Caring people put 8 "ghost bicycles" in Hong Kong to mourn the victims of bicycle accidents: continue to put pressure on the authorities

Ghost Bikes (Ghost Bikes) are some abandoned bicycles painted with white paint, which are placed in places where cyclists died due to vehicle collisions to commemorate and remind other motor vehicle drivers to pay attention to driving safety. Commemorative sentences are usually written in red letters, and this practice occurs in many parts of the world.

Recently, ghost bicycles have been placed in the 8 districts of Hong Kong to commemorate a total of 8 people who died in bicycle crashes in 2021, emphasizing that it is not only to commemorate those who died in accidents, but also to remember that there have been thousands of people on bicycles over the years. Injuried.

According to the information of "Transit Jam", on September 14, 2021, at the junction of Prince Edward Road West and Lai Chi Kok Road, a 68-year-old man was hit by a school bus, one of the eight people who died in a bicycle crash in 2021.

("hkghostbikes" IG picture)

The ghost bike project was first started by San Francisco-based artist Jo Slota, who started collecting abandoned bikes and painting them with white paint in 2002 for artistic creation, taking photos and putting them on the website.

The first ghost bicycle to commemorate a bicycle accident appeared in St. Louis, Missouri, USA in October 2003. It was installed by Patrick Van Der Tuin, who witnessed the death of a cyclist in a collision with a motor vehicle, and the plaque read "Cyclist Struck" Here” (where the cyclist died), Patrick Van Der Tuin later placed ghost bikes in other black spots related to cycling accidents.

And New York writer Jessie Singer is one of the pioneers of this concept.

James Ockenden, founder of Hong Kong's English-language media Transit Jam, collected data for 2021 earlier and found that a total of 8 people were killed in bicycle accidents, of which only 4 were reported by mainstream media. According to him, "the police system only Press releases about fatal crashes are issued only days after the crash, when the victim dies. Given that there are hundreds of traffic accidents every day, journalists can’t track them all, and only about 50 percent of deaths actually make the news.”

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In order to make Hong Kong citizens pay more attention to these accidents, James Ockenden placed an all-white ghost bicycle in each of the 8 accident locations, and opened an account on the social platform Instagram to commemorate, "The eight victims this year are all male. , ranging in age from 55 to 79. 3 were hit by a bus (a minibus, a school bus, a staff coach); one was crushed by a cement truck. Two were riding with others People were killed in collisions, and in two cases, we don’t know what happened.” In the article, he pointed out that the project was launched in his own name to show respect to those who use bicycles to travel.

He also thanked the Crossroads Foundation for donating bicycles for the project, and thanked the Transport Department for collating relevant information, but said he would continue to pressure the authorities to obtain more public data on traffic issues.

Check out this post on Instagram

A post shared by James Ockenden (@hkghostbikes)

Looking through the information, in November 2016, in a traffic accident on Shing Fung Road, Kowloon Bay, a 23-year-old young auxiliary policeman Leung Wing-han was killed by a BMW driver with a P plate "crawling his head" because he was keen on cycling during his lifetime. , On the next day after the car accident, someone placed a ghost bicycle on the scene. The personal information of the cyclist Liang Yonghan who was hit by the car and the date of the accident were written on the car in red letters, as well as the words "Rest in peace" (good road) and other words. , flowers were placed beside the car as a tribute and to remind other road users to pay attention to safety.

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