A cry for safer roads

BEIJING, May 16 -- The death of 25-year-old Tan Zhuo,
crushed by a speeding sports car in the hands of a 20-year-old college student
Hu Bin in Hangzhou, is arguably the most high-profile road accident in recent
times.

Hangzhou police claim the car was speeding at 70kph,
but eyewitnesses, who saw the victim thrown meters away from the impact, differ.


The accident caused such a public outrage that
T-shirts with "70mph" written on them are being sold in Hangzhou shops to mark
their protest.

However, local police made a new announcement
confirming that the modified sports car was running between "84.1 to 101.2 kph"
based on a report made by forensic experts across the country.

The new figures sound more likely, but the reason why
the local police gave a different one in the beginning needs to be found out.

On Thursday afternoon, a speeding BMW knocked down a
40-something woman at a crosswalk on the bustling Huaihai Road in downtown
Shanghai, tossing her more than 2 meters in the air.

Information from the Shanghai Traffic Safety Database
shows that the BMW has been recorded for speeding 13 times in the past.

Resentment for the rich and powerful is now at its
peak among a big group of the Chinese population. That's why the attention.

These cases are only two among several hundreds
horrible road accidents that take place on Chinese streets every day.

Each year, some 100,000 Chinese die in traffic
accidents in the country - 274 deaths a day.

Like the two victims who were both killed on
crosswalks, crossing a street in cities like Shanghai could indeed be a life
threatening experience, with most drivers paying no heed to pedestrians while
making turns.

Driving under influence (DUI) is also a common
practice for many Chinese. In many cities, police checkpoints for DUI are only
set up for a month in a year or even two weeks. These occasional crackdown
campaigns are like typhoons, they go as fast as they come.

Penalties for traffic violations, which pose a direct
threat to people's lives, are way too lenient. The convoy of Hongkongers
speeding their Ferraris and Subarus in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, were fined
only 200 yuan each. One of them, driving a Ferrari, obviously took the
expressway for a Formula One circuit, cruising at 203 kph.

Randomly changing lanes, carelessly overtaking and
talking on cell phones on the expressway the list of our dangerous driving
habits is too long.

The two high-profile cases make it urgent for the
public to demand some action to make our streets safer.

(Source: China Daly)