
The government also conducted a comprehensive review of the road design of Tai Chung Bridge Road in Sha Tin in 2018, and implemented 8 improvement measures in phases in the next two years, including the use of double white lines to separate traffic lanes in different directions on the road in front of the intersection. Frankly, “It’s always too late for the double white line. When I get to the intersection 20 meters and 30 meters before the double white line, if I really fasten the (wrong) line, I have to cut it while I cut.” He thinks the double The white line must appear at least 100 meters before the intersection in order to be effective. I hope the authorities can add signs along the road, or even elevated road signs, to remind drivers of the direction of each lane and slow down in time.
Pei-ying Lu also mentioned that more than ten years ago, the number of traffic accidents in Hong Kong dropped sharply. She praised the government's performance at that time. However, after a short while, the stamina was not able to continue. Recently, the number of traffic accidents has been on the rise.
She described the authorities’ road safety policies as “bottlenecked”. The only thing that can be done is to refer to the “road safety strategies” of the United Kingdom, Europe and other places. The United Kingdom will formulate new actions every five years. The action plan and the corresponding goals, let all departments follow, "You don’t review systematically, and you will die two more." He lamented that in 2004, Hong Kong set up "Zero Accidents on the Road. Everyone loves Hong Kong." After the vision, there is no more relevant countermeasures. She emphasized that if the authorities do not review the entire road safety system, the problem will only persist.
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