A TOTAL of 107 motorists involved in minor traffic accidents have each been fined 500 yuan (US$75) for failing to move their vehicles to the roadside and causing traffic jams over the past two weeks, traffic police said.
Since the new penalties for minor traffic accidents causing traffic jams came into effect Nov. 16, the number of traffic jams caused by car accidents had fallen by at least 30 percent, yesterday s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
According to traffic police, the city had received 24,422 reports of minor accidents from Nov. 16 to Dec. 1 and 107 drivers were fined for causing traffic jams, which meant that only four drivers involved in 1,000 accidents had failed to move their vehicles in time and caused traffic jams.
In the past two weeks, the percentage of cars leaving accident scenes within 10 minutes had increased by more than 34 percent compared with the same period before the new rule was implemented, particularly during rush hours and on busy streets such as Huanggang Road, Xiangmihu Road and Hongli Road, traffic police said.
According to official statistics, the number of reports of traffic jams from Nov. 16 to Dec. 1 has decreased by 26.7 percent compared with the first two weeks of November, while a total of 117 traffic jams were caused by serious accidents during the same period, a decrease of 47.6 percent over the first two weeks of November.
The three traffic accident insurance claim offices in Yinhu, Yueliangwan and Luofang had dealt with 1,227 cases from Nov. 16 to Dec. 1, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year. Only 12 drivers did not submit claims on time. Three of these were investigated by traffic police. (Wang Yuanyuan)
