Drivers who repeatedly run red lights may be required to pay twice the usual fine, yesterday's Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

While submitting amendments to the regulation on penalties for traffic offenses, officials with the municipal traffic police bureau said a cumulative penalty system should be used to deter repeated violations.

They suggested that drivers be given the regular fine of 500 yuan (US$62.50) for each of the first four violations in the year, and 1,000 yuan from the fifth violation onwards.

The Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress is currently soliciting suggestions from the public on the amendments. The draft amendments are expected to be tabled for discussion at a meeting of the standing committee in September.

The city's regulation on traffic violations took effect March 1, 1997. With the national regulation having come into force May 1, 2004, discrepancies between the local and the national regulations have caused confusion and therefore the local regulation needs to be revised, officials with the traffic police bureau said. The changes in traffic conditions in Shenzhen over the past 10 years also call for alterations to the regulation, the report said.

The traffic police bureau has so far proposed more than 70 amendments to the regulation.

(Shenzhen Daily August 11, 2006)