Vehicle weights to be regulated

 

A lack of facilities to weigh lorries is preventing management offices from being able to protect roads and bridges and ensure traffic safety, according to experts from the Ministry of Transport's Directorate for Roads.

 

The country's roads total nearly 280,000km with 93 highways measuring nearly 17,000km but there are only two weighing stations that lack both equipment and manpower.

 

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles on the road is growing fast beyond capacity.

 

Highway 1A from Ha Noi to Vinh City, which was upgraded and opened to traffic in 1997, can serve 6,000 cars a day but statistics from the Doan Vi Station in Ninh Binh Province showed that in 2004, an average of 16,500 cars used the highway per day.

 

Statistics from road management offices also showed that 28 per cent of vehicles using Highway 3 and 30 per cent of vehicles on Highway No 5 were overloaded.

 

Bridges can stand a weight of about 30 tonnes, but many containers weigh 36-45 tonnes.

 

In a document regarding the Road Traffic Law issued in 2008, the Ministry of Transport regulated the weight a lorry could be, the circulation of overloaded lorries and transportation of overweight goods.

 

The ministry's Decision 60 issued in 2007 also regulated the queuing limit of lorries on roads, and Decision 63 issued in the same year regulated the transportation of heavy goods, but these regulations were not effective.

 

"The regulation raised difficulties for transportation enterprises, and most containers violated regulations," said Nguyen Khanh Toan, deputy general secretary of the Viet Nam Car Transport Association.

 

The Department of Science and Technology has asked the Ministry of Transport to add more regulations about weights, roads and loading capacities.

 

For instance, if a bridge is upgraded, management bodies will have to limit the number of vehicles, their weight and the speed at which they cross the bridge.

 

Department director Hoang Ha said regulations were being completed and signs were being installed outlining loading capacities on highways that served industrial zones.

 

"The department will also have a specific plan to verify the capacity of bridges to submit to the Ministry of Transport," he said.

 

Meanwhile, deputy director of the Ministry of Transport's Department of Infrastructure Mai Van Hong said that the ministry was drafting a circular to replace Decision 60.

 

The circular would have clearer regulations regarding the weight of specific vehicles.

 

Procedures to apply for a heavy goods lorry license would also be simplified.

 

Unhygienic patient practices heighten hospital health risks

 

Low awareness among patients and their carer relatives is a major impediment to preventing hospital infections, HCM City doctors say.

 

A report by the Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper yesterday quoted several doctors in city hospitals as saying unhygienic practices indulged in by patients and their relatives were causing serious consequences, including increasing fatalities.

 

Dr Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha, head of the city Paediatric Hospital No1's Hospital-Acquired Infection Control Ward, said habits like littering in hospitals by patients' carer relatives will increase the risk of hospital infection.

 

Although there were many dustbins placed throughout the hospital, many caretakers did not bother to use them, Ha said.

 

Many other doctors said that some relatives did not follow the hospital's regulations on wearing protective clothing including masks in the hospital's emergency, recovery and isolation wards.

 

They are not accustomed to wearing masks when visiting relatives with infectious diseases, and carry this practice into the hospitals, according to these doctors.

 

Dr La Thi The, head of the Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital's Hospital-Acquired Infection Control Ward, said that these habits should be changed in order to maintain proper hygiene in hospitals, which is key to controlling infections.

 

A report by the HCM City Institute of Hygiene and Public Health released last October showed that about 600,000 of the 7.5 million people hospitalised in Viet Nam every year contract infections at hospitals.

 

Hospital infection is one of the causes for increasing the rate of people getting afflicted by diseases, fatality rates, treatment time and costs as well as drug resistance.

 

According to Ha, limiting the number of people coming to the hospital to see their relatives is required to control hospital-acquired infections.

 

Other doctors said that hospital managers should meet and call on patients and their relatives regularly – once a week or month – to improve awareness of hospital infection control.

 

Tran Nguyen Hoang Phuong, a nurse at the Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital in District 5, said that the hospital held meetings with patients and their relatives once or twice a week in order to inform them that they were required to adopt several measures to maintain hygiene and protect patients' health.

