Hong Kong Needs A Culture of Safety

Mark L. Clifford
Second Opinion
Next Magazine 2010-03-04

Amy Coxall was killed when her scarf was caught in a go-kart. To cut down on accidents like this, Hong Kong needs a new awareness of safety.

Our family's idyllic Chinese New Year's holiday at the Olympics in Whistler was shattered by the news that an Island School student had died in a go-kart accident in Tuen Mun. I got the news on an achingly beautiful alpine morning in Whistler as the best athletes in the world, only a few years older than our 15-year-old son, were getting ready to ski, as full of life as anyone can ever be.

I had to give our son the heartbreaking news that Amy Coxall, who had just appeared in a school play with him a few weeks earlier, had been killed in an altogether preventable accident when her scarf was caught up in a go-kart. It was devastating to break this news to our son and, although I don't know the Coxall family, unbearable for me as a parent to think of their pain.

Amidst the predictable finger-pointing after Amy's death there were calls for more regulation. But that simple response misses the point that, for all the talk about a caring society, we are a slipshod city that simply doesn't have a developed-world ethos when it comes to safety. The Hong Kong Kart Club overseeing Diamond Coast Go-kart Track proclaims that its mission is to"Promote safety[sic] driving via professional training for karters; Educate a correct concept of road safety and proper driving habit[sic] for the next generation;[and] Encourage participation by providing easy access for both junior and senior karters." Yet no one in Tuen Mun could keep a 15-year-old girl from wearing a scarf while taking part in a high-speed motor sport?

We have lots of regulations. What we really need is safety consciousness. Why weren't the operators trained to really enforce an ethos of safety? Why didn't they insist that people not wear scarves before operating these cars?

This horrible death got me thinking a friend of mine who was run over and killed by a bus in Central in August 2002. Juanito Ocba was on his way to church on a Sunday afternoon and, yes, he was jaywalking. But, still, to be mown down by a New World bus at the corner of Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road, one of the busiest pedestrian corners in Hong Kong on a crowded Sunday afternoon? No charges were filed against the driver and New World management never made the slightest gesture, let alone an apology, to his widow.

The killing goes on. On March 1, two more pedestrians were killed, one by a minibus and one by a taxi. How many more Hong Kong people need to die before citizens say they've had enough to a homicidal driving culture?

Thanks to the virtual ban on cars in Whistler during the Olympics, I've taken a lot of buses during the last two weeks. The safety consciousness of these drivers-- and I had bus drivers who came from places as far apart as China and Quebec-- is extraordinary, and a striking contrast to Hong Kong's kamikaze commercial drivers. Simply put, in Canada no one drives a bus in a way that's likely to run over a pedestrian in a crosswalk. In Hong Kong we have nicely painted zebra crossings framed with charming orange lights. But these are museum relics from the colonial era. Anyone who thinks these are protected pedestrian zones is brave or foolish.

For all the talk about the bankruptcy of Western values, when it comes to caring for strangers in a crowd, Hong Kong could learn something from Canada.

Our population is aging. More than ever, we'll need to watch out for the safety of people we don't know, the anonymous faces in the street who are all someone's mother or someone's son. This isn't something that comes naturally. But it can and must be taught.

Let's marry Hong Kong's can-do spirit with more care and compassion, and above all more thought on the part of everyone from go-kart track attendants to bus drivers. Let's learn from the deaths of Amy and Juanito and so many others.