Hong Kong rolls back public transit seatbelt rule just five days after launch

Well, that didn’t last long: A controversial mandatory seatbelt provision that the Hong Kong government introduced on January 25 has been repealed just five days after it came into effect. On January 30, the secretary for transport and logistics, Mable Chan, announced at a press conference that the legal provisions mandating bus passengers to wear seatbelts would be removed, following technical deficiencies in the legal language.

Under the short-lived law, passengers who did not wear a seatbelt on buses would face a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to three months of imprisonment. However, the provision’s wording caused confusion and, following consultations with the Department of Justice, it was acknowledged that the legal clause did not accurately reflect the policy’s intent of requiring all passengers on buses to wear seatbelts where available. It was pointed out that the provision seemed only to apply to new buses registered after the law came into effect; passengers riding on older buses did not face the same requirement.

Not long after the new seatbelt regulation came into effect, it already met its first obstacle. On January 29, Citybus filed a police report following an incident in which a passenger aboard its 795X route service was trapped in their seat for over 45 minutes, being unable to unfasten a seatbelt buckle that had been tampered with. More than a dozen firefighters were on the scene to assist, in addition to four paramedics, an ambulance, and three firetrucks. Eventually, the passenger was rescued, and sent to Caritas Medical Centre. It’s possible that the recent Citybus incident, alongside an onslaught of public criticism levelled at the public transit seatbelt law, led to its swift repealing on January 30.

For now, as the Hong Kong government prepares to roll back the ill-fated seatbelt provision, there is no statutory requirement mandating that bus passengers must wear seatbelts. Wearing seatbelts in private cars, taxis, vans, trucks, minibuses, and other vehicles where it’s a must remain unchanged. However, the government continues to encourage citizens to get into the habit of wearing a seatbelt on franchised or non-franchised buses wherever possible. In other words, the choice is yours.

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