UNPRECEDENTED safety measures are to be implemented following a spate of serious late night traffic accidents around the airport tunnel, the Transport Department has announced.
From tomorrow, drivers will be confronted by an 'orange dragon' of hundreds of traffic cones, warning beacons and flashing signs designed to slow vehicles down and channel them into one lane.
The changes come into force from midnight to 6 am when one tube of the tunnel closes for essential maintenance work and traffic passes both ways in the other tunnel with only a white line between the vehicles.
Assistant Transport Commissioner Ernest Lee Shu-wing said there were warning signs on the approaches to other tunnels but this was the first time signs and cones had been used on such a scale.
There were two fatal late-night crashes in the airport tunnel last year, but Mr Lee said it was safe as long as drivers followed safety warnings and kept within the 50 km/h speed limit.
Some drivers deliberately ignored police advice and drove without any regard to safety, he said.
