Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just signed Official Dispatch No. 16/CD-TTg on strengthening traffic order and safety to serve the people during the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday urging to prevent prolonged traffic congestion on routes leading to the centers of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The dispatch explicitly indicates that traffic accidents during the Tet holiday are expected to decline significantly across all three criteria when compared to the 2025 Tet holiday, with a 29.5 percent decrease in the number of incidents; a 24 percent reduction in fatalities, totaling 66 individuals; and a 33.8 percent reduction in injuries, amounting to 120 individuals.
In order to uphold order and ensure the safety of individuals traveling on the final day of the Tet holiday and during the spring festival season of 2026, the Prime Minister has instructed the Ministry of Public Security to enhance the deployment of personnel and vehicles for the purposes of patrolling, monitoring, and inspecting traffic safety on expressways, local roads, and passenger transport vehicles. There should be a concentrated effort to tackle violations that significantly contribute to traffic accidents, including: driving under the influence, excessive speed, overloading, driving in the incorrect lane, and particularly actions that disrupt public order and resist law enforcement officials in transportation activities.
The Ministry of Public Security, together with the Ministry of Construction, the People's Committees of localities, and relevant units, will study a plan for rational traffic organization by allocating less lanes from low-density directions to high-traffic directions, especially at toll stations, expressways, and intersections connecting major urban gateways such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, to prevent prolonged traffic congestion on routes leading to the centers of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The Ministry of Construction has directed the strengthening of inspections and strict handling of violations related to transportation business activities, especially contract vehicles and fixed-route passenger buses; strict control over compliance with regulations on business and conditions for passenger transport; and measures to prevent and, in particular, strictly punish the act of carrying more passengers than permitted. It has also directed strict control over waterway transport routes from the mainland to islands, tourism activities on inland waterways, and passenger transport across and along inland waterways.
The Ministry of Construction has directed relevant authorities to seriously learn from past experiences of vehicles carrying more passengers than permitted (some violations have been detected and strictly handled by the police according to regulations).
Chairmen of people's committees of provinces and cities are directly responsible for ensuring traffic order and safety in their areas, implementing immediate solutions to address emerging incidents, and preventing particularly serious traffic accidents in their localities.
