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5m yuan to reward men who video-capture traffic violations

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-02-28 21:32

For some Wuhan citizens, earning 6,000 yuan ($ 912) a week is no longer a difficult thing. They can simply stand in major traffic junctions, shooting video of traffic violations and report them to traffic bureau for a bonus, according to a Feb 28 cnhubei.com report.

Filephoto: A man captures video evidence of people violating traffic regulations a traffic scene at a crossover in Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei province. [Photo/cnhubei.com]

One Wuhan Traffic Bureau (WTB) official said they have awarded over 5 million yuan ($760,165) to cameramen for 100,000 effective cases by the end of December last year. This year, the WTB will continue encouraging more cameramen to assist in the supervision of traffic violation to improve the city’s traffic order, the official said.

There are six types of traffic violation cases, according to the WTB official notice published Mar 18 last year. They include: hit-and-run, intoxicated driving, running a red light, random lane changing, counter-direction driving and driving with fake license plates. The highest bonus for one case report with video of clear car-plate numbers and sufficient evidence can reach 5,000 yuan. The lowest is 10 yuan, according to the notice.

Xiao Zhang (alias), one professional cameraman, told a reporter that although the reward seems decent, he also has to invest huge money on film equipment. He bought a 4000-yuan DV and professional tripod, a compact storage card with a huge capacity, and other equipment which cost him about 7,000 yuan.

"There are more camermen standing in the street competing for the bonus, and therefore it isn’t easy to earn money in the business," Zhang said.

Being a hidden cameraman is also dangerous. The cameramen risk being hurt by traffic breakers once the breakers find they’ve been shot, he said.

There currently are no specific laws to protect the grass-root traffic photographers.

"We encourage more ordinary citizens to join the supervision groups on the premise that they guarantee their own safety," the WTB official said.