Road Traffic Safety Law Research Articles

Exploring General Personal Tort Issues Between Spouses in China A Perspective on Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents

With the increasing awareness of individual rights and independence, there is a growing popularity in the concept of citizens personal independence. Consequently, general personal tort disputes between spouses are on the rise, with motor vehicle traffic accidents serving as a typical example. This article explores the general personal tort liability between husbands and wives in China from this perspective. Using the fundamental logic of "problem identification, analysis, and solution finding," it compiles general personal tort cases between spouses in motor vehicle traffic accidents from recent years, examines the current state of domestic and international research, and presents judicial controversies regarding the application of the law, the determination of tort liability, and the realization of damages in such cases. The primary research methods employed are case analysis, literature research, and comparative analysis. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that previous judgments, legal improvements, and traditional views have influenced the application of the law. The determination of tort liability has not yet established a unified standard, and the property system of husbands and wives poses an obstacle to the realization of damages, which is the primary reason for differing judgments in similar cases. Consequently, it is recommended that the application of the law follow the sequence of the Road Traffic Safety Law, Tort Liability section, Personality Rights section, and General Provisions section to determine whether it constitutes general personal tort liability between spouses in motor vehicle traffic accidents in China. Additionally, clarifying the existing legal norms of matrimonial property can eliminate certain obstacles to realizing damages. The objective of this article is to provide practical guidance for judicial practice, ensure that remedies for the rights of the tortfeasor are achievable, and enrich theoretical research outcomes.

Forensic Identification of a Traffic Accident Caused by Epilepsy: A Case Report

Epileptic seizures have typical characteristics including the sudden arrest of movement and being transient and self-limiting, which will lead to corresponding restrictions on daily related behaviors and career choices of those with epilepsy, such as whether a driving license is revoked or its issuance is limited. In China, the patient of epilepsy is absolutely cannot drive a vehicle, this also is a content that of Road Traffic Safety Law of our country. In many U.S. states, a person must be seize-free for six months to a year to get a driver's license. In the UK, patients need to be symptom-free for at least a year before they can apply for a driving licence. Japan for epilepsy patients to apply for a driver's license requires drug control without disease for two years. So, the definition of epilepsy is crucial for drivers. In order to find out the root cause of the accident, this paper is committed to determining whether the driver had seizures that led to a severe traffic accident. The concept, diagnostic criteria, diagnostic elements, clinical classification and imaging results associated with epilepsy can be used to make a preliminary diagnosis of epileptic seizures. The onset of the disease plays a decisive role in judging the nature of traffic accidents.

Research on Safe Following Distance on an Expressway Based on Braking Process Analysis

As an important part of the vehicle active collision avoidance system, improvement of the minimum safe following distance model has aroused the interest of researchers at home and abroad. According to the characteristics of the safe driving of vehicles on expressways, the braking process of vehicles is analyzed using the principle of kinematics. According to the requirements of the safe following distance between vehicles, the safe following distance of different braking system structures, different following states, different speeds and different slope sections on expressways is quantitatively analyzed. Three different safe following distance calculation methods based on braking deceleration under different slope conditions are established. Matlab software was used for simulation analysis. The simulation results show that the calculation method of the safe following distance meets the requirements of keeping safe distance in the Implementation Regulations of Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China and provides a more specific reference basis for speed limit used on expressways. This study provides a theoretical basis for the application and interpretation of the parking sight distance value stipulated in the Design Specification for Highway Alignment, and has certain practical guiding significance for improving the density and transportation efficiency of expressway vehicles and reducing the incidence of rear-end traffic accidents.

Multi-Criterion Spatial Optimization of Future Police Stations Based on Urban Expansion and Criminal Behavior Characteristics

