S'pore to launch speed crackdown

S'pore to launch speed crackdown

SINGAPORE (DPA): While traffic gridlock slowly paralyzes East Asia's big cities from Taipei to Jakarta, Singapore has been lucky or clever enough to keep cars humming along its streets and highways quickly -- perhaps too quickly.

Speeding is the major cause of traffic fatalities in the island city-state, responsible for nearly half of its 214 road deaths in 1996, police said in a report released yesterday.

The police plan to launch a major public education programme in May aimed at getting Singapore's well-heeled drivers to ease off on the gas pedal, television news reports said.

Singapore is well known for its public-awareness campaigns, which in the past have included drivers pushing people to smile more, be more courteous and speak more Mandarin Chinese.