So the taxi drops you at Sham Shui Po market and the guy's got his eyes closed the whole ride. Not blinking-tired closed. Properly asleep, head lolling, foot still on the gas. A passenger got two photos of it this week and put them online, and now everyone's asking the obvious question: how many of these guys are out there right now, half-conked, doing forty on Nathan Road?

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud. Hong Kong has about 18,000 taxi licences, and that number hasn't moved in years while the drivers behind the wheel have gotten older and older, because young guys don't want the job, the hours are brutal, and a licence plate itself trades for more than most flats round here. So you get retirees doing overnight shifts to make the mortgage on a medallion, and a government that spent all its energy this year threatening to crack down on ride-hail apps and undocumented drivers, not on whether the men holding the actual licences can stay awake. Nice priorities. Protect the asset, worry about the passenger later. If Transport is serious about safety, the next enforcement blitz should be checking driver fatigue and hours, not just chasing Uber.