Team ensures smooth handling of accidents involving Olympic vehicles

A special team is on duty 24 hours a day in Beijing to ensure prompt handling of accidents involving vehicles serving the Winter Olympics.

"Based on the remote accident processing system, photographing the scene of the accident and collecting evidence is like making a video call," said Yang Xiaotao, an officer with the transport management department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Since Jan 4, the special team has been operating in the command center of the transport management department and will remain there until the end of the Olympics. Officers on Yang's team are on duty around the clock.

Before the Winter Olympics began, Yang and his colleagues visited all the Olympic venues and surrounding roads in the city and made plans for different situations to master the traffic situation around the venues.

On their desks are thick guidelines for dealing with accidents involving vehicles serving the Winter Olympics, which they have almost memorized to ensure they can respond promptly once they receive a call.

When there is a competition or important activity, Yang and his team focus on the Olympic lane leading to the venue. "If there is an accident, we can intervene as early as possible to ensure that the vehicles carrying athletes are not late," Yang said.

The personnel involved in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics are under closed-loop management to avoid the spread of COVID-19, with vehicles bearing closed management signs used for transportation.

Once an accident involving an Olympic vehicle occurs, the traffic management department must first ensure that vehicles and personnel under closed management do not have face-to-face contact with the public, cutting off the risk of epidemic spread, then rapidly remove the vehicles involved so that traffic can resume and Olympic-related vehicles can arrive in time.

A mini-program on the WeChat social media platform allows police and the public to quickly collect and submit evidence after an accident.

Drivers can submit photos of their licenses and registration documents, and automatic identification technology puts the information into the system for preliminary inspection.

During the process, police will determine responsibility for the accident, and online handling of the incident can be completed in just a few minutes.

Yang dealt with a minor accident early this month involving an Olympic security car. Yang told the driver of the non-Olympic car that the driver of the other car was under closed-loop management and couldn't leave the vehicle, and he would handle the incident online.

After reviewing video of the accident, Yang confirmed that it was caused by the non-Olympic car. After an explanation, the driver accepted responsibility, and Yang guided both parties to sign an electronic document online. Within 10 minutes, both sides had moved their vehicles.

"The public is obeying traffic laws and regulations and giving way to vehicles serving the Winter Olympics. In recent incidents, once the public found out that the accident involved an Olympic-related car, they would call the police and wait for them to deal with the accident," Yang said.