Hong Kong travellers should be mindful of driving fatigue, unfamiliar road signs and their insurance coverage when going on road trips overseas, experts have warned after two traffic accidents involving city residents in Japan within a week.
Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, honorary life president of the Hong Kong China Automobile Association, said on Wednesday that various factors could affect drivers’ concentration and energy when driving on foreign roads.
He explained that car trips between places in a relatively small city like Hong Kong might take only about an hour, but journeys between airports, hotels and attractions in larger overseas destinations could take much longer.
“Drivers might be distracted [by the new roads and GPS] and get tired without realising it. These could be the likely causes of traffic accidents overseas involving Hongkongers,” Lee said.
On Monday, a 53-year-old Hong Kong woman died and five others were injured in a head-on car crash in Hokkaido. She was in the front passenger seat of a rental car, with her 52-year-old husband driving.
The rental car, reportedly carrying a family of four from Hong Kong, crossed into the opposite lane on National Route 38 in Furano and collided with another vehicle occupied by two Japanese people at around 3.30pm local time.
