Eighty five percent of traffic accidents occurred due to drivers’ carelessness, Transport Minister Ho Nghia Dung told Sai Gon Giai Phong newspapers at a conference on traffic accidents.
Mr. Dung said that the authorities have tried to reduce road accidents by raising residents’ awareness of traffic safety issues, and by imposing heavier penalties for violating traffic laws.
However, there are many causes of traffic accidents, but most happened due to the carelessness of drivers.
Drivers travel at high speed along streets and encroach onto opposite lanes on the road. This has clearly showed that all efforts to educate people, regarding traffic laws have failed, said Mr. Dung.
The minister admitted that the use of textbooks, at drivers’ training classes for obtaining a license, has not concentrated on raising awareness of motorcycle hazards on the road. Therefore, the transport authorities have made some minor adjustments in the textbooks.
These adjustments include three additional chapters, which include predictions of dangerous situation in streets, knowledge on how to prevent traffic accidents and how to protect oneself, and first aid knowledge about road injuries.
Transport authorities may cancel and revoke a driver’s license, if a driver has violated traffic laws many times.
For Tet (lunar New Year) holidays, authorities will try to further reduce road accidents by way of prohibiting unsafe vehicles, from traveling on streets, and by controlling boats without lifebuoys.
Street wardens will impose harsh penalties on those drivers that violate law regulations. These traffic violations include vehicles that travel at high speed, vehicles who encroach onto opposite lanes, driving while drunk and over laden vehicles.
The National Traffic Safety Committee, the Ministry of Transport and local government’s officials will work to ensure that all drivers on the road adhere to traffic regulations from January 24 to February 7.
The National Traffic Safety Committee in Hanoi held the conference.
| The number of traffic accidents in 2010 in Vietnam is 14,442, an increase of over 1,788 cases. Although the road crash fatalities have dropped by 47 cases, it is still high with 11,449 people dying on the roads. The injury toll is also up by 2,500 cases, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee’s statistics. The northern province of Lai Chau, the highlands province of Kon Tum and the Mekong delta province of Bac Lieu have witnessed a high number of traffic-related deaths. The National Traffic Safety Committee plans to further reduce road accidents and traffic death by at least 3 percent. |
