Vietnam’s traffic sector will strive to cut down the number of traffic accidents and the resulting deaths and injuries this year by 5-10 percent each compared to those in 2014, the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) has said.
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The targets were announced during an online conference that was held on Tuesday by the NTSC to review the sector’s performance in ensuring traffic order and safety in 2014 and discuss tasks for 2015.
The event was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, chairman of the committee, who said, “Human life is above all,” when he mentioned the 2015 National Traffic Safety Year program, which was recently launched by the NTSC with the theme of “tightening the control of transportation businesses and vehicles’ loading capacities.”
The aim of the program is to lower the number of traffic accidents and the resulting deaths and injuries in 2015 by 5-10 percent each compared to those of last year, according to the NTSC.
Speaking at the conference, Senior Lieutenant General Le Quy Vuong, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said that one of the key duties of traffic police in 2015 is to step up patrolling, controlling and strictly handling traffic rule violations.
“Through both publicized and secret activities, the Ministry of Public Security will further improve the traffic police force’s performance, especially activities related to traffic patrolling and examination and handling traffic violations,” Vuong said.
Last year saw more than 25,000 traffic accidents occur across the country, causing nearly 9,000 deaths, the lowest death rate in the past several years, the NTSC said at the conference.
According to the committee’s official statistics, 25,322 traffic accidents happened nationwide from December 16, 2013 to December 15, 2014, killing 8,996 people and injuring 24,417 others.
Compared to the preceding 12 months, the numbers of traffic accidents and the resulting deaths and injuries went down by 13.8 percent, four percent, and 17.2 percent respectively.
However, speaking at the conference, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said that many severe accidents occurred in 2014 and activities to ensure traffic order and safety were not as effective as expected.
“The handling of traffic rule violations has yet to meet requirements; management of transport and registration and technical examination of vehicles has still exposed weaknesses; and the situation of overloaded trucks has yet to be eliminated,” Minister Thang said.
In addition, congestion during the evening rush hour on many routes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and on a number of highways remains prevalent, Thang added.
The minister suggested that traffic police should increase patrols and inspections to strictly deal with traffic safety violations, particularly those that could result in accidents.
Competent agencies should consider adopting a regulation under which a truck that carries overloaded goods must be handled criminally – instead of only through administrative penalties as at present – if the volume of the cargos exceeds certain levels for each type of truck, Thang recommended.
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Đăng ký: VietNam News
