A driver's license regulation that imposes harsher punishments for drunk driving and running red lights conforms to both national road traffic conditions and a decade-long road safety campaign initiated by the United Nations (UN).

China has the world's second-largest number of cars currently in use, and a great number of traffic deaths each year. Official figures show that 62,387 people died in road accidents in 2011, or a daily average of 170 deaths.

Although the number of accidents has seen a downward trend in recent years, 20 million new drivers hit the roads each year, raising concerns about more accidents in the future.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) show that speeding, traffic light violations and drunk driving are among the top causes of road accident deaths.

Under the regulation, drivers of large- and medium-sized buses and trucks will be stripped of their licenses for life if they are found guilty of drinking and driving.

In addition, failure to yield to school buses and ignoring traffic lights will result in six penalty points on a person's driver's license. Drivers who have received 12 or more penalty points in one year have to report to the police, attend a seven-day training session and take a written exam.

Although the regulation has sparked debate due to its harshness, most people agree with the provisions included in it.

An MPS survey found that 70.9 percent of respondents support increasing penalties for drivers who ignore traffic lights. More than 82 percent agreed with issuing heavy penalties for drivers who cover up their license plates to prevent them from being seen.

Past experiences have proven that harsher punishments will work. Since drunk driving was criminalized in May last year, drunk driving cases have slumped 44.1 percent year on year across the country as of April 20 this year.

The new regulation has been well received online, with some netizens complaining that the law should have been updated ages ago.

"Violators should be punished heavily. The regulation needed to be revised a long time ago," netizen "weifengshan" wrote on netease.com, a popular Internet portal.

The regulation was released on Oct. 8, the first day after the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, which saw 794 people killed in traffic accidents. Although the figure showed a remarkable drop compared with the same period last year, it was still alarming.

The provisions regarding school bus drivers will take effect immediately, while the rest will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

According to a three-day training session on the regulation that concluded on Thursday, the MPS will launch a campaign to replace traffic lights that are not up to standard. It will also make efforts to spread traffic lights and monitoring devices to all crossings and intersections that entail them.

The move will be a positive step taken by authorities to pave the way for the implementation of the regulation.

When looked at from an international perspective, the revised regulation also corresponds to global trends regarding the handling of road accidents.

Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of death, killing nearly 1.3 million people annually, according to early data from the Global Status Report on Road Safety, which is set to be released by the World Health Organization (WHO) this year.

In order to halt or reverse the increasing number of road traffic deaths and injuries around the world, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare 2011-2020 the "Decade of Action for Road Safety."

The revised regulation will contribute to global efforts to reduce traffic deaths if it is able to reduce them in China.

In this sense, it can be said that a country with safer roads will benefit not only the 1.3 billion people living in it, but also the world as a whole.

Of cause, a regulation is just a regulation. Safe roads entail efforts from both traffic management authorities and each and every person on the country's roads.

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