危险驾驶 (weixian jiashi): Dangerous driving

According to local police, five people were killed in a car accident in Beijing's Fangshan district on Sunday when two sedans that were racing each other collided and ran over several pedestrians near a bus stop. Four people were killed on the spot and a 51-year-old man died in hospital. Later that day, police detained the two drivers for rash driving and endangering public safety.

The frequent road accidents caused by drivers engaging in street races and their disastrous consequences have been widely criticized. On June 20, a BMW sedan traveling at 195 kilometers an hour jumped a red light and crashed into a Mazda sedan in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province. Two people in the Mazda were killed.

According to the current law, the severest sentence for a traffic offense is three years in prison. But if the driver is convicted of the crime of endangering public safety, he or she can get anything between a three-year sentence and capital punishment, depending on the circumstances. Some people have called for increasing the punishments for dangerous driving to prevent such tragedies.