In the recent effort to control traffic accidents, the delivery and courier industry signed an agreement and a letter Thursday promising to implement rules to ensure their employees wear helmets while driving.
A spot check between May 11 and Tuesday in Longgang, Bao’an, Longhua and Pingshan districts, and Dapeng and Guangming new areas, showed that only 27 percent of e-bike riders wore helmets while driving.
The five-minute spot checks at major intersections showed 242 of 909 e-bike riders were wearing helmets, police said Thursday.
Police have called for e-bike riders to wear helmets while driving, as the practice can prevent the chance that an accident will result in brain damage by 85 percent.
Since 2017, Shenzhen has reported a total of 455 e-bike-related accidents that resulted in 92 deaths and 484 injuries. The deaths accounted for 21 percent of the total accident-related deaths in that period.
Of the 92 deaths, 70 were from brain damage, making up 76 percent of the total, police statistics showed.
Police launched a citywide action Wednesday to reduce e-bike-related accidents by focusing on helmet violations by food, water and gas delivery persons and couriers.
Of the 491 helmet violations, 365 involved food, water and gas delivery persons and 63 involved couriers. The violations made by the delivery persons working for the meituan.com food delivery platform made up 64 percent of the total violations.
Violators face a fine of 2,000 yuan (US$313) and will have their e-bikes temporarily impounded.
There are 20,000 food delivery people working for the seven major food delivery service platforms in the city.