All involved liable for violations by official cars

A GOVERNMENT-OWNED CAR in Xinxiang, in Central China's Henan province, came top of a list of 200 local automobiles that repeatedly broke the traffic rules. The driver committed 784 traffic rule violations before being punished. The Xinxiang official in charge said the driver had already been dismissed and he apologized to the higher authorities. Comments:

The car's bad record involves at least 120,000 yuan ($18,923) in fines. Who will pay the fines? In many similar cases, the government paid with taxpayers' money, which is a debatable practice because the driver committed the illegal deeds. More legislation is needed so that taxpayers no longer pay for the misdeeds of government officials and their drivers.

rednet.cn, Oct 25