Increase traffic violation fines when amending Decree 46

After 2 years of implementing Decree 46/2016 on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of road and railway traffic, there are still many behaviors that are difficult to punish in practice, causing controversy between authorities and traffic participants...

Permanently revoked driver's license

The Vietnam Road Administration has just held a preliminary review of 2 years of implementing Decree 46/2016 on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of road and railway traffic to propose amendments to existing shortcomings.

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According to Ms. Hoang Hong Hanh - Deputy Director of the Legal Department - Inspection (Vietnam Road Administration), after 2 years of implementing Decree 46 in the direction of increasing fines, the Traffic Inspectorate has detected over 240,000 violations, imposing fines of over VND500 billion. The police force has handled over 7 million violations in the road sector, fined over VND4,600 billion, and revoked nearly 600,000 driving licenses. The railway sector has handled over 3,000 cases, imposing fines of over VND1.6 billion.

However, according to Ms. Hoang Hong Hanh, after 2 years of implementing Decree 46, some shortcomings have been revealed. “Violations on the highway are showing signs of increasing, especially the situation of reversing, parking, picking up and dropping off passengers on the highway, which poses a potential risk of accidents. The use of alcohol and drugs while driving has also increased recently, causing a number of serious traffic accidents, but the handling method is not enough of a deterrent,” Ms. Hanh said, adding that there is currently no database on administrative sanctions, no mechanism for sharing and providing information on violators, so it is difficult to identify cases of repeated violations and recidivism to impose heavier penalties.

Therefore, according to Ms. Hanh, Decree 46 needs to be amended to increase the maximum fine for violators in the road sector. It can be increased to a maximum of VND80 million, double the current level of only VND40 million. “At the same time, increase the time for revoking the right to use a driver's license (GPLX), instead of the current maximum of 24 months, and the right to use a GPLX can be permanently revoked for some violations of a particularly dangerous level and nature to increase deterrence.

Sharing the view on permanently revoking driving licenses for especially dangerous violations, Mr. Vo Minh Duc, Chief of Office of the Traffic Safety Committee of Nghe An province, said that drug use by drivers is very common. Through inspections in Nghe An, 12 cases were discovered and the potential for this behavior is still very large. It is worth noting that there was a case of a long-distance driver who admitted that if he did not use drugs, he would be very sleepy.

“If there is no drastic solution to prevent drug-using drivers, it will become a problem because there have been many particularly serious accidents that have caused many deaths recently due to drug-using drivers. For drivers who use drugs, there should be a regulation to permanently revoke their driving licenses, except in cases where after rehabilitation and re-examination, they are found to be eligible to retake the exam,” Mr. Duc proposed.

From the perspective of the force directly handling the fine, Major General Le Xuan Duc, Deputy Director of the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) - a member of the drafting team of the Decree, said that in the process of implementing the Decree, there are still many difficult issues to implement, such as when the traffic police impose a fine, they need 2 witnesses, especially at night, or when running a red or yellow light occurs in a short period of time, so there cannot be witnesses. These are small acts but create big social conflicts.

Diversify forms of punishment

Mr. Tran Huu Minh - Deputy Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee said that it is necessary to build a national traffic safety database to manage repeat violations. According to Mr. Minh, if violators pay the fine but have a clean record, the deterrent effect will not be high. Violators who are recorded in the national database will be more careful in the future or they will be punished more severely.

Although the penalties have increased after amendments, traffic safety violations remain complicated. Photo: Archive

“Data storage and progressive fines are very important. Decree 46 cannot do this. To do this, we must amend the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations (which does not allow progressive fines) and the Law on Statistics (which does not regulate the statistics of traffic safety violations and storage in national data). Therefore, the Ministry of Public Security cannot do it even if it wants to because it does not have the resources or human resources to implement it, but must have the national budget to do it. When it does, we will impose progressive fines and manage repeat offenders,” said Mr. Minh.

According to Mr. Minh, it is necessary to diversify the forms of punishment. In addition to administrative tools, other educational measures should be used such as: community service, re-learning the law, serious violations must be re-tested in theory and practice before being allowed to drive again.

Economically, according to Mr. Minh, we need to focus on insurance. A major problem today is that insurance is calculated equally, whether the driver is safe or not, the insurance level is the same.

“In the world, insurance is adjusted according to the risk of the driver’s vehicle. If a driver has just received a driver’s license, the risk is high because he does not have the same skills as an experienced driver, so he has to pay higher insurance. If included, it will be a good deterrent because it directly affects people’s “pockets”, from awareness to actions, driving psychology, and economic income,” said Mr. Minh.

Major General Le Xuan Duc said that in order to make the amendments to the Decree closer to reality, the drafting team will go directly to the grassroots to grasp the reality. The Decree stipulates about 3,000 violations, but there are about 50-60 violations that the authorities often encounter. For example, it stipulates the act of driving in the wrong part of the road or lane, while traffic participants can only commit one violation, which is the road or lane. Difficulties from reality will be proposed for amendments.