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Road signs to identify cameras

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-24 13:47

Traffic police have to put up signs telling drivers where cameras have been installed to detect traffic rule violations, says the amended regulation of the Ministry of Public Security.

The amendment, announced on Friday, requires police to regulate the use of road cameras according to the procedures to deal with traffic violations, published in 2004.

"The use of such facilities has caused disputes because of problems like not identifying the spots where cameras have been installed," the ministry said on its website yesterday.

The ministry has launched a half-month online campaign till Dec 5 to solicit more public views on the content of the amendment.

Apart from identifying the spots, the new regulation also says traffic police cannot choose the types of roads randomly to install traffic cameras.

"Monitoring can be done to gather evidence only after it is ratified by the government departments (that are part of the road traffic administration)," the amendment says.

And video images can be considered as evidence only when local traffic administrations have gone through them within 15 days of records.

Drivers welcomed the amendment.

"Hidden road cameras have been causing problems," a cabbie in Chongqing said yesterday.

"Signs (that cameras are there) will now warn drivers not to violate traffic rules," Fu Chaoguo said.

Using recordings on hidden cameras to punish someone for traffic violations is unfair, he said.

"Sometimes we didn't know we had violated traffic rules even after days of being caught on hidden cameras," he said. In such cases fines used to be really high.

In September, a newspaper in Central China's Henan province reported that local police told a driver after checking camera recordings that he had violated traffic rules 131 times in the past two years.

The case is still under investigation.

Such a thing would not happen under the amendment regulation because traffic police will have to contact drivers within 25 days of detecting a traffic violation.

Plus, they will have to specify the maximum amount a driver will be charged if he defaults on fine payment.

The earlier regulation in 2004 said a driver would be charged 3 percent of the fine a day as late fee, but did not specify the maximum amount.

"The late fee should not exceed the fine itself," the amended regulation says, though it maintains the 3 percent daily rate.