A VISUALLY impaired resident was injured twice by the advertising boards that hang above the blind tracks near Shenzhen North Railway Station last week, arousing concerns about the safety of visually disadvantaged pedestrians, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

The resident, surnamed Liu, lives in Longhua District and takes a bus to Shenzhen North Railway Station daily, where he transfers to the Metro to go to his workplace. “There is a blind track from the bus station to the Metro. I’ve been taking this track for a couple of years, but it turned out to be unsafe last week,” Liu said.

Liu said he bumped his head on something, which made him so scared that he threw away his white cane. A security guard told him that he had hit an advertising board that hangs above the blind track. “I encounter obstacles on the ground now and then, which I can manage with my blind cane. But if there is something hanging above, it’s impossible for me to avoid it,” he said.

Having had the unhappy experience, Liu was more careful when passing by the same place the next day. “I walked slowly, and I waved my blind cane in the air to detect any obstacles, but I ended up having an even worse accident,” said Liu. The same board hit him again on the head. His forehead was grazed because of the metal edges of the board.

The advertising board that injured Liu is in the square in front of the Bingo Space Shopping Center near the railway station. There are two advertising boards on both sides of each lamp post, and each board is about 1.7 meters from the ground.

Five of the eight pairs of boards were placed above the blind tracks. When walking on the blind tracks, it is almost inevitable that you will bump a board with your head. The boards have metal frames, which makes them extremely dangerous for people like Liu.

It was reported that the boards were set up by the Minzhi Subdistrict Office to promote the establishment of a civil city. The office said Tuesday that they would take down the boards as soon as possible.

(Zhang Yang, Christina Su)