HÀ NỘI – Hà Nội’s Traffic Police Division has proposed installing 3,000 additional cameras to supervise traffic, but experts think installing so many cameras at once should be considered carefully.

Some 6 million vehicles are registered in the city, 5.2 million of them motorbikes, according to statistics of the Traffic Police Division. In addition, a great number of vehicles from other provinces enter the city periodically, although police do not have complete statistics on those.

But the city’s infrastructure does not meet the demands of the increasing traffic.

Colonel Đào Vịnh Thắng, head of the Traffic Police Division, said traffic police lack tools to serve their work.

On average, each traffic police officer must manage 9km of road with more than 8,000 vehicles and they must work at least 10 hours per day, he said.

To ensure traffic order and reduce work pressure on police, the division proposed installing 3,000 cameras to supervise vehicles and enable punishment of traffic violators. The cameras should be installed on main roads, bridges, hospital areas and coach terminals, according to the proposal.

Bùi Danh Liên, chairman of the Hà Nội Transport Association, said that supervising traffic with cameras was necessary, but installing such a big number at present should be considered carefully.

A traffic police official who asked not to be named said there were several differences between the Ministry of Transport’s regulations and the Law on Transport regulations regarding such fines, and the traffic police might find these confusing to apply.

The legal differences should be re-examined and revised before setting up more cameras, he said.

The city traffic police issued fines in 7,640 cases based on camera footage this year.

New Year holiday sees 79 killed in traffic accidents

During the three-day calendar New Year 2017 holiday, the country saw 93 traffic accidents which killed 79 people and injured 54 others, according to the Traffic Police Department. 

Of which, there are 91 road accidents, claiming 77 lives and injuring 54 others. 

On January 2, 21 people died and 23 others were injured as a result of 30 road accidents. Two other people were killed in two railway accidents. 

The same day, police dealt with 3,551 traffic violations, seized 21 cars and 317 motorbikes, revoked 276 driving licences and collected VNĐ 2.9 billion (US$127,368) in fines. 

Waterway traffic police also handled 115 violations, collecting VNĐ 97.5 million ($ 4.28 million). – VNS