VietNamNet Bridge – A HCM city official has stressed the need for identifying the responsibility of individuals and agencies for traffic accidents caused by road depressions and potholes.

Speaking at a meeting on "Road depressions and potholes – causes and solutions" held last Sunday, Huynh Cong Hung, deputy head of the Economic and State Budget Division of the HCM City People's Council, said no individual or agency had taken responsibility for accidents that have claimed several lives.

Tran Quang Phuong, director of Department of Transport, said the city had six State administrative agencies involved in managing the transport sector and there were overlaps in authority.

When a road had depressions and potholes, it was difficult to immediately identify who was responsible and to take steps to dealing with the consequences, Phuong said.

Irresponsible contractors and mismanagement of infrastructure projects were the main causes of road depressions and potholes in the city, speakers said at the meeting.

Le Phuoc Thao, director of the HCM City Regulation Centre for Flood Prevention Programme, said most cases of road depressions and potholes, even those causing fatalities, could have been foreseen and avoided.

However, the project investors, consultants and contractors had not paid proper attention to the warnings, Thao said.

Truong Trong Nghia, Hung's deputy, stressed the need to hold relevant individuals and agencies responsible so that precedents would be set for subsequent cases.

Nghia also petitioned the council to hire a group of experts to conduct an independent survey of the overall situation on city roads in order to find effective long-term solutions.

City authorities should ban heavy trucks from travelling on inner city roads that are in danger of collapse, many participants said at the meeting.

They also asked the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment to tighten management of underground water exploitation.

Pham Phuong Thao, chairwoman of the council, said the city People's Committee needed to clearly divide tasks and responsibilities between administrative agencies to avoid existing overlaps.

This would help avoid the situation whereby there were many administrative agencies but no one had to bear responsibility when there were traffic accidents because of bad road conditions, she said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News