New rules regarding people’s lives take effect in China on the first day of 2013. They include the amended Criminal Procedure Law which protects suspects and defendants from "illegal restriction, detention and arrest". And drivers in China will also face stricter penalties for violating traffic regulations, of which there are now more than 50, up from 38.

It’s the middle of the night on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway. The first driver has been caught for violating the new traffic rules. The offense was not fastening his seltbelt.

Do you know what time is it?

Around 11:00 pm.

12:00 already.

Now it’s already past 12:00.

It’s January 1st, 2013.

The new traffic law has already come into effect.

The new traffic law is considered to be the strictest ever. Now, even minor offenses can lead to a stiff penalty -- including the immediate confiscation of your driver’s license.

Running a red or yellow light means six points deducted from your license. That’s half of the 12-point limit. It used to be only three points for the same offense.

An unfastened seatbelt, 2 points. Speeding, 6 points. Obscuring a license plate, 12 points.

And when you lose all 12 points, you have to retake the license test before you can get back behind the wheel.

A taxi driver said, “As a professional driver, I have to drive year round and violations are unavoidable. The heavy penalty makes it easy to strip off my 12 points. Sometimes I have good reasons for running red lights.”

It might be true that this new traffic law goes too far. For many offenses, you won’t even have a second chance before they take away your driver’s license. But law-makers say that there would be no second chance, when a seemingly minor offense caused deadly traffic accidents.

Across China, more than 60,000 people die in car crashes each year. That means every ten minutes, one person gets killed on the road.

The so-called minor violations such as running red lights or speeding are the top killers.

The government hopes the strict penalties will help deter violations and make China’s roads safer.

But many people say what’s really needed is genuine public awareness of traffic safety.

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