Synchronizing solutions to ensure traffic safety during Tet

Local action efforts

During the last days of the year, together with the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee Office, we surveyed the deployment of clearance and traffic safety corridors in some localities. We found that, compared to before, traffic safety corridors on national highways are better ensured.

Some localities organize regular campaigns, not waiting until near Tet, to ensure order and traffic safety on national and provincial highways.

Traffic police force deployed to ensure traffic safety before the Lunar New Year. Photo: Document

In Dien Chau, in 2019, the district organized 3-4 clearance campaigns, the strongest of which was the corridor along National Highway 1A from Dien An to Dien Thanh, clearing nearly 50 kiosks, dismantling and confiscating thousands of square meters of land.²roofing as well as illegal dumping materials. In particular, during the campaign before Tet, localities confiscated 2,500 umbrellas and many advertising signs violating traffic safety corridors.

Similarly, in Nghi Loc district, after the sidewalks on both sides of National Highway 1A (through Quan Hanh town) were renovated, the town's Traffic Safety Committee organized roadside businesses to sign a commitment and continuously inspected and reminded them. On December 27, 2019, the district launched a campaign and issued a document directing localities to implement. By January 9, 2020, the entire district had dismantled 50 canopies and more than 70 fixed billboards; recovered more than 200 mobile billboards of all kinds; cut down and cleared more than 200 trees and pushed and rearranged more than 300 businesses, and cleared more than 100 m³soil and rock…

Meanwhile, in Hoang Mai and Quynh Luu towns, due to the complicated situation of re-encroachment on the traffic safety corridor on National Highway 1 and some sections on National Highways 48D and 48B, and since mid-December 2019 (when the province had not yet issued a Plan to launch a peak campaign to clear the traffic safety corridor), the People's Committees of these two localities have issued documents directing localities to launch a campaign to clear the corridor and respond to voters at the People's Council at the end of the year. In Quynh Luu district, on December 15, 2019, the district disseminated the information to localities and on December 17, 2019, a simultaneous campaign was organized, then assigned localities to review, organize forces to inspect and clear the corridor right in their localities.

Launching and handling signs violating traffic safety corridors in Vinh City: Photo: PV

In Vinh City, since the beginning of December 2019, along with the approval of the Urban Beautification Plan for the Lunar New Year, the city has also issued a Plan to clear the safety corridors on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, including a specific plan for each route that is often encroached upon to sell goods, flowers, and ornamental plants such as Nghi Kim market on Nguyen Trai Street, Cua Bac market on Le Loi Street, Le Nin - Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Avenue; Nguyen Du Street in Trung Do Ward... to be assigned to the Ward Rules Team, the City Urban Order Management Team and the Police of wards and communes to regularly inspect and remind.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Thang - Head of the Urban Management Department said: In 2019, the city has drawn and drawn many sidewalks for the authorities to monitor and people to comply. Currently, to serve the Lunar New Year, the city has also agreed to some areas of flower streets, flower markets, and ornamental plants on 3/2 Avenue, Le Nin Street and National Highway 46 in Nghi An Commune for households to display flowers and ornamental plants for Tet; organize for households to sign a commitment not to obstruct traffic and the authorities will regularly patrol, remind and handle.

Construction of a railway crossing at Nghi Loc. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In addition to the local deployment schedule, to ensure traffic safety and construction on national highways, the Road Management Department 2 is also organizing inspections of routes that have been and have just been constructed to repair safety items in order to find solutions to fix and handle them.

A representative of the Traffic Safety Department, Road Administration Department 2 said: In 2019, the Department regularly coordinated with the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee to investigate and survey black spots, spots with potential risks of traffic insecurity as well as unreasonable locations of median strips and guardrails on National Highway 1A according to recommendations from localities to consider reopening for people to travel conveniently and ensure traffic safety.

