Chinese traffic police to set up chopper squad

BEIJING - China will set up a helicopter squad to cope with traffic congestion on the busy roads of Shanghai, the country’s financial hub.

The squad equipped with four helicopters, will help police monitor the city’s increasingly complicated road conditions and deal with traffic emergencies, China Daily reported Tuesday.

“Work on setting up the squad is in progress. The squad will be in operation in the very near future,” Guo Yonghua, deputy head of Shanghai municipal public security bureau, said. The number of staff is yet to be decided.

The choppers, all bought from Europe, can promptly drop medical staff, firefighters and policemen to a traffic scene and can also drag vehicles off the road to resume the traffic flow in case of an emergency.

The helicopters will also provide regular updates while monitoring traffic conditions on the city’s highways and arteries. Equipped with video cemeras, the aircraft will also record traffic violations.

It is estimated that the number of private cars in Shanghai will hit 1.5 million at the end of this year, up from more than 1.2 million in 2005.

Last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and 2,702 injured in 2,831 traffic accidents in the city, up 3.13 percent a year ago. The accidents caused a loss of 12 million yuan ($1.8 million).