 

These include the need to wash their hands regularly, wear protective clothing in the proper way and keep their rooms very clean.

 

Dr Nguyen Thi Le Hong, head of the Hospital-Acquired Infection Control Ward at the People's Hospital No115 in District 10, said that it was difficult to ensure that a large number of people who were in a hospital at any given time, maintain a clean environment and follow the hospital's regulations.

 

Around 4,000 patients' carer relatives stayed at her hospital during the day, not including people visiting patients, she said.

 

Therefore, it was very important that patients and their relatives act on their own volition to protect the health of their loved ones as well as other patients in the hospital, Ha added.

 

HCMC to be hit by rise jobless claims

 

The number of unemployment insurance claims in HCM City is forecast to rise as workers change jobs after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, according to the city's Employment Service Centre.

 

Nearly 350 workers claimed unemployment benefits on Tuesday, the first working day after the holiday, said Nguyen Cao Thang, deputy director of the centre.

 

Workers began shifting to other jobs during the first month of the Lunar Year, leading to the rising number of unemployment insurance applications, Thang said.

 

Last year, the centre received a total of 58,712 applicants claiming unemployment benefits, according to a report released by the centre.

 

The number of applications rose to 6,520 in January from a monthly average of 4,800 applications in the last few months of 2010.

 

Thang said the rise in the number of applications was blamed on the increase in the termination of labour contracts, by both employees and employers, at the end of last year.

 

Officials at the centre said it had been difficult to determine whether some employees were collecting benefits illegally.

 

Employees must be unemployed for at least 15 days in order to receive unemployment benefits.

 

Many workers had quit their jobs and were collecting unemployment benefits while working at a new job, officials said.

 

Rescued fishermen ready to go home

 

Five fishermen from the Philippines rescued by their Vietnamese counterparts on the East Sea have been staying in Tuy Hoa City, the capital of central Phu Yen Province, and are ready to return home now.

 

As soon as they reached land, they were received by the coast guard and housed in a hotel in the city, according to Huynh Van Dinh, deputy chief of staff of the provincial Coast Guard Force.

 

The provincial People's Committee asked the departments of police, border guards, health care and foreign affairs to take care of the fishermen during their stay in the country.

 

The Philippine embassy contacted the provincial authorities and carried out proceedings to repatriate the fishermen, expected to be early next week, according to Bui Tien Loi from the province's Department of Foreign Affairs.

 

The fishermen are from Calapandayan Subic Zambales, and their ages range from 24 to 46.

 

Le Con, a local fisherman and captain of fishing vessel PY90441, and his crew saved and provided first aid to the fishermen on January 30, where they were fishing about 300 nautical miles off the waters of central Binh Dinh Province.

 

However, Con could not return to land at the time because his ship had set out to sea for only two weeks to fish for tuna, and every trip cost him hundreds of thousands of US dollar.

 

Con contacted the coast guard and transferred three of the rescued fishermen to his colleagues whose vessels were nearby. The boats reached land on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

Nation plans massive road, bridge upgrade to reduce accident toll

 

A nationwide project to upgrade and maintain roads and bridges for the 2011-15 period will be developed this year, according to the Transport Ministry.

 

The ministry said it also planned to strictly supervise major road projects.

 

The ministry has set up a steering committee to enhance the construction quality of many road projects across the country.

 

Ngo Thinh Duc, deputy transport minister, has told agencies and sectors to submit detailed recommendations and solutions to upgrade and maintain roads as well as improve the management quality of the works.

 

Details should focus on work execution, standards, technology, work performance and quality control of the works, he said.

 

Duc has also ordered the Department of Traffic Work Quality and Construction Management to work with other agencies to draft the project proposal, provide consultancy and supervise the works.

 

The Transport Design and Consultancy General Company has been asked to give consultancy on designs, and the Investment and Planning Department has been asked to assess the investors' capabilities.

