Phoning while driving may become a crime

Police in Shanghai and Hangzhou have recently begun ticketing drivers for using their cell phones while driving. In fact, in this year’s National People’s Congress, some representatives controversially proposed making mobile phone use during driving a crime.

Zhou Hongyu, a National people’s Congress deputy, together with another 20 representatives, proposed that such behavior should be considered the crime of dangerous driving.

Zhou said that many countries around the world have increased the degree of punishment for using a phone while driving. Apart from regular fines and points against their licence, repeat violators in other countries are considered serious offenders and may even be sent to jail.

Some netizens supported the proposal saying that simply applying a license point system is not deterrent enough and won’t end the problem. So tougher penalties are needed.

But others Internet users think that more extreme legal punishment isn’t practical and may lead to difficulty in collecting evidence so that regulations could possibly become unenforceable. In that event, the authority of law would be damaged.

According to China’s road and transport safety regulations and provisions pertaining to motor vehicle driving licenses, in case of unsafe driving such as using a telephone, drivers can be fined 200 yuan(30 USD) and have two points recorded against their driving record.

People might wonder why such a phenomenon still exists, even though there are already definite legal provisions against it.

Over the past ten years, with the increasing number of private cars and mobile phones, talking on a phone while driving is becoming increasingly widespread.

But in reality, due to a shortage of personnel in police departments and electronic monitoring, the improper behavior can’t be corrected any time soon.