China Punishes Jaywalkers By Spraying Them With Water For Crossing At Red Lights

Traffic police in a Chinese city have come up with a rather unique way to stop jaywalkers: spraying them down with water.

A video has emerged showing the new water-spraying system in action, which was set up on pavements in Daye of Hubei Province to stop jaywalkers in their tracks.

The system consists of 1.6 feet tall yellow bollards that have been set up at two sides of the crossing to spray water at anyone who attempts to cross at red lights.

The footage shows some rather confused pedestrians reacting to the vapour spray with shock and amusement after they attempt to cross the street when they shouldn't have.

If the surprise spray weren't reminder enough, a recorded message plays, stating: "Please do not cross the street, crossing the street is dangerous." And the billboards are complete with facial recognition technology, which takes pictures of offending pedestrians and prints them on large screens in the city.

You can't deny, with that level of humiliation, there's no way you'd ever risk walking when the red man is lit up.

While discussing the the new system, which cost 1.3 million RMB (£146,000) to develop and install, a police spokesman said: "The internal temperature of the bollards is set at 26 degrees Celsius and workers will fill them up with clean water every day so there is no need to worry about pollution or catching a cold."

Jaywalking is an issue that's taken very seriously in China, where the local authorities are increasingly turning to facial recognition technology as a law enforcement tool.

The idea has received mixed reviews on social media in China, with some calling it a waste of money. Perhaps they've got a point - spraying pedestrians with water as a warning is a pretty innovative idea, but using facial recognition technology and plastering the jaywalkers' faces over billboards all over the city? Seems a tad OTT.

Then again, guess you can't put a price on safety, right? In this context, perhaps China's just ahead of the curve. Or in this case, ahead of the curb.

Featured Image Credit: AsiaWire

Topics: World News, Traffic, China

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Daisy is a UK-based freelance journalist with too many opinions. She loves everything film and music-related and has a track record writing for Little White Lies, BWRC, and Film Daily. Contact her at [email protected]