 

The ministry has also asked the Viet Nam Road Administration to properly allocate human resources to build new roads or upgrade old ones. However, many new roads have been built instead of being maintained and upgraded from the old roads despite lack of capital, which is a waste of money, according to local authorities.

 

Last year, 15,000 traffic accidents occurred in the country, mostly on roads, killing more than 11,000 people and injuring more than 10,500 people, according to Transport Ministry figures.

 

Poor traffic infrastructure is one of the main causes of serious traffic accidents in the countr

 

Overseas Vietnamese arrested with guns

 

The Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police on Thursday arrested Vietnamese American Thai Kelvin Thanh, 41, for travelling with military weapons.

 

Thanh, also known as Thai Thanh Khoa, was allegedly carrying two guns when he entered Viet Nam on December 2, 2010.

He was arrested at Tan Son Nhat Airport while checking into a flight from HCM City to Ha Noi.

 

Child escapes death after swallowing screw

 

A two-year-old child in southern Vung Tau City was able to escape death without medical intervention after swallowing a three-centimetre screw, said doctor Duong Minh Hung of the children's Hospital 2 on Wednesday.

 

Hung said the screw travelled through the child's digestive system to his stomach within three hours of swallowing it. Fortunately, his bowel was not scratched.

 

On the same day, a 13 month-old baby girl in HCM City's Cu Chi District was saved by doctors after being trampled by a cow. The child suffered from four broken ribs and a severely damaged lung, doctors said.

 

Green rice cultivation to be tested

 

An experimental rice-growing model to reduce emission of greenhouse gases has been announced in the Mekong Delta Province of An Giang following a workshop attended by local authorities and researchers.

 

Can Tho University, the Ha Noi Water Resources University, the US-based Environmental Defense Fund, and the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Development Research Institute, who are piloting the model on 100ha in Binh Hoa Commune, said the emission of carbon dioxide can be measured.

 

By 2015, after the pilot project is completed, the system is expected to be adopted on 500ha.

 

Doan Ngoc Pha, deputy director of the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said measuring carbon dioxide emissions from rice crops would help determine the use of fertilisers and pesticides that cause the emissions.

 

The traditional method of rice planting emits large amounts of carbon dioxide because of the overuse of fertilisers and pesticides, improper irrigation, and burning of rice husk after harvest.

‘VIP’ arrested for selling teens to China brothels

 

Claiming himself as a big businessman, Dao Van Duong lured 7 girls aged 17-23 to China on long holidays only to sell them to brothels there.

 

Hanoi police arrested him last Friday when he was visiting his ex-girlfriend in Lang Son northern province bordering China and planning to sell her.

 

Duong would introduce himself as owner of a big coffee shop in Hanoi and a businessman trading in clothes and electronic items imported from China.

 

In fact he is only a local porter at a border region.

 

A 23-year-old girl who escaped sexual slavery several days after being sold in China told Vietnamese police that she was tricked by his charisma and extravagance.

 

At the end of last March, Duong invited her, a then promotional girl at a bar in Hanoi, to go on a business trip with him to China to import clothes.

 

But he sold her shortly after.

 

According to police, Duong has sold around 7 young women aged 17 – 23. For each woman sold, he would receive VND100 million (US$5,000).

 

At present, 4 out of the 7 victims have been rescued from brothels in China.

 

Police are hunting down his accomplices.

 

Bus busted cramming passengers to twice capacity

 

Traffic police in the central Danang City Sunday stopped an extremely overloaded bus packed with 103 passengers while its capacity is only 60.

 

It was traveling from the central Ha Tinh Province to Ho Chi Minh City.

 

Around half of the passengers on the bus were sent to another bus to continue their journey.

 

The vehicle was later impounded.

 

The police also seized the bus driver’s license and ordered the transport company to which the bus belonged to pay a fine of VND15.6 million (US$800).

Taxi drivers arrested in train crash investigation 

 

Two taxi drivers have been arrested as police continue their investigation into an accident in which a train smashed into a six cars on a bridge, killing two and injuring 24 during the Lunar New Year holiday.

