10
Silence on road safety is deadly
A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF MACAU’S motorists appear to have no driving skills at all. In any civilized society they would be labelled savages, such is the way they behave on the roads. They do not respect the traf c code, morals or common sense. They are a disgrace to the city’s image. It is one thing if they are poor driv-
ers because they are not prepared prop- erly but when chaos runs wild because the authorities do nothing about it, it is something altogether different. There is an argument that Macau
drivers are not inherently bad. They drive poorly because they do not know any better. Some driving schools are sub-standard and the traf c police do not always do a good job. Bad drivers multiply because the Transport Bureau insists it has no tools to change the cur- rent situation. Unlike Hong Kong, Macau does
not educate drivers through constant road safety awareness campaigns. Ef- forts aimed at prevention are minimal.
In the end, as is typical here, people are left with a bunch of rules that no one enforces. Accidents caused by disrespecting
basic road rules – a pedestrian was hit and killed on a crosswalk just a few weeks ago – should have been long eradicated by education campaigns, greater supervision of the training provided by driving schools and more severe punishments for those who fail to respect the traf c code. Producing more laws while al-
lowing drivers’ attitudes to remain unchanged because those same laws cannot be policed is nonsense. The re- sponsibility must go all the way to the top of the pyramid. It is unacceptable and deplorable to have government sec- retaries unwilling to bear responsibility for the complete inability of the teams they supervise. How long until the silence of the
guilty ends? More importantly, when will Macau witness a change of mind- set, which seems frozen in time?
Accidents caused by disrespecting basic road rules – a pedestrian was hit and killed on a crosswalk just a few weeks ago – should have been long eradicated by education campaigns, greater supervision of the training provided by driving schools and more severe punishments
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116