According to the National Committee for Traffic Safety, January saw the highest number of traffic accidents of any month in the past three years. The main reason for accidents was a sharp increase in the number of vehicles on road during the Lunar New Year Festival, poor road infrastructure and general in adherence to traffic law.

In addition, local People’s Committees have shelved a number of drastic measures designed to ensure traffic order and safety while failing to effectively implement the Government decrees and the Ministry of Public Security’s instructions on traffic control.  Since early this year, 15 serious traffic accidents were reported, leaving 52 people dead and 73 injured. In February alone, nearly 2,000 people were killed or injured in traffic accidents.

Public concern over poor road safety is mounting. In just 10 days from the end of February to the beginning of March, the Prime Minister issued two memo to urge the National Traffic Safety Committee, ministries, agencies and chairmen of provincial and municipal people’s committees to identify the causes of traffic accidents and devise measures to minimise the number of traffic accidents in future.

The General Department of Police has provided concrete guidance on methods to implement the Ministry of Public Security’s instructions in order to monitor and control traffic safety flow March 15 to May 19. In particular, direct causes of traffic accidents on main roads and key areas will face heavy punishment.

However, these are temporary measures to cope with serious traffic accidents which have increased dramatically in recent times. For the long term, apart from information dissemination activities and education on traffic safety, it is essential to tighten procedures for granting of driving licenses and to prevent the phenomenon of “buying” driving licenses, which is one of main reasons attributed to the sharp increase in serious traffic accidents in recent months.