HÀ NỘI - Hà Nội police yesterday stepped up enforcement against modified vehicles such as three wheelers and other rudimentary means of transport that carry cumbersome loads of goods, causing traffic disorder and endangering pedestrians and drivers.

The move came after the tragic death of a nine-year-old boy on Tân Mai Street in the capital’s Hoàng Mai District last Friday. The boy was riding his bicycle when he collided with an iron sheet carried on a xích lô (cyclo) parked along the pavement, and his neck was slashed. The length and width of the sheet were reportedly far beyond the cyclo’s capacity.

Hoàng Mai district police temporarily arrested the cyclo driver, Đinh Ngọc Thạch, 52, for further investigation.

To prevent similar accidents, the National Traffic Safety Committee asked the municipal People’s Committee to crack down on such overloaded vehicles.

To curb traffic accidents and congestion, the Prime Minister banned three-wheelers starting in January 2008.

Cyclos are only allowed to carry tourists around the city. Despite the ban, many cyclos, three or four-wheel vehicles, have been modified and used to carry loads of bulky goods which can be easily spotted on Hà Nội’s streets.

Colonel Đào Vinh Thắng, head of the Road and Railway Traffic Division of Hà Nội Traffic Police Department, said that more than 3,300 violations were recorded in the first nine months of this year. Up to 220 three wheelers were confiscated while about 350 others are about to be.

On the first day of the new crackdown campaign, traffic police officers on Giải Phóng Street of Hoàng Mai District asked violators to dismantle modified parts of certain vehicles. War veterans whose vehicles carried heavy goods had to take them off and wait for other vehicles to come and carry them.

A similar accident in Mai Lĩnh area, Hà Đông District, in the capital city, killed a 66-year-old woman from the northern Hòa Bình Province yesterday afternoon. An ox cart carrying a sharp iron sheet slashed the woman’s neck and broke her windpipe, the Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) online reported. -- VNS