Traffic accidents increase, Khanh Hoa province chairman asks to accept disciplinary action

As a locality with a high number of traffic accidents and deaths in the first quarter of 2013, Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, has asked to be disciplined by the Government.

Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, has asked to accept disciplinary action before the Government.

At the National Conference on implementing Directive 18 of the Secretariat on "strengthening the Party's leadership in ensuring traffic order and safety on roads, railways, inland waterways and overcoming traffic congestion", Mr. Le Hong Anh, permanent member of the Secretariat, said that although there were many policies on restoring traffic order and safety, curbing and reducing traffic accidents, these policies and solutions were not implemented drastically, resulting in low efficiency.

Please accept discipline before the Government

As a locality with a high number of traffic accidents and deaths in the first quarter of 2013, Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, said: "Khanh Hoa is the leading locality in the country in all three criteria of increasing number of accidents, increasing number of deaths, increasing number of injured people. The number of serious accidents in Khanh Hoa in recent times is also very high. I would like to accept disciplinary action from the Government" - Mr. Thang said.

A representative of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, one of the 10 provinces and cities with a high rate of traffic accidents in the first quarter of 2013, also said that the current state of traffic infrastructure is one of the most worrying issues. The leaders of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province even proposed that the Ministry of Transport authorize the locality to quickly resolve damaged areas on national highways passing through the area so that the national highways can be repaired promptly.

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Loi - Deputy Secretary of Can Tho City Party Committee, the careless inspection and testing of vehicles and then allowing them to circulate is also the cause of the increase in traffic accidents.

Mr. Loi added: “The whole country is currently still tense about spreading nails on national highways. Since the Can Tho Bridge was built, the situation of spreading nails has been very tense. They spread nails to patch tires, but there have been many tragic accidents, even people driving over a nail and losing their lives. There is a lot of propaganda but there still needs to be a strict form of handling, I suggest that we consider spreading nails as an act of murder.”

Urgently taking the victim to the emergency room in the tragic accident in Cam Ranh in the early morning of March 8 - Photo by Van Ky

Vehicle owners must bear joint responsibility.

At the conference, representatives from many provinces and cities also said that one of the reasons for the increase in serious traffic accidents is that the expertise and ethics of drivers, especially bus and truck drivers, are "declining".

Even drug-addicted drivers are very common. “In addition to the driver’s responsibility, it is necessary to add the responsibility of the vehicle owner to the passenger transport units. The vehicle owner must also be jointly responsible when there is an accident and must buy insurance for the passengers. Otherwise, just compensating a small amount to end the responsibility is not enough of a deterrent. It is necessary to stipulate that the vehicle owner causing the accident must be responsible for compensating and raising the victim’s child until the age of 18,” Mr. Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, proposed.

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Loi, current reality shows that even officials and civil servants have not fully understood the policies and solutions to reduce traffic accidents.

“There are still cases of officials and civil servants drinking alcohol and driving. Therefore, Can Tho has determined to take strong measures from the staff, strictly prohibiting drinking alcohol and considering this as one of the criteria for annual emulation. Any violations will be strictly handled by the Party and the government, and intervention will be strictly prohibited during the handling, and the results will be made public at the working agency,” said Mr. Loi.

Concluding the conference, Mr. Le Hong Anh requested to focus on accelerating the progress of key traffic projects and speeding up traffic infrastructure development projects. At the same time, it is necessary to strictly control the quality of training and licensing for drivers.

According to Tuoitre-M