Beware of fast and furious way to disaster
- By Li Yang
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E-mail China Daily, April 15, 2015
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A green Lamborghini lies in pieces with debris scattered about after an accident in a tunnel on Datun Road near the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, April 12, 2015. [Photo/Sina Weibo] |
As the seventh stunt-filled Fast and Furious opened in Beijing, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, driven by "unemployed" youths, crashed in a tunnel near the Bird's Nest late on Saturday night.
Both the luxury cars suffered extensive damage, and traffic police said a young woman on the front seat of the Lamborghini was injured. The two drivers, one 20 and the other 21 years old, escaped unhurt.
On Monday, police booked the two "jobless" youths for speeding (driving at about 160 kilometers an hour) and detained them for dangerous driving. Earlier, the two youths had denied they were racing, saying they didn't even know each other.
Had there been other cars near the crash site, the consequences could have been disastrous, because the two cars were traveling at very high speeds.
A study conducted by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences shows that nearly four people are killed in road accidents in Beijing every day, with speeding vehicles being the biggest killers.
The death ratio per 10,000 people in traffic accidents in Beijing is about five times that of Tokyo.
Beijing has the most sophisticated traffic monitoring system in China when it comes to getting evidence against suspected violators of traffic rules and laws.
But the punishment the city's car racing freaks get for violating traffic laws — mostly fines or deduction of points from their driving licenses — is too light to act as deterrent against future violations.
It is not strict enough to deter potential violators either. And so the dangerous activities continue.
Car racing in city areas is a direct threat to public safety, and people who indulge in such dangerous activities should be investigated, tried and punished according to the law.
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