Drunk car drivers may face fine of over US$700

The draft decree is meant to improve road safety and reduce traffic accidents as well as amend and supplement existing Decrees 171 and 201 on punishment for violators of traffic rules. 

Under the draft decree, automobile drivers with alcohol levels of up to 0.25 mg per liter of breath or 50 mg per 100 ml of blood (Level 1) will face heftier fines, ranging from VND3 million (US$133,5) to VND5 million (US$222.4), compared with the current VND2-3 million rates.

For those with higher alcohol levels, from above 50 mg to 80 mg per 100 ml of blood or from above 0.25 mg to 0.4 mg per liter of breath (Level 2), the fines would rise from the current VND7-8 million (US$311.4-356) to VND8-12 million (US$356-534).

A traffic police officer measures the breath alcohol concentration of a driver in Ho Chi Minh City June 13, 2013. Photo: Tuoi Tre

As for those with alcohol levels of over 0.4 mg per liter of breath or over 80 mg per 100 ml of blood (Level 3), they would be subject to fines of VND14-16 million (US$623-712), compared to the current VND10-15 million (US$445-667.3).

Those subject to the fines applied in Levels 2 and 3 would also have their driver’s licenses revoked for three months instead of two months as currently.

The ministry proposed in the draft decree that the penalties imposed on drunk drivers of motorbikes should be two times the current rates.

Accordingly, bike drivers classified into Levels 2 and 3 would face fines of VND1-2 million (US$44.5-US$89) and VND5-7 million respectively.

Those who drive motorbikes or non-motorized vehicles on expressways would be given heavy fines ranging from VND2 million to VND4 million (US$178), or 10 times the current rates of VND200,000-VND400,000.

Meanwhile, drivers of vehicles carrying a load weighing over 1.5 times the highest allowable volume would also be fined VND14-16 million, or two-fold the current rates.

In addition, the owners of such overloaded vehicles would be fined VND18-22 million (US$800-979), compared to the current VND16-18 million, if they are individuals, and VND36-44 million (US$1,601-US$1,957), compared to the existing VND32-36 million, if they are organizations.

The ministry will submit this draft decree to the central government for consideration next month and if it is approved, it will be promulgated in December this year, the transport ministry said.

Vu Do Anh Dung, deputy head of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, under the ministry, cited the National Traffic Safety Committee as saying that drunk drivers are responsible for 16%-20% of the total number of traffic accidents every year.

On average, road accidents kill around 9,000 people in Vietnam a year – almost 25 deaths per day – and leave hundreds of thousands of others with life-time injuries, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said at a requiem held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 10, 2014 for the dead victims.

The event was organized to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, which falls on the third Sunday of November each year.

Road accidents claim about 1.3 million lives around the world every year, and the figure is forecast to increase to 1.8-1.9 million in the future, according to the committee.