Con Cuong district launched a campaign to ensure traffic safety during the Lunar New Year. Photo: PV

Based on Plan No. 765 of the Provincial People's Committee, as of January 12, all localities have organized campaigns to clear and ensure corridors. Although members of departments and branches have not yet reported, after more than 2 weeks of launching the peak campaign, the work of ensuring traffic safety corridors before Tet has improved compared to previous years.

Mr. Vo Minh Duc - Chief of Office of Provincial Traffic Safety Committee

Still lacking "sustainability"

Studying the traffic safety situation and directly surveying some national highways, we realized that despite efforts, the sustainability of traffic safety corridor clearance campaigns is still not high. In localities, if the authorities are negligent and localities do not remind or handle resolutely, the phenomenon of re-encroachment occurs.

A typical example of the above phenomenon is the encroachment on the National Highway 1A traffic safety corridor on Nguyen Trai Street near the Nghi Kim Commune overpass, the section through Quynh Giang, Quynh Lam and Cau Giat Town, Quynh Van (Quynh Luu) or the Quynh Xuan section (Hoang Mai Town) which is quite chaotic when there are a series of kiosks with advertising signs spilling onto the sidewalk, production and business locations with a rather chaotic number of vehicles entering, exiting, stopping and parking, which only lasts a few days before recurring.

The intersection of the residential road of Quynh Ba - Quynh Hung commune with National Highway 48B is a black spot for traffic accidents that have arisen since 2017. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Lieutenant Colonel Vo Quang Trung - Captain of the Traffic Police Team of Quynh Luu District Police said: In fact, at the above locations, during the traffic safety campaigns, the district has reminded and confiscated evidence, but because the technical infrastructure is still too inadequate and weak, it is difficult to take drastic action. For example, the district has not yet planned a bus station and the temporary station is too far from the center, so it is very difficult to handle vehicles stopping and parking at Cau Giat intersection. Cau Giat town intersection is a key traffic route of the district, but the traffic light system is constantly having problems, causing frequent and quite dangerous traffic jams.

In fact, violations of the corridor are mainly hanging and placing billboards that affect the passage of non-motorized vehicles or hanging billboards too low and perpendicular to the road, limiting visibility.

In addition, some intersections between residential roads and newly constructed roads such as National Highway 48D, 48E, or Road N5 still have shortcomings leading to very limited visibility from all sides, people are not familiar with the traffic, so accidents increase.

In the past two years, there have been dozens of fatal traffic accidents on National Highway 48B, 48D through Quynh Luu District, Hoang Mai Town and Highway N5 through Nghi Loc and Do Luong Districts due to insufficient traffic safety corridors and lack of speed limit warning signs...

To handle these points with traffic safety risks, the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee is conducting a survey to propose that the Central Government allocate funds to clear and expand the corridor. However, while waiting for funding to fix the black spots, the General Department of Roads has issued a document requesting the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Transport to direct localities to proactively allocate funds to fix the risk points under their authority (under 300 million VND), to ensure safety for people traveling in the immediate future.

National Highway 48D, also known as Road 36, intersects with Provincial Road 537 to Quynh Thang Commune, a high-risk point for traffic accidents because the road is new and has limited visibility. Photo: Nguyen Hai

On the other hand, the cause of recent fatal traffic accidents mainly occurred at black spots, which are intersections between residential roads and newly constructed roads such as National Highway 48D, 48E, Ho Chi Minh Trail, and Road N5.

The intersection between Nghi An - Hung Hoa 35m road and Vinh - Cua Hoi road had new traffic signals installed before Tet. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Although there have been initial changes, to know which localities are doing well, we have to wait until after December 23, when people officially go shopping for Tet, to evaluate. The province has a plan and specific assignments for localities on preventing traffic congestion and ensuring safety before and during Tet, so localities must concentrate their forces, take drastic actions and have synchronous solutions, resolutely handle the situation of re-encroachment of traffic safety corridors to meet the requirements./.

Mr. Vo Minh Duc - Chief of Office of Provincial Traffic Safety Committee