Horror instils road etiquette

On the first day of instruction to get his driver's licence, Zheng Hao and his classmates sat down in a dimmed room and watched a video produced by the traffic police with the innocuous title Care about life: Follow the traffic rules. They were assaulted by 30 minutes of gruesome footage showing crushed cyclists, pedestrians flung into the air like rag dolls and victims' families grieving hysterically.

"The women in the class were sobbing," said Zheng, 21. "Even the guys were disturbed." To scare sense into millions of new drivers in a country with some of the deadliest roads in the world, Chinese authorities are releasing video of road accidents so grisly that it makes the crash re-enactments shown in American high schools feel G-rated.

"Police are trying to send a message that ‘if you don't drive safely, this is what will happen to you'," said Fan Li, an expert on driving behaviour and editor of motorist manuals. "In China, people just aren't as aware of road safety as people overseas who are educated about it at a young age."

China in 2009 surpassed the United States to become the world's top buyer of new vehicles. More than 18 million new cars, trucks and buses — nearly 50,000 a day — were sold last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Passenger cars accounted for the biggest chunk of those sales and most were sold to first-time buyers, said Michael Dunne, an independent auto analyst based in Hong Kong. "They are not good drivers," Dunne said.

While inexperience is a factor, Chinese motorists must negotiate more hazards than their counterparts in the industrialised world. Many pedestrians behave as if the auto revolution in China never happened, darting across eight-lane highways and loitering in traffic medians. Riders of motorcycles and bicycles often ignore traffic lights and weave in and out of traffic. Vehicle drivers are just as reckless. Drivers routinely barrel down the wrong side of the street. The result: epic crashes. In December, 134 cars were involved in a 6-kilometre pile-up on a foggy stretch of highway in Sichuan province. Weeks later, 14 schoolchildren in central Hunan province died when their three-wheel vehicle swerved off a road, while on the same day seven people died in a 100-car pile-up in southwest Guizhou province.

Lack of road courtesy

Courteous driving is seldom rewarded. Stop at a zebra crossing for pedestrians and you could wait endlessly for the sea of people to part. Experts say a culture of caution is still years away. Although the Chinese can spend hundreds of dollars on driving school and must pass an exhaustive exam, many soon abandon any good habits they may have learnt because traffic rules are rarely enforced.

"Rules, regulations and conditions vary throughout China but a general rule of thumb is that traffic safety is poor and driving in China can be dangerous," warns the US State Department to travellers planning on motoring there.

A common bumper sticker in China is "Newbie on the road, please excuse me." Someone who drives recklessly is called a "ma lu sha shou", meaning "road killer". Even questions on the national driving exam underscore the potential peril. For example: When trying to save a person who is on fire, the wrong response is: A. Use sand to cover him. B. Try to extinguish the fire on his clothing as quickly as possible. C. Spray cold water on him. D. Take off his burning clothes. (Answer: A) "These are first-generation car buyers," said Whitney Foard Small, a spokesperson for Ford Motor Co, which runs free programmes in China, teaching drivers such basics as when to use a turn signal. "They don't come from a car culture. They don't have mum and dad teaching them how to drive courteously and how to be safe."

Traffic police have been trying to fill that void. Beijing recently announced a five-year plan to crack down on some of the most common bad driving habits, such as running red lights and failing to stop at zebra crossings. Also targeted: tossing garbage out of the window and needless honking. Beijing Television broadcasts a daily show called Traffic Light, which mixes safety tips with footage of horrifying accidents. In an episode this year, a two-door compact ran a red light, collided with two cyclists and threw a pedestrian several feet into a sign post. "It definitely makes me want to drive more carefully when I see those videos," said Ma Quansheng, 28, standing inside a driving school on the outskirts of Beijing. "Not to bad-mouth China, but many people don't drive in a civilised way."

Though the footage could scare some drivers into being more careful, the massive response to a recent video suggests the recordings are becoming entertainment. The clip was produced by the police in the industrial city of Heze in eastern Shandong province. The 12-minute compilation starts with booming drums, then cycles quickly through a series of hair-raising accidents captured by 108 city cameras. By the time the death metal music starts up, dozens appear to have either died or suffered critical injuries. At least one of the earliest versions of the video on Youku, a popular streaming video site much like YouTube, received 5.9 million views.

The clip got 47,000 "thumbs up", the equivalent of clicking "Like" on Facebook. "Accident videos are almost guaranteed to get millions of views," said Jean Shao, a Youku spokesperson. "I don't know why. People just love them."