A total of 15,000 parking tickets were stuck on vehicles in Sai Kung last year, Chief Inspector Daniel Tsang has told BUZZ. The divisional commander said this was an increase of 3000 over 2015.
“We get a lot of complaints about congestion and illegal parking,” Daniel said. “We have a hard job to do.” Then he made a comment that is interesting coming from a police chief: “We rely on the community to be self-disciplined.”
Bad parking is a serious matter. Elderly people have been killed on Po Tung Road after stepping out from behind parked cars. One old man hit in the head by a truck’s wing mirror died almost instantly.
Friends of Sai Kung Vice Chairman Guy Shirra, a retired police superintendent, recently held a meeting with Daniel and Max Yip, senior inspector. Excerpts from Guy’s report:
Sai Kung’s top two police officers agreed to pass on to Traffic Kowloon East requests for speeding enforcement on Hiram’s Highway and Tai Mong Tsai Road plus speed cameras on the latter. Guy also said there should be a red light camera outside Honeymoon Desert because of red light jumping.
Drones have been reported operating near residences, Guy said, perhaps scouting by burglars (Daniel said there is no evidence of this). Where the drones are working for government departments public notices should be issued.
Guy said emergency vehicles sometimes got lost in Sai Kung villages. He said they needed to do familarisation visits and English speaking officers should be available on 999. The Neighborhood Watch scheme should be improved with better faster information provided.
Only 15,000 tickets? Not enough! Should be a lot more than this. It is quite clear that from the population growth of visitors and selfish new residents that self-discipline is not there and it’s all about looking after “me” and no consideration for other people. The taxi stand outside Wellcome is continually filled with parked cars. Whereas people used to parallel park next to it and leave space for taxis to come in and out, that no longer happens. The driving manors of the city are now here to stay it seems. At the pier you get red taxis parking on the crossing. Cars parking on the zigzag lines and the police drive by and ignore it. Does it take someone to get knocked down or killed before they do anything about it? Cars at weekends continually wait by the street parking spaces causing the traffic to snarl up. Coaches should not be allowed in the town as they frequently cause traffic jams also. Why not make it delivery vehicles only at weekends? If manpower is an issue when not have traffic wardens on continual patrol?