An incident I witnessed on the morning of January 29 drew attention to the need to change the law regarding the most common form of traffic accidents, namely, those involving no injury to people. At the moment, since there is no law against obstructing traffic, virtually all collisions, however minor, between two vehicles will result in major tailbacks and delays. Understandably perhaps, individual drivers in each of these incidents will wish to put their case to the police when they arrive, but from my experience this is invariably in vain, as the first thing the police will do, after checking that no one is injured, will be to ask the drivers to drive their vehicles to the side of the road to allow traffic to move again. Last Wednesday morning's incident was worse than usual in the effects it caused, as the incident (which involved minimal side impact at low speed between an articulated lorry and a private car) blocked both southbound lanes of Tai Po Road (Sha Tin) under the Fo Tan Road bridge during the peak hour. Since at this location there exists no hard shoulder, as the slip road feeding Tai Po Road precludes this, the vehicles that were behind the accident were reduced to a standstill. Judging by the queues that already existed when I passed by, traffic had already been held up for about five minutes. Given that the police had not yet arrived on the scene, it is likely that it would have been another five or 10 minutes before traffic started moving again. The current situation is difficult to justify given the lost productivity it is causing as a result of so many people arriving late for work. Additionally, it is predictable that drivers who have been caught in these needless jams will become frustrated and are more likely to be involved in further accidents, especially fighting-for-lane accidents that are a feature of local roads. It would appear that the best way of breaking this cycle of events would be to enact laws, as in other countries, making it illegal for vehicles to obstruct traffic except in the event of an accident involving personal injury. I would be glad if the police, and other relevant departments, such as the Transport Bureau, and the Transport and Highways departments, could respond and let us know whether they support such legislation, and if so what type of pressure they are putting on the government and the legislature to ensure that such legislation is enacted speedily. Many others would gladly lend their support to bring about this sensible law change in accordance with the spirit of efficiency and flexibility for which Hong Kong is famous. HUGH TYRWHITT-DRAKE, Sha Tin
