Guangdong traffic police will deploy helicopters to monitor traffic on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway in a special campaign to reduce traffic accidents and maintain smooth traffic flow.

The campaign, which started yesterday and will carry on until February 28, 2006, will focus on illegal parking, speeding, overloading and other traffic violations.

Police said the copters will patrol along the expressway and the Guangzhou-Foshan expressway, monitoring the traffic flow, and recording traffic violations. Policemen on board the choppers will photograph speeding vehicles and use loudspeakers to warn delinquent drivers.

The choppers will also be commissioned for rescue work or traffic congestion relief when major accidents or emergencies occur. The two freeways are notorious for traffic accidents.

To curb the traffic accidents along the expressways, the provincial traffic police will inspect buses at the Guangdan and Tongle tollgates to check buses. Overloading is a perennial problem during the peak travel period around the Spring Festival.

Heavy traffic flow has plagued the expressways for years, and is expected to worsen during the upcoming travel peak.

(Shenzhen Daily December 14, 2005)