Losses caused by traffic accident more severe than earthquakes
Minister Dinh La Thang.
In his report, which was sent to the National Assembly (NA) deputies two days of the NA question and answer session, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang admitted that traffic accidents is a burning issue. The numbers of dead and injured victims are very high.
In the January-October period of 2010, more than 11,000 traffic accidents were recorded in Vietnam, killing more than 9,200 people and injuring nearly 8,400 others. On average, Vietnam has nearly 12,000 dead and 9,300 wounded victims in traffic accidents yearly.
“In comparison with Japan’s earthquake-tsunami disaster in early this year, the numbers of dead and injured victims of traffic accidents in Vietnam are equivalent to 75 and 156 percent of those in Japan, respectively,” Thang wrote.
“Losses caused by traffic accidents are a national disaster that we must slash,” Thang admitted.
The Minister pointed out some reasons like loose management of state agencies, poor awareness of people about traffic laws and slow development of traffic infrastructure comparing with social development.
Vietnam had 675,000 cars and 11.38 million motorbikes in 2003. The figures rise to 1.85 million and 33.6 million at present. Compared to 2003, the number of cars is 2.75 folds higher and that of motorbikes is 2.96 times higher while traffic facilities have not been improved remarkably.
Hanoi still has 120 spots of gridlocks and HCM City has 54 similar sites. The Minister admitted that the transport sector’s management ability is limited. In addition, the land area for traffic is low, accounting for merely 6-7 percent of the total urban area.
Universities and colleges, administrative agencies and hospitals have not been removed from downtown areas of big cities yet and this is also a reason for traffic jams, Thang analyzed.
He also pointed out the shortage of parking lots, bus stops, the sluggishness in implementing public transport development projects, misuse of pavements and roads and unscientific organization of traffic flows as other problems.
In Hanoi and HCM City, gridlocks are severe because the local governments do not ban cars and motorbikes from running on some certain roads during peak hours and do not adjust work time yet. Dealing with traffic rule violators is also not enforced.
Minister Thang said that to change the situation, the awareness of officials and people of traffic safety must be changed. Accordingly, reducing traffic accidents and gridlocks must be the responsibility of each citizen and the entire society.
Seeing 2012 as the year for setting up traffic order and curbing traffic jams in big cities, the Ministry of Transport hopes to cut down the numbers of traffic accidents accident victims by 5-10 percent per year, as well as reduce the number gridlocks of over 30 minute long in Hanoi and HCM City.
The Minister also introduced long-term solutions like finalizing the transport development strategy, expanding key national highways, upgrading the North-South road, installing cameras on national highways and urban roads, imposing circulation fees on personal vehicles, raising fines on traffic violation, etc.
Urgent measures consist of: strengthening patrol on the road, strictly punishing traffic law violators, fighting corruption among traffic police, calling for the people to obey traffic rules, etc.
Thang proposed to confiscate vehicles that are seized in illegal races, impose the highest fines on drivers who run speed, running on wrong lanes, running overload, parking at wrong places, etc.
In big cities, Thang suggested to punish those who illegal occupy pavements and roads, changing work time, re-organizing traffic flows, separating roads into lanes, arranging specific lanes for buses, banking cabs and cars on some streets during peak hours, etc.
In 2007, over 14,500 traffic accidents were recorded, killing nearly 13,000 and injuring over 10,600 others. In 2008, the numbers reduced to nearly 13,000 cases, nearly 11,600 dead and 8,000 injured victims. In 2009, the figures continued falling by 390 cases and over 200 injured victims. However, it rose to nearly 1,800 cases in 2010 and the number of injured people increased by over 2,500.
