Road activists demand action to slow drivers and save lives

A road safety group wants to force drivers to slow down.

Speaking on a day when the United Nations put a spotlight on traffic deaths around the world, the group said that lowering speed limits would reduce fatalities on the city's streets.

'Lowering car speed in urban areas not only improves road safety, but also improves our living environment and stimulates economic growth,' said Julian Kwong Tse-hin, chairman of the Community for Road Safety in Hong Kong.

Last year 117 people died on the city's roads, 69 of them pedestrians, according to police and the Transport Department.

Globally, 1.3 million people perished in traffic accidents last year, a total that the UN's Decade for Action for Road Safety aims to lessen. Activists in 102 countries called for a variety of safety measures to support the campaign.

Kwong, who plans to conduct an in-depth study and draft a proposal to the Transport Department, said he had recently measured the speeds of 50 cars in some of the city's major streets and roads. Traffic on Hysan Avenue reached 50km/h, he said. He clocked cars on Nathan Road going as fast as 72km/h.

Citing a study done last year by the French research group CERTU, Kwong said someone hit by a car travelling at 30km/h had a 5 per cent chance of being killed. That probability surged to more than 80 per cent if the car was travelling at 50km/h.