Shi Chunxia on duty. SD-Agencies
Shi Chunxia, team leader of the city’s 37-member women’s motorcycle police team, is kindly regarded as “Iron Xia,” for her outstanding performance during an important task.
During the task, she worked a daily average of 16 hours, taking responsibility to make plans, distribute personnel and patrol on roads.
“Doesn’t matter whether it is rescuing or switching a tire, we will give a helping hand whenever a driver is in need,” Shi told Southern Metropolis Daily. Driving a motorcycle triple their weight, the women’s motorcycle police team members patrol on streets, inspect traffic violators and direct traffic.
A traffic police officer’s motorcycle is reportedly over 200 kilograms and an officer will drive it more than 20,000 kilometers on a yearly average.
On March 2, 2016, Shenzhen traffic police first rolled out a motorcycle police team, a new police service mode in China. In October that year, a women’s motorcycle police team was established as well.
Currently, 37 motorcycle policewomen team up with their male colleagues to serve on the roads. The women have the upper hand in terms of having more enthusiasm, patience and kindness. Since its establishment, the women’s motorcycle police team has participated in almost 100 large tasks to maintain traffic order and safety.
Shi was completely a green hand when she started out with a motorcycle. “At first, I cannot figure out the clutch and accelerator. It was quite common for me to slam on the brakes and fall over,” she recalled. “When learning to drive the motorcycle, I was unable to hold chopsticks. The pains in my fingers woke me up at night. But now I can do as other people do,” Shi said firmly. “We, female team members, had to practice hard on physical and power exercises during the entrance training phase,” she added. After a three-month training, Shi led the women’s motorcycle police team’s debut on the roads.
In five years, Shi has collected many warm memories while on duty. “During my first year as motorcycle police officer, I met a child who sent me a piece of mooncake when I guided the traffic in the Shenzhen Bay area during one Mid-Autumn Festival night,” she recalled. “During the onslaught of typhoon Mangkhut, a driver quietly left a box of bottled water while I was clearing branches on a roadside,” she added.
This year, the city has rebuilt 72 traffic accident-prone intersections and renovated 417 spots with heavy traffic. The city has also inspected more than 1.65 million e-bike violations. The traffic accident cases and deaths from traffic accidents had a year-on-year decrease of 18.3 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.
Today marks the 10th National Traffic Safety Day.