A traffic jam is seen on Nguyễn Trãi Street, Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Thành Đạt

HÀ NỘI — Traffic safety situation in Việt Nam had improved greatly in the first half of this year, largely due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and two new laws, Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hoà Bình has said.

According to the National Committee for Traffic Safety, between December 15, 2019, and June 14, 2020, 6,790 traffic accidents were reported nationwide, killing 3,242 people and injuring 4,939 people.

Compared with the figures in the same period last year, accidents reduced by 19.02 per cent, deaths by 568 or nearly 15 per cent and the number of injured victims reduced by 1,419 people or 22.32 per cent.

Chairing the meeting reviewing the country’s traffic in the first half of this year, head of the committee Bình said that reduced transportation as a result of social distancing order in combination with strong implementation of two new decrees that brought stricter fines for drink driving and a change in business conditions for automobile transportation contributed to the results.

At the meeting, Bình applauded the ministries of Transport and Public Security and relevant parties for developing and implementing the two decrees effectively.

However, he noted that transport issues remain complex, especially as major fatal accidents still occur. For example, six people were killed after a boat carrying 12 people sunk on the Krong Nô River in central Đắk Nông Province on June 13. The overloaded boat was designed to carry only three people at a time and had no life jackets.

On June 17, a container truck collided with a bus head-on in Quảng Ninh Province, killing three people.

“Such accidents worry people a lot,” he said, adding there are other problems like overloaded vehicles, traffic congestion in urban areas, drink driving and violations in granting driving licences and in vehicles registration.

At the meeting, Bình called for better communication about traffic safety and measures to implement traffic decrees more effectively.

Khuất Việt Hùng, vice head of the National Committee for Traffic Safety reported that in the last six months, the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam, traffic-related departments and inspectors of transport departments nationwide conducted more than 27,600 inspections, detecting nearly 28,600 violations and collecting total fines worth more than VNĐ93.2 billion (US$4 million).

As many as 127 cars/trucks and 80 inland waterway vessels were seized, while the operations of 124 inland waterway ports were halted.

Traffic police cracked down on some 1.8 million violations on roads, railways and inland waterways, collecting fines in excess of VNĐ1.6 trillion ($70 million)

Police withdrew the driving licences of nearly 151,000 lawbreakers and seized nearly 305,000 vehicles.

Compared with figures of last year’s first half, the number of violations in the first half of this year fell by 151,471 cases while fines increased by VNĐ343 billion.

During the national campaign to inspect and handle road violations from May 15 to June 14, traffic police nationwide stopped 1.69 million vehicles and detected 401,000 violations, seized 61,563 vehicles and withdrew the driving licences of 27,293 people.

Of the violations, 0.07 per cent were related to the drivers’ using narcotics, 5.1 per cent related to drink-driving, 7.9 per cent related to speeding, 1.2 per cent related to overloading and 12.6 per cent were related to driving licence/vehicle registration issues.  

About 3 per cent of the violations are related to the drivers’ not obeying traffic lights.   

From Wednesday (July 1), drivers across the country could pay fines online at the national public service portal dichvucong.gov.vn. People also can apply for or change driving licences using the portal. The two services are among six online public services which were launched on Wednesday. — VNS