A tourist coach crashed into a motorcycle at traffic lights at the junction of Rua do Almirante Sérgio and Travessa do Dr Lourenço Pereira Marques in the Inner Harbour area at about 9 a.m. on Saturday, causing two injuries, according to a Public Security Police (PSP) statement.
The statement said that the tourist coach driver, suspected of not having seen the traffic lights as they were obscured by a large public bus, ran a red light and crashed into the motorbike coming from the left after he had failed, according to the PSP statement, to see the traffic lights on the left and the junction ahead of him.
The statement added that the accident caused minor injuries to the male rider and female pillion of the motorcycle, who were then admitted to the private Kiang Wu Hospital for outpatient treatment.
The alcohol concentrations of both the driver and the rider were zero grammes of alcohol per litre of blood, the statement noted.
The coach driver has been fined in line with the city’s Road Traffic Law, the statement underlined.
Incidentally, there was another traffic accident that occurred at the same junction last Monday, in which a police vehicle collided with a motorbike after running a red light as the driver was unable to see the traffic lights. The rider sustained minor injuries.
Civic leader urges govt to review road traffic regulations in old quarters
In consideration of the two accidents that happened in a week due to the drivers “having been unable to see the traffic lights”, The Macau Post Daily interviewed Transport Consultative Council member Chester Ku Heng Cheong, who pointed out via WhatsApp yesterday that due to the terrain, Rua do Almirante Sérgio in the direction towards the Ponte 16 casino-hotel has many traffic lights set rather close to old tenement buildings and, therefore, when a large bus or some other large vehicles drive past, other drivers may indeed be obstructed from seeing the traffic lights there.
Ku, deputy executive director of the Macau New Chinese Youth Association, urged the government to review the city’s road traffic regulations, which state that Macau’s traffic signals should be installed at least two to three and a half metres above the road surface. As most large vehicles are about two and a half metres in height, they may easily affect other vehicle drivers if the traffic lights are set to the lowest limit of just two metres above the road surface, Ku said.
Ku also urged the government to take reference from neighbouring cities to install overhead traffic lights in the city’s old districts that have many old tenement buildings, adding that in some cities, there are even indicator lights on the ground, i.e., when the red lights are reflected towards the ground, the indicator lights may be illuminated red, making it easier for drivers and riders to see the signal.
This photo taken last night shows the junction of Rua do Almirante Sérgio and Travessa do Dr. Lourenço Pereira Marques, where two accidents occurred in one week, in the Inner Harbour area. – Photo: Yuki Lei
