Japan's new road traffic law "don't car" sentenced

　　□ Ji Yong, our correspondent in Japan

　　After the Japanese House of Representatives passed a new "Road Traffic Law" that severely punishes the behavior of other cars in early June, the Japanese government cabinet meeting recently passed an enforcement order for the new "Road Traffic Law." The new law defines other cars as "obstructing traffic", and if the other cars cause serious consequences, they will be subject to fines, imprisonment, and administrative deductions.

　　Has become a serious social problem

　　On June 2, the Japanese House of Representatives plenary meeting passed a new "Road Traffic Law".

　　The new "Road Traffic Law" lists the behavior of other cars as a criminal punishment, because the number of car accidents has increased in recent years, and individual cases have caused significant and widespread impact on society.

　　According to statistics released by the Japanese Police Agency in February 2020, of the traffic violations that occurred on highways in 2019, there were 13,787 other car incidents that did not maintain a distance, a 16.9% increase over the previous year. In addition, according to the results of a public survey conducted by the Ministry of Police on encounters with other cars, 35% of the respondents said that they had encountered other cars, and 15% of them had had more than three experiences of being driven.

　　Statistics from the above two police departments show that accidents caused by other car behaviors are becoming a serious and common social problem, and the lack of legal definitions of other car behaviors is not conducive to curbing the increasing number of other car behaviors. A situation in which part of the victimized cases cannot be followed.

　　As the most representative malicious car accident, the 2017 accident on the Kanagawa prefecture caused two deaths and two injuries, which caused a very bad impact on Japanese society.

　　On the evening of June 5, 2017, the criminals Shiqiao and Bu were dissatisfied because they were improperly parked in a parking lot near the road where the incident occurred and were reminded by the victims of Hagiyama and his wife. After that, after driving the vehicles of Hagiyama couple to continue on the road, Shiqiao repeatedly interfered with the vehicles of Hagiyama on the highway. After stopping Hagiyama, Shiqiao got off the bus and provoked and abused them. At this moment, the vehicles of Hagiyama couple were rear-ended by a truck in the rear, resulting in the unfortunate death of Hagiyama couple who got off the car, and the two daughters of Hagiyama couple in the car were injured. On December 14, 2018, the Yokohama District Court issued a verdict on the case and found that Shiqiao and Hebu’s malicious behavior of repeatedly driving the victim’s normal driving had a direct cause-and-effect relationship with the death of the victim. Established and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

　　Punishable by imprisonment for less than 5 years

　　In view of the above, the new "Road Traffic Law" defines other vehicles as "obstructive driving", which includes not maintaining the distance, malicious congestion, dangerous close to parallel vehicles and snake driving, unnecessary horn, dangerous lane change, random Headlight flashing, driving below the minimum speed, illegal parking, emergency braking, and reverse lane approach are 10 items.

　　The new "Road Traffic Law" stipulates that if there are many other car behaviors and there is a risk of causing a traffic accident, it may be punishable by "a fixed term of less than 3 years or a fine of 500,000 yen (about 33,000 yuan)"; The "significantly dangerous" behavior that forces the other party's vehicle to be stopped on the highway or general road and almost caused a car accident is aggravated with "a fixed term of less than 5 years or a fine of less than 1 million yen (about 66,000 yuan)." The penalties are the same as those for drunk driving.

　　In addition, the new law stipulates a deduction of 25 points for general car-free behavior, and disqualifies driving for two years. 35 points will be deducted for situations where "significant danger" is caused by forcibly stopping the other party's vehicle on the highway, and driving qualification will be cancelled within three years. For other cars, not only the driver, but also the passengers who instigated the other cars will be immediately revoked, and the driver's license cannot be obtained again within a minimum of two years.

　　Because the original "Road Traffic Law" does not include provisions on the behavior of other cars, only the "violation of the duty to maintain the distance between the workshops" and "violation of the obligation to drive safely" are used to regulate, and the "atrocity" in the criminal law is applicable to the other cars that cause serious consequences. Crime" and "dangerous driving fatal injury".

　　In contrast, the new law classifies the behavior of other vehicles with the purpose of impeding the passing of other vehicles and possibly causing traffic hazards as "impeding driving", punishes those who cause serious consequences under the criminal law, and plays a role in filling the legal gap.

　　Penalties for bicycles and cars

　　It is worth mentioning that the new "Road Traffic Law" also classifies the behavior of bicycles as a dangerous behavior "obstructing driving". Those who are over 14 years old and violated twice within three years are subject to safety learning or 50,000 yen ( Approximately 3,300 yuan)). It is a highlight of this revision to list the behavior of bicycles as punishment.

　　Japanese law defines bicycles as "lightweight vehicles", which are a type of vehicle, so bicycles should be driven on the road in principle. However, because the roads in Japan are generally narrow, there are very few roads with special bicycle lanes. In addition, people’s health awareness has increased in recent years, and cycling has increased. The number of people using bicycles to deliver food has also increased significantly. Bicycles and cars Road grabbing is becoming more and more serious, and bicycle and car accidents often occur.

　　According to a report released by the Japanese Police Agency in February this year, although the total number of traffic accidents in Japan has been declining year by year in recent years, bicycle-related traffic accidents have maintained a high number, making bicycle-related accidents a proportion of all traffic accidents. It is increasing continuously, and its proportion is as high as 21.1% in 2019, a record high in recent years. In all kinds of bicycle-related traffic accidents, most of them use cell phones, wear headphones to listen to music, and are too fast.

　　The new "Road Traffic Law" defines the behavior of bicycles as "obstructing driving", which includes retrograde traffic jams for the purpose of obstructing the common behavior of cars, motorcycles and other bicycles, dangerous close to parallel vehicles, lane changes, and unnecessary emergency braking , Constantly ringing the bell, not keeping the distance between cars, overtaking violations and other 7 behaviors. In the event of bike-free cars, those who are over 14 years old and have two dangerous behaviors within three years will be punished for participating in safety learning. If they do not participate, they will be fined 50,000 yen (approximately 3,300 yuan).

　　The original "Road Traffic Law" stipulated 14 "obstructive driving" behaviors of bicycles, including running red lights, drunk riding, hard way barriers, non-temporary parking on designated road sections, violations of sidewalk access methods, violations of pedestrian-only roads Obligation to drive a vehicle, riding a bicycle with poor brakes, disregarding prohibited traffic signs, failing to comply with sidewalk lane separation requirements, obstructing pedestrians while driving on one side of the road, violating intersection's obligation to drive safely at the intersection, obstructing the priority of traveling at the intersection, violating roundabout Obligation to drive safely and violate the obligation to ride safely. In the original "Road Traffic Law", bicycles have always been protected as "weak traffic". The new law includes bicycles as punishments, in fact, it has increased the tendency of bicycle-related traffic accidents in recent years, especially the phenomenon of "weak people doing evil" Regulate and contain from the law.