China's top legislature to review enforcement of traffic law

BEIJING -- China's top legislature next month will start a nationwide inspection on the enforcement of the Road Traffic Safety Law.

Four teams of senior lawmakers will be dispatched to eight of the country's provincial-level regions in August and September, including Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shandong, according to a statement from the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee issued Tuesday.

The NPC Standing Committee gave the remaining 23 provincial legislatures permission to manage their own inspections.

Fatal road accidents are a serious problem in China, as the highway network and the number of new drivers and vehicles expand rapidly, and traffic laws are regularly flouted.

The average annual increases of new vehicles and drivers hit 15 million and 20 million since the Road Traffic Safety Law went into effect 12 years ago. Meanwhile, the number of road deaths accounts for more than 80 percent of fatalities in all kinds of accidents.

Road safety not only concerns people's lives and property, but also economic and social development, said Wang Shengjun, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

The inspection teams will produce a report on the implementation of the law and submit it to the NPC Standing Committee in December.