Q Is five demerit points sufficient penalty for jumping a red traffic light?
When I read in [yesterday's] City section the sickening description of a five-year-old girl's 'crushed skull on the ground, with brain, muscles and blood splattered around her', I was appalled and incensed at the gall of drivers who seek a lighter penalty for jumping red traffic lights.
The government should pay no attention whatsoever to calls from so-called professional drivers to retain the current penalty of three demerit points. On the contrary, the penalty should be increased to at least 10 demerit points. After all, is a child's (or indeed anybody's) life less important than whatever impels a driver to break the law?
That the existing penalty is far too lenient is clearly indicated by the number of red-light prosecutions last year: 39,376. If a driver loses his job for jumping red lights, then so be it. Hopefully, the grim prospect of becoming unemployed will encourage drivers to toe the brake pedal rather than the accelerator when they see an amber light.
Michael Waugh, Cheung Chau
This must be a joke. Drivers who run red lights are either ruthless or careless. There should not even be a discussion about this matter.