Will propose adjustments if "penalizing yellow lights like red lights" is inappropriate

Major General Tran The Quan - Deputy Director of the Department of Legislation and Judicial Administrative Reform (Ministry of Public Security) - said that after a period of implementation, if it is found that the penalty for running a yellow light equals the penalty for running a red light has many shortcomings, the Ministry of Public Security will propose adjustments.

Major General Tran The Quan, Deputy Director of the Department of Legislation and Judicial Administrative Reform, Ministry of Public Security

-Sir, since August 1, Decree 46/2016 of the Government on administrative penalties for road traffic violations has raised the penalty for “running a yellow light” to the same level as “running a red light”, causing fierce controversy among the public. When drafting the previous decree, did the Ministry of Public Security give any comments on this?

- Decree 46/2016 of the Government was developed by the Ministry of Transport. We have many comments but they are only general in nature. Previously, we proposed that the police sector should mainly handle traffic violations and assign the Ministry of Public Security to develop decrees on penalties, but the Ministry of Transport refused, so later on, many regulations in the field of traffic were revised over and over again, sometimes in small changes, sometimes in a comprehensive manner.

As for the penalty for running a yellow light, there were regulations before, but this time the controversy is that the penalty for running a yellow light is raised to the same level as running a red light.

In principle, according to the law, when seeing a yellow light, the driver must reduce speed and stop before the line. That is the rule. In case you have passed the line and the light is yellow, you can continue to go through the intersection. No one prohibits that, so if you equate that place and say that you should remove the yellow light to avoid rear-end collisions, that is not correct. Some people say that you have to stop at a yellow light, but they do not understand correctly.

The National Traffic Safety Committee and the Ministry of Transport must answer and argue for people to understand. Traffic police only base on the law and guidelines to implement.

-But in a recent press conference, Dr. Khuong Kim Tao - former Deputy Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee - said that the traffic police's punishment for driving a motor vehicle through a yellow light as if it were running a red light is not in accordance with the 2008 Road Traffic Law and is not in accordance with the scientific meaning of the regulation of the required duration of a yellow light. According to Mr. Tao, Clause 3, Article 10 of the 2008 Road Traffic Law stipulates that traffic light signals have 3 colors with the following meanings: Green signal means go; red signal means no go; yellow signal means stop before the stop line, except in cases where the driver has already passed the stop line, then he can continue. The yellow signal only warns the driver to quickly stop before the stop line because a red light signal is coming, but does not prohibit the driver from going past the stop line?

- In principle, people must slow down at yellow lights, but people's habit of not only running red lights but also speeding at yellow lights causes conflicts and easily leads to accidents. The people who drafted Decree 46 based on that psychological tendency to regulate like that.

I think that if we apply this regulation for a while, if we find any inadequacies, the Ministry of Public Security can propose appropriate amendments. If we hand it over to the Ministry of Public Security, we will be more careful with regulations like this.

-Some people say that instead of punishing those who run yellow lights, we should just install cameras at intersections, increase the fines for running red lights, and enforce them strictly to avoid controversy and ensure better deterrence?

- Fines are very good, traffic police on the street are less negative, but there is one point of inconsistency: currently, the number of vehicles, especially motorbikes, that are not registered to our owners is still very large. Previously, we planned to fine those who did not transfer ownership, but there was a backlash. Now, if we apply it to the owner, it will be difficult to punish the owner. Many people own the vehicle but were not the driver at the time of the violation, so it is very difficult.

Our society also prefers to spend cash, so the practice of fining by deducting from the account cannot be implemented. This is a very civilized rule, made by technology, but there must be conditions attached to it to be implemented.

I see that in many countries people's awareness of law enforcement is very good, so their regulations are not as detailed as in our country. Our people often look for loopholes to argue and oppose, so the law must be detailed, and the more detailed something is, the less it can keep up with reality.

Thank you!

According to Dan Tri