Forget water - it's Chinese headlight torture

BEIJING, China - Using the age-old reasoning of making the punishment fit the crime, police in a sprawling Chinese metropolis are making drivers who inappropriately flash their bright lights suffer the same agony.

In a post on its official account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, traffic police in the southern city of Shenzhen said violators were being made to look at bright headlights for five minutes.

POLICE EXPLANATION

The post described it as "an appropriate experience" that would make offenders "sense the harm" such use of their headlights could cause. It read: "From now on, traffic police will make those found carelessly using bright lights look at them for five minutes."

The post not only said violators would also have to listen to a police explanation on properly using headlights and pay a fine equivalent to about R500 but also look at a photo of a man sitting on a red plastic stool looking into the bright lights of what appeared to be a police vehicle, a uniformed officer standing nearby.

Automobile use has boomed in China, along with the country's rapid economic growth, which has vaulted it to become the world's second-largest economy and the globe's biggest car market.

CHINA SALES ON THE UP

Auto sales accelerated in July 2014, growing 6.7% to 1.62-million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Friday (August 9 2014).

For the first seven months of 2014 sales reached 13.30-million vehicles, up 8.2% on the same period in 2013, the industry group said.

China's full-year auto sales hit 21.98-million vehicles in 2013.

Do you agree with China's method of punishment? Should a similar form of punishment be used in SA? Email us and we'll publish your thoughts or use the Readers' Comments section below...