Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A5

September 14, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro » Society

Cameras catch out thousands of drivers not wearing seat belts

By Chen Huizhi | September 14, 2016, Wednesday | Print Edition

SHANGHAI’S 70 specially configured traffic surveillance cameras have caught about 3,500 drivers not using their seat belts since July and 350 motorists using mobile phones while driving since August, police said yesterday.

While the daily number of such offenses is falling, police vowed to keep up the momentum of cracking down on such behavior by stepping up patrols of traffic police officers.

From 9:30am to 10:30am yesterday, police fined four drivers for not wearing seat belts and three others for using mobile phones in the downtown sections of the South-North Elevated Road.

A driver surnamed Liu who was caught holding a mobile phone said he had not realized that the police officers passing him were looking out for such offenses. “Had I known, I would definitely not have picked up the phone,” he said, adding that he “rarely” forgot to use hands-free equipment.

Ji Mingzhe, a police officer participating in the crackdown yesterday, said it was easier for officers on mopeds to catch drivers red-handed because they could navigate the traffic more easily. “Recently more and more drivers are showing an understanding attitude when stopped for the offenses than a few months back, but obviously many are still not quite aware of the potential danger of such bad driving behavior,” he said.

Police said using phones to browse web pages or social network sites when driving was also considered an offense as was using phones when stopping at traffic lights.

Drivers who park on the zebra lines on elevated roads to make phone calls would not be fined, police said, but they would be asked to drive off immediately because the zebras lines were reserved for emergency situations such as breakdowns.

Motorists using phones while driving are fined 200 yuan (US$30) with two demerits on their licenses, while those who drive without using seat belts are fined 50 yuan and if the offense takes place on an elevated road, two demerits too.

Police said they would gradually increase the number of traffic surveillance cameras that could capture these types of offenses.

Members of the city’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress yesterday discussed the new draft of the amendment bill for the Shanghai Road and Traffic Management Regulation, and said they would continue to look for more and better solutions for improving the city’s traffic management.

Society


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend