VietNamNet Bridge – About 30 people are killed a day on Viet Nam's roads – equivalent to one Boeing 787 crashing every week. Viet Nam News reporters spoke to Government officials and independent experts to explore how the country could improve the efficiency of detecting and punishing road traffic violations.
 

* Takagi Michimasa, chief advisor for the People's Police Academy Project of Japan International Co-operation Agency

Tagaki Michimasa.

The number of traffic policemen responsible for catching violators is also limited. Thus, additional effective methods should be introduced, including barriers, car and motorcycle patrols, and the use of cameras.

It is also necessary to simplify the ticketing procedure to reduce the amount of handling time as much as possible.

To develop an efficient collection or payment system for the fines is another issue. On-site fine collection should be avoided. Instead of paying the traffic policeman directly, violators should be obliged to pay fines at specified places.

However in order to introduce a new payment system that is reliable, a vehicle registration and licence registration database needs to be created. In order to update the database day by day, the database should be linked to some kind of tax system.

If you could introduce a vehicle usage tax on all kinds of vehicles including motorcycles for example, all owners would have to go to a tax office to pay their taxes every year. Furthermore, a reliable communication infrastructure will also be needed.

In conclusion, to detect all kinds of traffic violations and to ensure that traffic police department's skills and capacity must be developed first. fines are issued in a suitable fashion, the

But at same time, modernisation of the fining system with ICT (Information and Communication Technology) will be developed as a total system consisting of all the necessary components discussed above.

* Than Van Thanh, National Traffic Safety Committee's secretariat chief

Viet Nam has failed to strictly enforce penalties. The current punishment for traffic violations is yet to have a strong influence on the public.

Although electronic equipment will assist patrolmen, the overall picture remains somewhat bleak during this period due to a shortage of manpower and machines.

A pilot project on using cameras to take photos and record the images of violators along the national highway connecting Ha Noi and Ninh Binh Province has produced good results. However, the technology can only successfully monitor cars, not motorbikes.

Fining motorcyclists is very difficult because lots of motorbikes have been sold, yet their registration has not been changed.

I think the traffic police will have to learn a lesson from their failure to properly manage motorbike traffic and create better methods to manage cars.

For instance, the change of the 4-digit car licence plates into 5-digit ones can help. All cars with adequate ownership certificates can have their licence plates replaced free of charge, while those without certificates cannot apply to receive a new 5-digit plate.

I believe a better vehicle registration and management system can be created as long as it receives support from the public and there is determination from the authorities.

* La Khac Hoa, chief of Staff Division, the Road and Railway Traffic Police Department

Stronger sanctions, which are being implemented in Ha Noi and HCM City, have achieved encouraging results during the past few months. Strong pressure was put on the traffic police to better manage their city's traffic. For example, motor vehicle drivers will be fined VND600,000 to VND800,000 for not observing traffic lights.

We strongly support this policy and hope that it will be implemented throughout the country soon.

While some people believe their should be stricter financial penalties for drivers that break traffic laws, I think that the current fines are suitable for Vietnamese incomes and are congruent with international regulations.

Most of the people not wearing helmets are youngsters.

* Le Tang, permanent member of the Da Nang Traffic Safety Committee

Parallel with communication and awareness campaigns, patrols and punishing traffic safety violators is one of the most significant methods that should be implemented.

We should "criminalise" some traffic offences which easily cause accidents such as illegal racing, people that drive after consuming large amounts of drugs and/or alcohol. We have the ability to revoke individual driver's licence and impound vehicles if they break certain laws.

* Le Toan, deputy director of the HCM City's Transport Department

Traffic violations have been reduced recently thanks to stronger measures and laws that have been pushed by the Government.

Stronger measures proposed by Ha Noi and HCM City officials are effective but not very sharp. Stronger sanction like increasing fines is one of the measures that are being implemented in an effort to make our roads safer. The traffic safety situation needs long-term investment and comprehensive measures to be drafted and enforced.

A long-term task that needs to be considered is how to provide people with more information about traffic safety.

We still have more technical measures that need to be created that help people to be more observant while they're driving. For example, we should create separate lanes for different types of vehicles, which could help make the roads safer.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News