In the letter 'Smoky vehicles' (November 5), a correspondent asked how many fixed penalty tickets for excessive smoke emission have been issued by the Hong Kong police over the past year.

Could we also be told the number of tickets and warnings issued for: lack of, late, or incorrect, signalling; use of a hand-held phone while driving; driving at night, in heavy rain or in a tunnel (when instructed to use them) without dipped head-lights; driving with headlights on full beam; driving too close to the vehicle in front; failing to 'keep left except when overtaking'; ignoring the red light at roadworks; and stopping on the 'zig-zag' lines at the approach to a pedestrian crossing?

All these offences are serious, and contribute to accidents. Yet the Hong Kong police, for whose professionalism and courtesy I have, in general, great respect, habitually ignore them. Why?