Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai has conveyed a personal message to the public through Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak regarding the fatal accident in which a 10-year-old local boy died after a car knocked him down and ran him over on a zebra crossing on Wednesday night.
In his message conveyed by Wong, Sam said that he has ordered the respective law enforcement agencies to investigate and handle the case thoroughly and rigorously while also instructing the respective public entities to take all necessary measures to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again.
Wong, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, conveyed Sam’s message during the advisory council’s press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday about the completion of the government’s drafting of several bills. Wong read out Sam’s message at the start of the press conference.
The Public Security Police (PSP) arrested the car driver, a local man who is in his forties, on Wednesday night for alleged homicide by negligence. He was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Thursday morning for further investigation and questioning. According to Article 134 of the Macau Penal Code, homicide by negligence is punishable by a prison term of up to three years. In the case of gross negligence, the offender faces a prison term of up to five years.
The accident occurred on the easternmost section of Avenida do Conselheiro Borja (青洲大馬路), when the boy was walking across the zebra crossing outside a PSP station situated next to the site where the now defunct greyhound racetrack (Yat Yuen Canidrome) is located.
The police confirmed that the driver, when approaching the zebra crossing, did not slow down at all and did not give way to the boy, eventually running him over before coming to a stop.
The driver told the police that he did not notice anybody walking across the zebra crossing when he approached it.
The fatal case has unleashed an overwhelming wave of grief and anger across Macau’s civil society. Observers said that the public reaction can be regarded as being unprecedented in scale and intensity, unseen in Macau in living memory. Apart from widespread outrage among netizens on social media, many residents flocked to the pavement next to the zebra crossing on the day after the fatal accident, leaving behind an ever-growing collection of tributes. Flowers in a wide range of colours blanketed the concrete, while various toys, including dolls and teddy bears, snacks, drinks, and various other items were carefully arranged by the grieving public.
There were still residents leaving floral tributes and other items on the pavement next to the zebra crossing on Friday and Saturday. The school where the boy studied asked government municipal workers to transfer the floral tributes and items from the pavement to the nearby Kiang Wu Funeral Parlour on Saturday, according to local media reports.
The boy studied at Lin Fong Pou Chai School, located just a stone’s throw from the zebra crossing. The school is run by the adjacent Lin Fong Temple.
Reading out Sam’s message during Friday evening’s press conference, Wong quoted the chief executive as saying that the incident was “deeply distressing” and heartbreaking. He also said that Sam said in his message that he attached great importance to the accident right after it happened, after which he “immediately” ordered the Secretariat for Security to coordinate the respective public security forces to swiftly handle the situation at the scene, and to coordinate the respective law enforcement agencies in investigating and handling the case thoroughly and rigorously in accordance with the law.
According to Wong, Sam also told the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) to convey the government’s condolences and deep sympathies to the boy’s family.
Wong quoted Sam as underlining that since the accident occurred, the local government and its DSEDJ have been deeply concerned about the emotional well-being and circumstances of the boy’s family. According to Wong, Sam has coordinated the DSEDJ and the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) to make every possible effort to provide them with all necessary support, accompanying them through this difficult time.
In his message conveyed through Wong, Sam also said that he has instructed the respective public entities to vigorously take all necessary measures to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again.
According to Wong, Sam conveyed his most sincere sympathies to the boy’s family, with the earnest hope that they take the utmost care of themselves.
In the wake of Wednesday’s fatal accident on a zebra crossing, which occurred in Toi San district, members across civil society have slammed what they regard as poorly designed locations of some zebra crossings across the city. They also criticised the government’s perceived failure to advance legislation on amendments to the Road Traffic Law, the current version of which is widely perceived to lag behind the city’s urban development.
Since its enactment in 2007, the Road Traffic Law has never been amended.
During Friday’s press conference, Wong also pledged that the government is aiming to consult the public as soon as possible about its proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Law.
The legislature passed the outline of a government-initiated bill to set up a new Road Traffic Law to replace the current one during a plenary session in April 2024, after which the bill was passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review between legislators and government officials.
However, by the time the normal operation period of the previous-term legislature terminated in August last year, the government had not submitted its final draft version of the bill to the committee for final review. Consequently, the bill was then invalidated, meaning that the government – if deciding to legislate a new Road Traffic Law in the future – will have to submit a new bill to the legislature.
During Friday’s press conference, Wong said that the government initially planned to relaunch its legislative process in 2028 for a new Road Traffic Law. In the wake of the fatal accident, Wong said, Sam has instructed the government’s Secretariat for Transport and Public Works portfolio to review its schedule on the matter. The government has now decided “not to wait until 2028” to launch its legislative process for a new Road Traffic Law, Wong said.
Wong noted that during the Road Traffic Law bill’s review between the government and the legislature last year, civil society’s consensus still could not be reached on the matter so that the bill “unluckily” became a lapsed bill eventually.
Meanwhile, speaking to local media on Saturday, Ho Man Fai, principal of Lin Fong Pou Chai School, said that considering the hot weather that makes it easy for the snacks left on the fatal accident site’s pavement to go off, as well as concerning pedestrian safety, and the need for public mourning, his school had asked government municipal workers to transfer the floral tributes and other items from the pavement to the nearby Kiang Wu Funeral Parlour, following a discussion on the matter with the boy’s family.
Ho said that residents wishing to leave floral tributes and other items can visit the funeral parlour instead.
According to local media reports, Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Director Kong Chi Meng and Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) President Wilson Hon Wai went to Lin Fong Pou Chai School on Friday to meet the boy’s family. The two officials handed a sympathy letter to the family on behalf of Sam and conveyed the government’s profound condolences and deep sympathies to the bereaved family and their relatives.
Workers arrange floral tributes and other items in Kiang Wu Funeral Parlour on Saturday. After a boy was killed by a car on a zebra crossing on Avenida do Conselheiro Borja on Wednesday night last week, numerous residents left floral tributes and other items on the pavement next to the zebra crossing, before they were relocated to the funeral parlour by municipal workers on Saturday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
