Driver told to pull in his horns

A driver who appealed against a 100-yuan (US$14.9) fine for sounding his car horn in a prohibited area has lost his case in the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

It's the city's first appeal related to an administrative punishment for an offense that was detected using electronic surveillance. 

Under local road traffic management regulations, drivers are banned from sounding their vehicles' horns inside the city's Outer Ring.

According to the court, the man, surnamed He, was recorded by noise detection equipment sounding his car's horn while waiting for the green light at a crossroad on May 12 last year. He was fined 100 yuan and signed a document about the case at a police station on June 30.

However, he later filed a lawsuit claiming the oval mark in the picture showing the source of the sound had been added.

The traffic police maintained the mark was automatically recorded by the noise detection system. Moreover, they had informed He of their decision before he visited the police station.

Since Chinese laws give police the right to punish those who violate traffic rules based on records from monitoring devices and local police had enough evidence to prove the case, the court rejected the man's appeal.

Ti Gong

Ti Gong