VietNamNet Bridge – The Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam, in one month, collected fines totalling nearly VND18 billion (US$773,000) for traffic violations, reported online newspaper baotintuc.vn. 

Police officers inspect the weight of trucks on the highway. — VNA Photo

The fines were handed out to overloaded vehicles, which were inspected from July 21 to August 20 this year, the department said.

At vehicle weighting stations on highways, the inspectors discovered nearly 1,700 overloaded trucks, leading to the revocation of 556 driving licences and fines of VND18 billion.

However, there are still too many overloaded trucks travelling on national highways because there are not enough inspectors, said the directorate director Nguyen Van Huyen.

“Overloaded vehicles travelling on national highways and around sea and river ports continues to be a problem,” he said.

Overloaded vehicles cause damage to road surfaces, are unsafe in traffic and worsen environmental pollution.

Most of the trucks were reported as carrying construction materials, soil, rocks or cement.

To cope with the problem, the National Traffic Safety Committee has asked local governments to further reinforce inspection work at weighting stations along national highways, especially in areas near industrial zones, quarries, ports and construction material production plants, so as to stop overloaded vehicles operating without permits.

Source: VNS