Updated at 7.19pm: Police would step up crackdowns on drink driving when World Cup football matches are being shown in June, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung said on Wednesday.
Dr Liao was replying to a question by Lau Wong-fat at a Legislative Council meeting. Mr Lau, who represents the District Council constituency, asked what measures the government had carried out to combat drink driving which often caused accidents.
The transport secretary said police would pay special attention to drink driving at night-time and in the early morning, following an increase in the number of such offences this year.
?They will also increase large-scale enforcement operations against drink driving during special festive seasons and during the forthcoming World Cup football matches,? she said.
The World Cup would be shown on Hong Kong television and in bars and clubs from June 9 until July 9. It is extremely popular in the territory.
Dr Liao revealed that prosecutions against drink driving in the first four months of 2006 amounted to 448, up 15 per cent compared with the same period in 2005.
Between 1996 and 2005, the number of drink driving prosecutions has increased from 649 to 1,335. In the three years to 2005, there were almost 300 drink-driving related accidents with casualties, she said.