Denmark speedbandits

Excerpted from Taipeitimes, 2006/11/21

In less than 30 minutes, the legislature's Transportation Committee passed a resolution yesterday to amend Article 31 of the Road Traffic Management and Punishment Law (道路交通規則管理處罰條例) to require everyone in a passenger car on freeways and expressways to buckle their seat belts. If the amendment is passed by the legislature, drivers of private vehicles could be fined if they or any of their passengers, including those in the back seat, fail to fasten their seat belts before they hit the road.

At present the law only requires the driver and front-seat passengers to wear seat belts. Violators face fines of NT$1,500 if caught without a seatbelt, although the fines rise to between NT$3,000 and NT$6,000 when driving on freeways and expressways.

The committee passed the amendment in the wake of a traffic accident on Saturday that left Shaw Hsiao-ling (邵曉鈴), the wife of Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), critically injured.

Shit happens everyday but it takes a celebrity to catch everybody's attention to long-existing issues. It doesn't have to be that way though. Controversy is a good way to arouse issues that have been neglected as the new approach implemented in Denmark in order to tackle the speeding problem.