IT is night on Shek O Road, and the first rain for weeks has mixed with the dust to make the road surface slippery. There are hidden driveways, and a quarry entrance with a possible mud patch. The response of the typical driver to these traffic conditions? To put their foot down. Following this week's review of speed limits announced by the Government, Sunday Morning Post reporters used latest-generation radar guns to survey the territory's driving habits. In a study in the rain on Shek O Road on Wednesday night, speed readings of 60 vehicles taken at three positions found 88 per cent of drivers speeding, with one Mercedes doing 97.3 km/h in a 50 km/h zone in rain heading into Shek O village. Of the mere seven vehicles below the limit, one was a bicycle and another a learner driver. Among 58 vehicles checked in dry conditions on Tai Tam Road on Friday night, 84 per cent were over the limit, with many taxis among the fastest. Away from the country roads, with the radar gun set up on Queensway, Admiralty, 46 vehicles were checked over a 20-minute period on Thursday night with the road wet after several hours of rain. Fifty-nine per cent of vehicles were speeding by at least five kms over the 50 km/h speed limit. All six minibuses which came into the radar gun's aim were recorded over the limit, the fastest one clocking 76 km/h. And more than a quarter of the buses were speeding, the fastest being a Kowloon Motor Bus travelling at 65 km/h. Typically, five people die in the SAR each week in traffic accidents. 'Speed kills,' said Senior Superintendent Barry Griffin of Traffic Police Headquarters on Hong Kong Island. 'We try to enforce the speed limits, but we don't have 100 people available 24 hours a day,' he said. Mr Griffin described Shek O Road as one of the places in his area with the worst speeding problem. 'It is a very difficult road to use some of our equipment safely, and it's also a difficult road to stop people.' Last year there were 29 accidents involving casualties on Shek O Road, with no fatalities. This shows a decline from 1996 in which there were 46 accidents including two fatalities. The Transport Department's review of speed limits may lead to some speed restrictions being raised, but this is unlikely to reduce the number of people breaking the law, says Mr Griffin. Many drivers drive at 10 per cent above the limit, and if the limit is raised they will simply drive faster, he said. Exactly one week after the Citybus crash, in which three passengers died and another 53 were injured, on the Tonnochy Road flyover, the radar guns recorded no accounts of speeding over the 50 km/h limit during a 30-minute period. The radar guns used were a Stalker Pro and a Prospeed Digital Signal Processing unit. The Prospeed gun was supplied courtesy of University of Hong Kong's Physical Education and Speed Science Unit.
