Ensuring Traffic Safety for Sunflower Festival

(Baonghean) - On December 25, the Sunflower Festival and the Western Spring Festival will officially open. Currently, preparations are in the final stages, especially in promoting traffic safety for people and tourists.

During the 2015 sunflower season, a large number of tourists flocked to visit, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. The sudden increase in visitors led to traffic congestion for many hours, especially between 9am and 4pm.

Specifically, on Sunday, November 29, thousands of people flocked to the sunflower field, causing traffic congestion on Ho Chi Minh Road through Nghia Lam Commune (Nghia Dan), forcing authorities to work hard to regulate and direct traffic.

Ho Chi Minh Road was congested due to too many tourists coming to see the sunflower fields in 2015.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Nam, in Hung Dung Ward (Vinh City) said: “Last year I went to the sunflower field. As excited as I was when I went, I was just as disappointed when I got there. Of course, it wasn’t because the sunflower field wasn’t beautiful, but because many people had very poor traffic awareness, not only did no one give way to anyone, but they also tried to get in the opposite lane. So, just 2 km from the sunflower field, I had to move little by little, taking nearly 3 hours. Knowing that this year there was a Sunflower Festival and a beauty contest, I wanted to go but was afraid of traffic jams!

Recalling the story of last year to know that, this year if there is no initiative of the authorities, especially the police, it can be affirmed that traffic jams will still occur. Because this year, for the first time Nghe An organizes the Sunflower Festival, so the number of tourists is forecasted to be many times higher than previous years. At the same time, through many different information channels, more and more tourists know about the grandeur and poetry of a flower field, so many people from provinces, cities and even foreign delegations will also flock to Nghia Dan during the festival.

Besides, with such a beautiful, new and attractive tourist destination, travel agencies do not miss their business opportunities. Currently, travel agencies have received dozens of travel contracts, even tours from Thailand like Viettravel...

In addition to the Sunflower Festival and the Sunflower Beauty Contest, this year the Provincial People's Committee also organized the Western Spring Festival - a festival that has long attracted many tourists to visit and learn about the unique cultural activities of the Western region of Nghe An...

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh road is one of the two main arteries of the country. On normal days, the traffic volume is very high, mainly trucks and long-distance buses. The road area is very large, so organizing events at the same time with sunflower fields will certainly pose a potential risk to traffic safety.

Regarding traffic safety work, Major Tran Van Thap - Deputy Head of Nghia Dan District Police said: In addition to developing detailed plans and schemes, the District Police also organize mobile patrol teams on the roads, promptly detecting and handling violations, thereby gradually rectifying traffic order and safety in the area. On peak days, we also mobilize the police force of Nghia Son and Nghia Lam communes and volunteer youth forces to support. In case of congestion, in addition to regulating traffic, we will divert vehicles to Highway 531 towards Quynh Luu District or the bypass towards Thai Hoa Town.

The Sunflower Festival and the Western Spring Festival are approaching, to achieve complete success, ensuring security, order and traffic safety is extremely important. In fact, the reason why traffic jams occurred last year was mostly due to the fault of traffic participants, most of which was lane encroachment, even overflowing the entire opposite lane. That shows that the awareness of traffic participants is very poor, they just want to get to the flower fields as quickly as possible, regardless of the Traffic Law.

To ensure smooth traffic, contributing to the success of the Sunflower Festival 2016, creating the premise for flower festivals taking place in the following years, the efforts of the authorities alone are not enough, but also require the awareness, cooperation and contribution of the people and tourists./.

South Scene