Lanzhou’s rapid development has raised new security challenges, and improving public safety in areas under the jurisdiction of police stations is an effective way to address the problem of public security in urban areas. Unfortunately, the existing studies do not consider how factors such as future land changes, building functions, and characteristics of criminal behavior influence the choice of areas for police stations and the optimization of police stations with respect to traffic congestion. To solve these problems, we apply multiple methods and multi-source geospatial data to optimize police station locations. The proposed method incorporates a big data perspective, which provides new ideas and technical approaches to site selection models. First, we use the central city of Lanzhou as the study area and erase the exclusion areas from the initial layer to identify the undeveloped areas. Second, historical crime data, point of interest, and other data are combined to assess the potential crime risk. We then use the analytic hierarchy process to comprehensively assess undeveloped areas based on potential crime hotspots and on socioeconomic drivers and orography. In addition, according to China’s Road Traffic Safety Law and the current traffic congestion in the city, a minimum speed is determined, so that the target area can be reached in time even in congested traffic. Finally, we draw the spatial coverage map of police stations based on the location-allocation model and network analysis and optimize the map by considering the coverage rate of high-risk areas and building construction, in addition to maintenance and other objectives. The result shows that crime concentrates mainly in densely populated areas, indicating that people and wealth are the main drivers of crime. The differences in the spatial distribution of crime hotspots and residential areas at different spatial scales mean that the ratio of public security police force to household police force allocated to different police stations is spatially nonuniform. The method proposed herein reduces the overlap of police station service areas by 22.8% and increases the area coverage (12.01%) and demand point coverage (7.25%). The area coverage means an area potentially accessible within five minutes, and point coverage implies an effective drive. Within reasonable optimization, this allows us to eventually remove 13 existing police stations and add 24 candidate police stations.

Revised road traffic safety law and years of life lost due to traffic deaths in China, 2002–2019

Legal intervention is a powerful tool to reduce road traffic injuries (RTIs). China amended the Road Traffic Safety Law in 2011, but the impact of amended law on traffic crash deaths is still unknown. In this study, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis and examined years of life lost (YLLs) per 100,000 population as the assessment indicator to evaluate the association of road traffic safety law and traffic crash mortality. Annual YLLs data due to traffic deaths from 2002 to 2019 in China were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019. After implementation of the revised law, the average level of total YLLs per 100,000 population due to traffic deaths decreased from 1133.14 to 848.87, and the slope of annual YLLs per 100,000 population decreased by 30.11 (95% CI: 22.46, 37.75), indicating a steeper downward trend. The revised traffic law was associated with YLLs reduction due to traffic deaths for males, females, all age groups, pedestrians, motor vehicle users, and other road users, as well as traffic deaths attributed to alcohol use and tobacco use. These findings suggested that the revised Road Traffic Safety Law improved road safety by decreasing YLLs due to traffic deaths in China. However, the burden of RTIs is still heavy and efforts to further improve traffic laws and the adoption of other interventions are urgently needed.

Deadlier road accidents? Traffic safety regulations and heterogeneous motorists’ behavior

In 2003, China enacted the Road Traffic Safety Law in an attempt to promote traffic safety. We employ a difference-in-differences strategy on province level data, where fire accidents are used as a control group for road accidents, to estimate the effects of the law on road accidents and casualties. Our findings suggest that while the law was successful in decreasing the number of accidents and casualties, the ratio of deaths to accidents and injuries to accidents increased. Exploring the potential channels, we find no evidence that “hit-and-kill” incentives, that is, incentives for motorists to kill the pedestrians that they hit due to China's peculiar personal injury compensation rules, drive the increase in death to accident ratio. We show that an increase in the severity of accidents could, in fact, be consistent with a model where all motorists drive more carefully after the reform, but have heterogeneous responses such that the decrease in accident probability is larger for safer than for riskier drivers.

Education of Road Safety Awareness to Secondary School Students in Phu Yen Province, Vietnam Based on the Community

This article aims to help people in traffic to implement good road traffic safety law, cultural behavior when participating in traffic and bring safety and happiness for themselves and their families. This article aims to assess the current status of community-based road safety law education for secondary school students in Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen Province, Vietnam. Research results show that the community-based awareness-raising activities on road traffic safety for students have been implemented, but there have not been many new, innovative and effective activities. Therefore, there is a need for breakthrough measures, with the linkage between families, schools and communities such as: (1) raising resources to ensure the education of the sense of compliance with road traffic law among secondary school students in Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen Province based on the community; (2) developing a traffic safety propaganda campaign in association with the organization of the 'Youth Festival and Culture of Transportation' and organizing contests on the road traffic safety law; (3) promoting volunteerism and youth activities to ensure traffic order and safety, replicating models, works and jobs of students participating in ensuring traffic order and safety, and educating union members who violate traffic safety.

The Allocation of Burden of Proof within the Framework of the Litigation of Traffic Accident in China

According to the widely accepted theory of burden of proof, the allocation of evidential burden depends on the texts of the legal norms. The system of liability of road traffic accidents in China is based on the Article 76 of current Road Traffic Safety Law, which includes the establishment, exemption and reduction of the tort liability. Systematic investigation of burden of proof in road traffic accident litigation also involves those three aspects. Relying on the text-analysis can we clarify the required elements of liability establishment, exemption and reduction, then answering the question that which party is responsible for the proof of certain facts.

