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Jump in accidents makes driver exam harder
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-25 02:40
Mounting numbers of traffic acci-dents and the increasing number of vehicles
on the road have prompted China to elevate the standards needed to obtain a
driver licence.
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mans shows a fingerprinting device used in an An'hui driving school to
prevent cheating in learning course.
[newsphoto] | Training hours are expected to be
expanded while additional attention will be given to safety awareness, according
to new guidelines on training unveiled by the Ministry of Communications
yesterday.
The new rules will go into force at driving training schools nationwide next
month.
The guidelines will help would-be drivers more easily acquire driving skills
but make it more difficult to pass examinations. That is until the students are
really equipped with sufficient safety knowledge, Zhang Jianfei, director of the
ministry's Department of Highways, said at a press conference yesterday.
Road accidents in China killed more than 107,000 people last year, an
increase of almost 2 per cent from the previous year, according to ministry
statistics.
"Around 89.8 per cent of the accidents were the drivers' faults," said Zhang.
Reckless driving tops the list of the factors leading to traffic accidents,
followed by poor road conditions and overloaded vehicles, Zhang said.
He drew an analogy between the damage of traffic accidents and "the
ruthlessness of tigers," saying the surging accident rates year-on-year have
become a hard nut to crack.
"The poor safety awareness and inadequate knowledge about traffic safety for
some drivers have become key problems to be addressed to reduce accidents,"
Zhang said.
The country's economic boom has meant a surge in the number of people who own
cars and who are obtaining driver licenses.
By the end of last year, China boasted about 30 million vehicles, among
which, the proportion of private cars exceeded more than 50 per cent.
In the meantime, around 5.1 million new drivers were trained last year.
Hearing about the publication of the guidelines, a taxi driver in Beijing
said it might help reduce the number of accidents considering some people
disregard traffic regulations during driving.
"Most of the accidents are caused by drivers' speeding or overtaking
recklessly, leaving safety behind their ears," said Luo Shuihe from the Yinjian
Taxi Company.
China aims to lower the growth rate of deaths from road accidents by 1.5 per
cent this year.
Besides promoting the new guidelines for driver training nationwide, the
ministry will continue the safety project starting from last year, Zhang said.
"We plan to renovate a total of 88,000 unsafe road sections in addition to
1,091 bridges that might cause traffic accidents," he said.
(China Daily 02/25/2005 page2)
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