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Stoning cars reflects official negligence

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-16 07:51

The incident of an elderly man throwing stones at cars jumping red lights reflects the dereliction of duties on the part of some government officials, says an article in Jinan Daily. Excerpt:

The stoning of about 30 cars that jumped red lights by a senior citizen in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, has hit headlines. The act of jumping red lights is fraught with risks not only for pedestrians, but also for the driver doing so. But many drivers seem to forget this fact.

Most of the netizens support the senior citizen for his valor, according to surveys conducted by some websites. They believe drivers who jump red lights play with human life, and hence deserve to be punished. Red-light violation has become such a problem that a section of the public now sees stoning of cars as a rightful act.

If the situation has come to such a pass, it's likely that more conflicts between pedestrians and drivers will take place. Though unpleasant, it is true that when individual violence is believed to represent the interest of a group, people come to acknowledge it as something good irrespective of how extreme it may be. People living or carrying on business near crossings where drivers are prone to jump red lights seem to agree more with the senior citizen's act. What makes drivers prone to jump red lights at such crossings is the absence of surveillance cameras.

The senior citizen in Lanzhou tried an unlawful means to teach traffic offenders a lesson. But he was driven to such a state because some officials didn't do their job properly. A citizen has to follow the laws and regulations of his country, and find a lawful way to solve a problem. And only the government has the right to punish violators.

But all the same, the government should reflect on the issue. Drivers jumping red lights would not have caused so much public anger if the government had not overlooked traffic safety issues for a long time. The government has to prevent such situations from snowballing into conflicts between different groups and leading to social instability.

(China Daily 07/16/2009 page9)