Reducing traffic jams when there are accidents: Still not fixed!

(Baonghean.vn) - As a major traffic route with high traffic density, every year on National Highway 1A, the section through Nghe An, which is more than 80 km long, there are many traffic accidents that cause many deaths. However, each consecutive traffic accident causes prolonged congestion, wasting time and slowing down the journey of hundreds of vehicles for many hours. So why has the above congestion phenomenon not been resolved?

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If the series of traffic accidents between 5 cars colliding and then spilling onto the railway, causing a traffic jam on both the railway and the road for 18 hours, from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on September 4, 2011 at km 408 + 500 in both Quynh Luu and Dien Chau districts, was considered a "record" for traffic jam hours, then the recent traffic accident on January 14, 2012 had a new "record" with 10 hours of traffic jam lasting 20 km from the end of Nghi Loc district to the border of Quynh Luu district. The events can be summarized as follows. At 3:00 a.m., the container truck with license plate 57L 5612 was traveling from Hanoi to Vinh, when it reached km 434 + 050, it swerved to the left and collided head-on with a passenger car with license plate 86L 3092 traveling in the opposite direction. The head-on collision was quite strong, causing the front of both cars to be crushed. Three people on the container truck and the passenger bus were seriously injured, including the container truck driver.

The traffic jam should have gradually improved after just over 3 hours, after the mangled van and the container truck were towed away from the scene. However, the cranes that were sent were all beyond their capacity to lift the vehicles because the load was too small. Waiting for another crane with enough capacity to run from Vinh City, 40 km away, would have been impossible to clear the road because both ends were congested.

A traffic accident on National Highway 1A through Nghe An.

Or just two days before, on January 12, 2012 at km 416, a truck with license plate 57L 3195 driven by Pham Thai Son, 40 years old, residing in Ho Chi Minh City, was carrying about 60 tons of goods on the vehicle while traveling on National Highway 1A, km 416 + 00 in Dien Hong commune, Dien Chau district, in the direction of Vinh - Hanoi. Suddenly, a woman was riding a bicycle from the village road onto the national highway, causing the driver to brake suddenly, plus the drizzle and slippery road, causing the truck to overturn into the field. The accident could be said to be very simple, no one was killed, and only the vehicle was towed to clear the scene, but it took 6 hours for the traffic jam to temporarily end.

What do the authorities say?

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Huan - Deputy Chief of Dien Chau District Police, who is most involved in handling traffic congestion on the route, said: “The infrastructure has exceeded its capacity to allow thousands of vehicles to circulate at high density, but that is not the cause of traffic congestion. It must be said that a long route without a rescue center is an unusual phenomenon on National Highway 1A. Especially the “hot spot” where traffic accidents often occur in succession.”

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Dinh Khuong - Head of Traffic Police Team 5/1, said that the cause is partly due to the awareness of traffic participants. Every time there is an accident, they weave in and out, not giving way, leading to not being able to move forward or backward, causing congestion. In addition, on the route there are many homemade, oversized, and overweight vehicles that take up too much space while in circulation, so congestion is inevitable.

To quickly resolve the congestion phenomenon whenever a traffic accident occurs, the construction of a large-scale rescue center as mentioned by Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Huan is reasonable and necessary. In addition, the traffic sign system at some locations at risk of forming black spots, level crossings, and bus parking locations on national highways also need to be replaced to suit the reality.

Spring Seven