Leap in HCMC’s road toll forces authorities to act

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have ordered a traffic safety crackdown after an alarming jump in the city's road toll in the first half of this month.

In the first 16 days of March, 50 people were killed and 18 others injured in traffic accidents, a 47-percent year-on-year increase. HCMC Road Traffic Police Chief Pham Van Thinh said many of the accidents were the result of people driving in the wrong lane or exceeding the speed limit. Thinh said that more than a half the traffic accidents happened between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. Head of the HCMC People's Committee, and also Head of the city's Traffic Safety Committee, Le Hoang Quan, said the city would install an additional 100 surveillance cameras on main roads so authorities could better detect traffic violations. Thinh said traffic police would also be much tougher on traffic offenders. At a recent meeting between the city's People's Committee and relevant agencies, city Police Department Deputy Head Ngo Minh Chau proposed installing more notices on city roads detailing traffic fines. Quan said he was convinced the proposal was a workable method of raising public awareness of traffic safety. The city's People's Committee said an extra 200 volunteer traffic managers would soon start work overseeing the city's traffic. From the beginning of April, more than 330 paramilitary officers will assist with traffic management during rush hours to help ease gridlocks and allow traffic policemen to concentrate on handling violations. Chau also expressed concern at the rising number of motorcyclists not wearing helmets. HCMC police nabbed 5,500 people breaking the helmet law in the first two months of this year. A representative of HCMC-based Cho Ray Hospital said that the new compulsory helmet law had helped reduce the rate of brain trauma caused by traffic accidents in the past several months. But some motorcycle accident victims who were wearing helmets were still suffering from brain trauma, probably as a result of low-quality helmets, he said. The hospital official called for electric bike drivers to be included in the helmet law. Under the helmet law, which came into effect on December 15, it is compulsory for all motorbike riders and passengers to wear helmets. Vietnam, with a population of 86 million, is home to more than 21.7 million motorbikes and 1.1 million cars, according to the General Statistic Office. Reported by Duc Trung