This morning I was saddened to read about a car crash resulting in the death of the young driver as well as his passengers – his wife and 3 month old son. According to the article, the car was speeding along Tuen Mun Highway, when it “lost control” and crashed.
I have come to the conclusion, after reading many such stories over the years, that “losing control of the vehicle” must be the cause of the majority of Hong Kong’s fatal car accidents. But I would replace “lost control” with “fallen asleep”.
Falling asleep at the wheel is a common occurence in Hong Kong judging by my experiences in taxi cabs and even, most recently in a minibus (traveling at 70km/h no less). Of course, proving my theory is impossible — few witness would ever be able to confirm it and the driver, if he survived, is hardly going to admit it. But how else can you explain a double decker bus mounting the curb and smashing into a store front as happened last year? Or the wreckages you sometimes witness of vehicles smashed into barricades placed on straight, non-treacherous roads?
In the case of this young family, we will never know why the driver lost control of his car. But I do think more should be done to prevent professional drivers from causing similiar tragedies.
There should be some type of regulation controlling the length of taxi and bus drivers’ shifts, for example.
If you don’t believe me, then next time you are in a cab late in the afternoon or really early in the morning (the “drowsy driver” time – end of shifts) keep an eye on your driver in the rear-view mirror.
Even dropping off for a few seconds can result in tragedy.
Given that the majority of such accidents seem to occur in the early hours of the morning, you are probably right that tiredness is a major factor. However, I am sure many at that time of day are alcohol-related.
I believe another major cause of accidents here is simply bad driving. An alert driver travelling at a safe speed is unlikely to lose control of his vehicle unless it suffers a mechanical fault, which is rare. But many local drivers are neither paying attention (which could distract from their phone calls) nor driving at a safe speed. In particular, there seem to be all too many who have no idea that it takes much longer to stop in wet conditions, and fail to slow down even during the heaviest of thunderstorms. Idiots.