The controversy over mandatory seat belts in Hong Kong has intensified after a former lawmaker said a government statement failed to specify that the rule only applied to new buses registered from January 25 this year, and called on authorities to clarify their approach to enforcement as passengers worried about unwittingly breaking the law.
Doreen Kong Yuk-foon, a member of the subcommittee that examined the proposed legislative amendment last year, told the South China Morning Post on Friday that a government press release on January 8 had caused confusion by stating that passengers had to wear seat belts regardless of whether the vehicles were newly registered, contradicting what was written in the law.
She was referring to the new regulation that took effect on Sunday, which requires passengers on public buses to put on seat belts.
Kong said lawmakers who scrutinised the proposal last September had been told that the new rule would only apply to new vehicles registered on or after January 25 this year, and that the government’s January 8 press release had “wrongly interpreted” the law.
“The press release was wrong in saying that ‘drivers and passengers occupying the seats of these vehicles (whether newly registered or not), where seat belts are fitted, are required to wear them.’ It obviously does not match the clauses [in the law],” Kong said.
“People will have to ask those who wrote this press release why they did this. I do not understand.”