 

News website VnExpress cited a police officer as saying on Saturday that drivers Nguyen Quoc Hung and Tran Minh Chau were arrested on charges of obstructing rail traffic.

 

The report said Hung and Chau stopped their cars and quarreled with each other on the Ghenh Bridge in the southern province of Dong Nai for several minutes, causing a traffic jam.

 

That was when a northbound train approached the bridge and crashed into six cars stuck on it.

 

The narrow bridge, reportedly built more than 100 years ago, handles both car and train traffic.

 

Police had previously arrested seven railway workers in the case. The train driver, his assistant, a traffic light maintenance worker and four guards were taken into police custody for investigation of their negligence and violation of rail traffic regulations. 

 

Initial investigation shows that the guards on the bridge failed to warn the train to not get on the bridge. VnExpress cited police as saying the investigation is still ongoing and that no official conclusion has been reached at this point.

16-floor Golden Tower on fire

 

Around 10:30 am today, a fire broke out from a 6 sq.m host computer room at the 14th floor of the 16-storey Golden Tower located at District 1's No 6 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St., panicking hundreds of staff at the commercial center.

 

The 14th floor belongs to an office of HCMC Techcombank branch.

 

Staff told police when they heard the fire alarm bell, they rushed to escape so fast through staircases that they failed to take any possession, even a motorcycle key.

 

Firefighters from District 1 and District 3 were mobilized to the scene to extinguish the fire.

 

By around 12:00 am at the same day, the fire was put under control.

 

According to initial investigation, the cause is due to a short electrical circuit.

 

In a related news, at 9am today, an extensive flame occurred at a private house in Nguyen Canh Chan St, Vinh central city, burning to ashes most of its household items, but fortunately no human casualty has been reported.

 

It spread to a garage nearby.

 

At around 9:15 am, firefighters were mobilized to the scene and managed to control the blame after less than one hour.

 

The incident was chaotic as thousands flocked to witness the fire occurring near Vinh market.

 

According to locals, the house where the fire started is used for trading in fruits and vegetables.

 

The cause is initially put down to a short electrical circuit.

 

Phu Yen thieves steal three Buddhist statues

 

Thieves broke into a pagoda in the central Phu Yen Province and stole three Buddhist statues made of copper last Sunday.

 

Dao Thi Ly, the 43-year-old janitor of the Tho Lam-Thuong Tien Pagoda in Tuy Hoa City, said the thieves cut through the lock of the door when the chief monk was absent.

 

They took away three copper statues, each weighing 2-3 kilograms.

 

Local police are investigating.

 

Dalat, Tokyo medical facilities in cancer tie-up

 

Lam Dong General Hospital in Dalat has tied up with Toho Hospital in the Japanese capital Tokyo for cancer treatment.

 

Under an agreement signed yesterday Toho will provide equipment and know-how to diagnose and treat the disease.

 

Sanshikai Group, which owns the hospital, will invite three doctors from Lam Dong Hospital to Tokyo for training in cancer treatment, and has promised to provide Lam Dong hospital a dialysis machine.

 

The Dalat hospital will help patients who want to be treated in Japan with procedures.

 

The two hospitals will also exchange personnel to improve their professional skills.

 

Man arrested for hitting female gymnast dead

 

Hanoi police have arrested a man for crashing a truck into a 14-year-old female gymnast last month, killing her and seriously injuring a Chinese coach.

 

Vu Van Quang, 25, of the northern Bac Ninh Province was driving the truck loaded with bricks when it crushed into a motorcycle driven by a man with a girl on the back seat.

 

The girl, identified as Truong Khanh Huyen, a 14-year-old gymnast of the National Sports Center, died on the spot.

 

The man called Zhaogu, a Chinese gymnastic coach of the center, was seriously injured.

 

Quang, the truck driver, fled the scene after the accident.

 

The truck owner, Nguyen Van Thu, then sold the truck to some one else.

 

The police found out Thu hired Quang to transport bricks since last October.