Investigation on Deterrence Effect of Legal Punishment Measures on Driving After Drinking in Chongqing, China

Objective: Driving after drinking is one of the main causes associated with road accidents in China. China has been concerned about this serious problem and updated the regulations of road traffic safety law about driving after drinking 3 times in the last 10 years to deter this offense. The deterrence effect of the current punishment measures implemented since January 2013 was studied in this article.Methods: Data applied in the study were collected by questionnaire surveys carried out in Chongqing, a city in southwest China. A total of 329 drivers participated in 3 rounds of the survey and a 5-point scale rating was applied in the investigation.Results: There was a slight difference between drivers’ familiarity of the law regarding driving after drinking in April 2013 and April 2014. The perceived certainty of being caught for driving after drinking was higher in April 2013 than in April 2014 and it had a time-dependent decreasing tendency. Our investigations also show that license suspension is the most practical and effective measure and penalty points system ranks second. A monetary fine appears to be inefficient to achieve the desired effects.Conclusions: The fourth edition of the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China, which took effect in January 2013 coinciding with the application of random breath testing and intensification of enforcement activity, is effective in deterring driving after drinking according to our investigation. More measures should be implemented to change the decreasing tendency of perceived certainty of being caught for driving after drinking. An increase in the monetary fine is suggested.

Effects of Countdown Timer on Yellow Light Running: An Empirical Study

Yellow light violation is exacerbated by the deficiency in the definition of yellow light function from Chinese road traffic safety law and no penalty to such violators. Last January, the embarrassment of a new traffic regulation pertaining to deter drivers from running yellow light made countdown timer be the better option to prevent this risky behavior. Since then, more and more countdown timers have been installed in China cities. However, the actual influences on yellow light running of countdown timer are still unclear, though there are very few relevant studies. The current study attempts to uncover more deeply the effects on yellow light running of countdown timer. Data on the number of yellow light running occurrence, entry time, and entry speed of vehicles crossing the stop line after yellow light onset were collected at four comparable intersection approaches located in Harbin, China. Statistical analysis results show that countdown timer has limited positively impact on the reduction of yellow light running, but no significant effect on entry speed. Furthermore, countdown timer leads to increase entrance into the intersection during the earlier portions of yellow signal.

Towards an analytical information system of traffic accidents in the function of traffic safety monitoring

Quality monitoring, analysis and evaluation of traffic safety situation is the first and most important strategic step in establishing a traffic safety protection system. With the goal of establishing the protection system and traffic safety management system, it is necessary to use quality data from traffic accident databases. Apart from quality, with respect to different quality criteria, it is also necessary for the database to be both available and up-to-date. Database availability and up-to-datedness is extremely important for scientific and professional research, because that research helps define certain dependencies that can affect the choice of traffic safety improvement measures. The quality of the data which are in the database also has to be very high. This can be achieved by establishing an information system and information flow by relevant subjects that possess information on traffic accidents towards the central database. For that purpose, the data coming from the police, insurance companies, health authorities and other relevant authorities need to be processed and adapted to the form of the data from the central database. This method produces comprehensive and quality data on traffic accidents, compared to when the database is ‘filled’ by only one source, for example the police. The existing traffic accident database in Serbia is owned by the Ministry of Interior, and that database is not suitable for research and analysis, it is not public and the procedure for obtaining data is long and uncertain. The new Road Traffic Safety Law in Serbia gives different users the opportunity to access traffic safety data, but it is somewhat restricted or limited. With that in mind, there was a need to define and establish a new traffic accident database. This paper presents the possibilities of traffic safety analysis based on the integrated traffic accident database model, which was primarily compiled for the needs of the City of Belgrade within the BERTAAD Project(Belgrade Road and Traffic Accident and Analitical Database). Possibilities of the database are reflected in different levels of access to the database, depending on the user, different levels of data detail that can be accessed; they are also easier to work with because the database is user-oriented. Key words: traffic safety, analysis, estimate, database model, access.

Impact of the new road traffic safety law on the number of traffic casualties in Serbia

In this research the analysis of the impact of the new road traffic safety law (new RTSL) in Serbia to the decrease of the number of killed in traffic accidents in Serbia is shown. The effects of a new legislation and larger enforcement made by new RTSL implementation to the decrease of the number of killed and injured in traffic have been analysed by comparing the number of killed and injured in traffic in Belgrade (the capital city of Serbia) during the period from 2002 to 2009, to the data for the year 2010, the first year of new RTSL implementation. Bearing in mind the severity of the consequences, the casualties in traffic was classified into: fatalities, serious injuries and minor injuries and also the analyses of the effects were based on the sorts of traffic participants: drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and passengers. Noticing the effects has been conducted by comparing the number of each class of the casualties in the year 2010 to the annual average number for the period of 2002 to 2009, minimal annual number of killed for the period of 2002 to 2009 and the forecasted trend value for the year 2010 that was obtained by using ARIMA modelling. The analyses of the effects of the new RTSL in Belgrade and Serbia conditioned by new legislation decrees and increased penalties has shown that there have been positive effects, manifested in the decreased number of killed in traffic accidents in 26.5%, but effects of new RTSL weakened as the year was finishing.

