Lectures, exhibitions, and online discussions marked China’s first national day for for road safety yesterday. (“The timing was based on the date Dec. 2 for its appearance as ’122,’ the telephone number for reporting road accidents in China,” says Xinhua.) In particular, the focus was on not running red lights, which reports have said have “claimed 798 lives in the first 10 months of 2012.” (Only 798?) But China could use help in almost every area in road safety, as this story via The Nanfang shows:
A cyclist was run over by a car in Shenzhen’s Longhua New Zone last Thursday (November 29) and dragged by the vehicle’s undercarriage for 3 miles before the driver finally stopped after hitting a truck. The cyclist died but it is not yet known whether he died instantly, according to Hebei Satellite Television.
The driver turned himself in, but “traffic police said there is no way he could have been unaware of the collision and he was at least guilty of a hit and run offense as he tried to flee to Shantou after the accident.”
Ministry of Public Security stats show 70,000 people die and 300,000 others are injured in road accidents in China every year.
What a cry baby… getting caught is hard to handle I guess.