All passengers travelling by vehicle — public or private — on the city’s streets are required to buckle up from Sunday, when a stringent new seat belt rule comes into effect in Hong Kong.
Those who fail to comply face a HK$5,000 fine ($640) and up to three months in jail.
The amended regulation also places responsibility on drivers to ensure that children are belted in; any driver found to have an unrestrained child under the age of 15 in their vehicle faces a HK$2,000 fine.
From Jan 25, all newly registered public and private vehicles — even specialized vehicles like mobile cranes or street sweepers — must have a seat belt installed for each passenger seat.
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The city’s school bus operators have been given until Dec 31, 2028, to retrofit all older vehicles with seat belts.
Buses operating as part of the city’s franchised bus network are already partially compliant, officials said earlier this month, with new buses procured since mid-2018 coming equipped with seat belts on all seats.
Combined with a government-backed initiative to retrofit older double-deckers, around 3,500 franchised buses — or about 60 percent of Hong Kong’s total fleet — now have seat belts installed.
As the city’s second-most patronized public transport service, franchised buses carried over 3.7 million passengers daily in 2024.
Major operators Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) and Citybus told the media they have provided internal guidelines to drivers on the new rule and will intensify reminders via platform display screens, their enhanced bus announcement systems and service information panels on board to urge passengers to strap in.
KMB said if a passenger reports a fellow passenger for not wearing a seat belt, the driver will issue a general reminder via the public address system; and if a seat belt is found to be faulty, the driver will advise the passenger to change seats and log the problem for the attention of the company’s maintenance team.
Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com