Seat belt wearing in Nanjing and Zhoushan, China, Post regulation

In response to Chinas rapidly developing economy, motorisation and increasing road traffic fatalities, the Chinese national road traffic safety law, requiring seatbelts to be worn where fitted, became effective May...

The Use of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in the Diagnosis and Management of Central Serous Chorioretinoapthy

In 2003, China enacted the Road Traffic Safety Law in an attempt to promote traffic safety. We employ a difference-in-differences strategy on province level data, where fire accidents are used as a control group for road accidents, to estimate the effects of the law on road accidents and casualties. Our findings suggest that while the law was successful in decreasing the number of accidents and casualties, the ratio of deaths to accidents and injuries to accidents increased. Exploring the potential channels, we find no evidence that “hit-and-kill” incentives, that is, incentives for motorists to kill the pedestrians that they hit due to China's peculiar personal injury compensation rules, drive the increase in death to accident ratio. We show that an increase in the severity of accidents could, in fact, be consistent with a model where all motorists drive more carefully after the reform, but have heterogeneous responses such that the decrease in accident probability is larger for safer than for riskier drivers.

Study on the situation of seat belt wearing among drivers and front-seat passengers of vehicles in Nanjing in 2005-2007

To find out the situation of seat belt wearing among drivers and passengers in Nanjing after the National Road Traffic Safety Law and its Ordinance had been issued for 3 years, in Jiangsu province. Situation on seat belt wearing among drivers and front passengers on four types of vehicles including taxi, cars (below 8 seats), vans and pickups was studied during different time blocks at 4 sites in the city. A total number of 35 256 vehicles, their drivers and another 15 772 passengers sitting in the front, were observed. The prevalence rates of seat belt wearing, not wearing and pretend wearing among drivers were 49.9%, 44.1%, and 4.6% respectively while among front-seat passengers were 9.1% and 90.9% respectively. There were significantly declining trends in seat belt wearing among both drivers and front-seat passengers during the 3-years of observation, after adjustment by sex, types of vehicles and other factors (P < 0.01). Risk of not wearing among front seat passengers was higher for those 'not-wearing' drivers (OR = 8.10, P < 0.01). Neither the current law nor ordinance in Jiangsu province gives detailed regulations on seat belt wearing, which hampers the effective enforcement.

Seatbelt use amongst taxi drivers in Beijing, China

Associated with explosive growth in motorization, China has the world's highest road toll with more than 100 000 deaths and 400 000 injuries annually. In response, the Chinese Government introduced the first road traffic safety law in 2003, which included mandatory use of seatbelts by drivers and front seat passengers. Noting frequent non-compliance to this seatbelt regulation by Beijing taxi drivers, the authors studied seatbelt use patterns as onboard observers in a convenience sample of 235 taxi trips. Findings indicated a low seatbelt-wearing rate among taxi drivers of 7.7%, an overt non-wearing rate of 57%, covert non-wearing of 35.3% and total non-compliance of 92.3%. As in high-income countries, adoption of proven safety strategies, including wearing safety restraints, could contribute to reducing the Chinese road toll, particularly as vehicle occupant numbers and the availability of restraints increases. Further investigation of reasons for non-compliance and pretence of wearing seatbelts is required to inform future seatbelt-wearing promotions, including attitudinal studies of taxi drivers. Seatbelt wearing rates should continue to be monitored.

Impact of the New Road Traffic Safety Law on the Number of Road Accidents in Slovenia

This paper studies the number of traffic accidents (TAs) inwhich people were killed or/and seriously injured over the peliodfrom January 1996 to October 2000 in Slovenia. The aimof this work is to ascertain if the reduction in the increase of thenumber of TAs after I May 1998, when the new road trafficsafety law (RTSL) was adopted, is statistically significant.Assuming that the time series analysed contains also a seasonalcomponent, we found out that the new RTSL had a ve1ypositive impact on the number ofT As, especially in the first year(approximately) after adoption. After this period the averageincrease of the number ofT As rose again, but not as high as beforethe adopti01~ of the RTSL.