VietNamNet Bridge - About 6,000 people participated in a requiem for road accident victims on Sunday in the northern Nam Dinh City's Truc Lam Thien Truong zen monastery.

The requiem is part of the activities organised by the National Road Safety Committee to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, held on the third Sunday of November each year.

This is the fourth year Vietnam marking the day.

Road accidents killed more than 20 people and left almost 70 people with lifelong disabilities daily in Vietnam.

Road accidents also caused loss of about VND4 million to VND6 trillion (US$180 million–$268.7 million) every year.

The first 10 months of this year saw fewer traffic accidents in Vietnam, with just around 18,440 incidents, down 11 percent compared with the same period last year.

The number of traffic-related fatalities also declined, with 7,185 people being killed and nearly 16,770 getting injured, down 3.9 percent and 16 per cent, respectively.

Head of office of the National Committee on Traffic Safety (NCTS) Nguyen Trong Thai said the number of accidents as well as the number of dead and injured people were lower compared with the same period last year, because the government had launched several programmes to tighten traffic regulations.

The statistics of the committee also showed that in October this year, 1,978 traffic accidents were reported from across the country, which killed 667 people and injured 1,826, the NCTS said.

In the first 10 months of 2015, 259,940 new cars and more than 2.49 million new motorbikes were registered, raising the number of vehicles in the country to 2.6 million cars and 43.7 million motorbikes.

Traffic police handled 3.4 million cases of traffic violations, collected administrative fines of VND2.26 trillion (US$100.4 million), detained 32,000 cars and 422,500 motorbikes, and revoked 290,800 driving licences. 

VNE/VNS