They made the statement at the seminar organized by the Asia Injury Prevention Fund (AIP) and the National Traffic Safety Committee today. Currently, in Vietnam, there is still no awareness and habit of wearing a seat belt when driving. The rate of people wearing seat belts in cars is only under 30 percent, and this rate in passenger cars is even lower.
For vehicles manufactured before 2015, there is currently no requirement for rear seats with seat belts. Besides, Vietnam also has no official regulations and standards for seat belts in sleeper cars.
For children, safety equipment for children in cars has not been given adequate attention. According to the survey result about the use of safety equipment for children in localities carried out by the Center for Research and Prevention of Injury in the University of Public Health, the rate of children using safety equipment is very low, only about 1.3 percent.
Although Vietnam has joined the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic in 1968, this convention does not have specific content on safety devices for children in cars. In Vietnam, there are currently no regulations on safety devices for children in cars.
To increase the rate of seat belts for people in cars and increase the rate of using child safety devices in cars, experts have made many remarkable recommendations.
First of all, it is necessary to require all car seats including new and used cars to have seat belts, and to require that all occupants wear seat belts. Drivers must be fined if they leave an adult without a seat belt on in a moving car for a private vehicle as drivers ought to be responsible for ensuring the passengers in their vehicle.
Experts also recommend supplementing standards with seat belts for sleeper cars and additional installation instructions for vehicles manufactured before 2015. In addition, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of enforcement and apply technology in development in performing the behavior of not wearing a seat belt and being fined cold. Enhanced technical requirements are needed when registering or before the vehicle leaves stations.
For children, experts recommended that it is mandatory for children under 12 years old and under 150cm to use safety devices in cars. Furthermore, kids under 12 years old are not allowed to sit in the front seat.
Authorities also need to have specific regulations on technical standards for car seats. Currently, up to 8.5 percent of cars in the top 10 best-selling cars in Vietnam do not have information about the safety lock for the car seats in the manual. Regulations on the quality of car safety seats also need to be clearly defined, because there are many types of cheap safety equipment on the market without quality certification.
