Chris Tang: motorists beware of "crash-for-cash" traffic scams

The government has decided to remove legal provisions on the seatbelt mandate, targeting public bus passengers.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang says while the police would not enforce the seatbelt law for now, the force would handle acts of damaging seatbelts on buses "seriously."

The new legal provisions mandating bus passengers to wear seatbelts will be removed less than a week after coming into force after the government cited shortcomings in the law.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang reiterates the police would not enforce the law through the period before the provisions are taken off.

The security chief, however, says the city saw at least two suspected cases of deliberately damaged seatbelts over the past week -- which he says -- would be dealt with "seriously."

Speaking on a radio programme, Tang stresses acts such as cutting up seatbelts are criminal offenses and have serious impacts on society as they "challenge the system," and are "anti-social behaviours."

He says wearing seatbelts could help "save lives" and calls on the public to continue wearing them, and the government will improve the legislation after collecting public opinions.

Tang also flags the surge of a new type of "crash-for-cash" fraud in Hong Kong.

In the new playbook, fraudsters pretend they were injured in alleged vehicle accidents and extort money from victims.

He notes that more than 70 related cases are under investigations.

Describing the tactics, Tang says these scammers would drive around with dashcams on to capture other motorists crossing the double white lines.

They would then report the case to the police.

After that, the fraudsters monitor the cases patiently.

Once the drivers pay the traffic fine, they step forward, claiming they were the vehicle behind and were forced to brake suddenly because of the cut-in.

They then allege they suffered whiplash-type neck injuries and psychological trauma, demanding thousands of dollars in compensation.

In one case, a claimant alleged 20 separate neck injuries, which is highly implausible -- as "normally, people won't be that unlucky," Tang says.