Time to drive home road safety message
China Daily  Updated: 2005-11-18 06:22

Briefing the press yesterday morning on security conditions in the third quarter, the Ministry of Public Security voiced a concern seldom heard before.

It was not about criminal offences, the predominant focus and priority for police authorities, but something else.

Thanks in part to the pressure from "severe crackdowns," the number of crimes and lesser offences handled by the country's public security apparatus from July to September was by and large what it had been during the previous two. There were even slight drops in some areas, according to the ministry.

The overall pattern of daily threats to civic life remains basically unchanged, with the conspicuous exception of traffic accidents.

No exact numbers were given to describe the third quarter scenario. But since the beginning of October, there have been nine major traffic accidents killing 10 people or more. That is a 50 per cent rise from the same period last year.

Two of them occurred this week.

Early Monday morning in Shanxi Province, a truck smashed into a group of students jogging on a road near their school, killing 21 and injuring 16.

The very next day in Guizhou Province, a bus overturned leaving 17 dead and three wounded.

Those two tragedies made headlines across the country.

With the personal involvement of Premier Wen Jiabao, a high-profile campaign for traffic safety is about to begin nationwide.

The Ministry of Public Security convened an emergency teleconference on Wednesday afternoon, ordering all-round precautions against major traffic accidents.

That was an imperative measure because the fourth quarter of the year always poses severe traffic safety challenges due to increased human mobility and cargo transport, according to police statistics.

The Public Security Ministry published 20 safety guarantees yesterday for a 100-day period that will run from Sunday until March 1, covering the entire peak season for passenger and cargo transport, including the Spring Festival.

We hope they will work as expected.

As a police spokesman revealed yesterday, overloading, speeding, tiredness and drink-driving are the main killers on our roads.

Previous statistics showed vehicle mechanical failures accounted for less than 5 per cent of all traffic accidents in this country. Almost all the rest were the result of violation of traffic rules by drivers and pedestrians.

The Public Security Ministry spokesman said the size of our annual loss of life to traffic accidents far exceeds that of modern warfare.

He was not being sensational. The toll is heavier than in most recent armed conflicts.

Most regrettably, this is a war against ourselves.

It is evident from the figures that most auto accidents are the outcome of human misconduct or more specifically, neglect of rules.

This nation seems to have become lost in an endless dispute as to who warrants greater blame for the mess the drivers, or the pedestrians.

The angry accusations from both sides have to some extent prevented many local governments from working out, or properly executing, sensible codes of conduct on the roads.

The Public Security Ministry spokesman did not conceal his institution's belief in what they call "harsh management and severe punishment."

That does not sound friendly, but it could well be the most effective recipe for now, considering the prevailing contempt for the rules of the road.

Fairness of the punishments aside, an important question emerges will every rule breaker receive punishment commensurate with his or her crime?

(China Daily 11/18/2005 page4)

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