Beware of the "taking advantage of the situation" trick

(Baonghean) - The campaign against oversized and overloaded vehicles across the country has been going on for several months now. However, on major and minor roads, whether national or provincial, there are still many heavy trucks that can be seen with the naked eye to be significantly overloaded.

Checking oversized and overloaded vehicles. Illustration photo

This is a question with many answers. And the later it gets, the more different the answer becomes. Initially, when the authorities were strict, drivers tried to get around it by taking detours to avoid the weigh stations. Then they used the tactic of “using force to overwhelm others” by parking in long lines in front of the weigh stations and then taking the opportunity to rush through. More aggressively and recklessly, they attacked the joint forces at the checkpoints, driving their vehicles through barriers to escape. More discreetly, they sent people to collude and bribe the authorities to get through the checkpoints. Those tricks were popular at first and now they have changed to a new method.is to take advantage of the weak points of the authorities during the day to "pass" the weighing station.

Typically, on June 29, the press recorded a scene where a series of oversized and overloaded cars took advantage of the moment when officers of Weigh Station No. 15 stationed in Dien An Commune (Dien Chau) changed shifts at noon and noisily rushed through the checkpoint right in front of the authorities as if there were no one there. However, when witnessing this scene with their own eyes, many people could not help but suspect that Weigh Station No. 15 was taken advantage of by drivers who took advantage of the moment of carelessness and then "ambushed" them to escape, or that they intentionally let drivers "take advantage" of it to legitimize the act of allowing overloaded vehicles to pass the checkpoint. Because the handover between the two shifts only took place in a short time and the task force was still present at the scene and not completely absent. Yet the incident lasted for nearly two hours, a series of trucks passed through the station and they only managed to stop for inspection... one truck, the "smallest and lightest" among those that passed through.

Looking at this scene, some people commented that it is not true that the authorities were not strong enough to stop it at that time, but it seems that they had no intention of stopping the overloaded vehicles from passing the station. As for why there was “no intention of stopping it”, the authorities must investigate and consider it to have an accurate answer.

From this incident, I suddenly remembered that at the conference to review the work of inspecting and controlling vehicle loads in the province that took place not long ago, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dien, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, assessed that the inspection and handling results still did not reflect the reality. Oversized and overloaded vehicles still run a lot on National Highway 1A. And he asked the question "Have the weighing station forces done their best? Have they controlled 24/7?". Through the above incident, once again, public opinion is forced to ask that question again. If they have done their best, we must find out the reason why, but if it is not, we must clarify the specific cause to have timely remedial measures. And we also need to consider other possibilities. Such as receiving bribes to let oversized and overloaded vehicles pass through the station and then blaming the drivers for gathering and colluding to take advantage of the shift change to rush through. The most feared thing is that there will be a "taking advantage of the situation" like that.

Therefore, in order for the inspection and control of oversized and overloaded vehicles to be as effective as desired, among the things that need to be done, it is important to remember to be extremely vigilant to promptly detect and strictly handle acts of "taking advantage of the situation" and assisting vehicles in violation to make illegal profits.

Duy Huong