The Freeway Bureau is to implement high occupancy vehicle (HOV) hours on three major freeways for the Tomb Sweeping Day weekend, which begins on Thursday next week.
Only vehicles containing at least three passengers can be operated on the freeways during the HOV hours.
The hours would be implemented on northbound lanes of the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (Freeway No. 5) from 3pm to 8pm on Sunday, the bureau said.
Photo: CNA
On Thursday next week, the HOV hours would be between 6am and noon on southbound lanes from interchanges on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) at Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) and Miaoli County’s Toufen (頭份), as well as on the southbound lanes from Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) area to Hsinchu City’s Siangshan District (香山) on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), it said.
From Friday to Sunday next week, a vehicle must contain at least two passengers on northbound lanes of Freeway No. 5 between 1pm and 6pm, it said.
Seventy A1 category traffic accidents occurred on freeways last year, resulting in 81 deaths, Freeway Bureau data showed.
A1 accidents are those that involve the death of a passenger within 24 hours of the incident.
In 25 percent of A1 accidents reported last year, a death was due to a person not wearing a seat belt.
As of last month, eight A1 accidents had been reported on freeways, killing 13 people.
Five of the deaths were the result of the victims not wearing a seat belt, the bureau said.
The bureau urged drivers and passengers to wear seat belts to avoid being thrown out of vehicles or sustaining possibly fatal injuries in major vehicle collisions.
Studies showed that the fatality rate of not wearing a seat belt is 3.6 times that of wearing one, the bureau said.
Children must ride in booster seats and use seat belts in accordance with regulations to reduce injuries in the event of an accident, it said.
The Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) stipulates that drivers can be fined NT$3,000 to NT$6,000 if the occupants in their vehicle fail to wear a seat belt as required while driving on freeways or expressways, the bureau said.
Drivers could be fined NT$1,500 to NT$3,000 if small children were not placed in a safety seat in accordance with regulations, it said.
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