HÀ NỘI — The National Traffic Safety Committee on Sunday evening sent a document asking the Ministry of Transport and local traffic safety committees to strengthen inspection on vehicles’ safety and movement.

The request was released after a coach overturned at 6pm on Saturday while travelling from Vinh City in the central province of Nghệ An to central Thanh Hóa Province. The coach was transporting 40 passengers, out of which 14 received minor injuries. Four victims are still undergoing treatment at Hospital 115.

The Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam said the coach was a supplementary one for the upcoming Tết (Lunar New Year) festival at the end of this month, but it was not scheduled to operate.

At the time of the accident, the coach did not have a black box, the piece of equipment that supervises its itinerary.

On January 13, the coach was discovered to be speeding in the southern province of Bình Thuận.

Leaders of the National Traffic Safety Committee said the accident proved there was an increasing risk of coach accidents during the Lunar New Year and the spring festival this year.

To minimise risks, Trương Hòa Bình, standing deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, asked ministries, sectors, provinces and cities to strictly ensure traffic safety during both the festivals.

The Ministry of Transport was asked to provide guidance to transport agencies to strengthen inspection of vehicles’ technical safety conditions and, supervise coaches’ operations via their black boxes.

During the Lunar New Year festival, the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam was asked to have a quick daily announcement on cases flouting rules, which were discovered via the itinerary supervision system.

The provincial and municipal traffic safety committees were also instructed to join hands with the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam to receive information on such cases and penalise them. The committees were ordered to issue warnings to drivers to obey regulations on speed and itinerary, especially while travelling on the highways.

In addition, traffic police have been asked to go on patrol regularly and pay more attention to coaches’ operations, especially with regard to speeding, travelling in the wrong lane, overcrowding, picking up passengers at wrong spots and overcharging. — VNS