Like many visitors to Viet Nam, Anne
Hellinker is in a quandary – she wants to explore more of the country but
doesn’t want to die in the process.

The Nga Tu So overpass in the western part of Ha Noi has helped cut down traffic congestion and accidents in the area. (Photo: VNS)

The
retired Briton is in awe of my steely nerves. “How brave of you to drive in all
that traffic!” she says with a look of dread in her eyes.

And it’s
not an emotion limited to foreign visitors. Le Hoang Huy, a middle-aged Hanoian,
refuses to let his 15-year-old daughter cycle in the city. In fact he trusts no
one with his precious cargo. Instead, he insists on driving her himself to
school, evening classes and her piano lessons.

“Crossing the street here is a life and death experience. The traffic is getting
worse,” he says.

Viet Nam
is in what is called a “motorisation period”, with the number of cars and
motorbikes increasing by 12-14 per cent annually.

The
population is also increasing by about 1 million a year. Unfortunately,
infrastructure development is being left behind, Than Van Thanh, chairman of the
National Traffic Safety Committee, says.

Road
crashes account for 95 per cent of all transport accidents and 97 per cent of
casualties, he says.

In
comparison with other countries, the number of road deaths per 100,000 people in
Viet Nam is high – 13 compared with 6.7 in mainland China, 5.2 in Japan and 3-5
in Europe. However, road deaths regionally are worse in Malaysia (23.6) and
Thailand (19.6), according to a recent report by the Ministry of Transport.

Losses
caused by road accidents in 2007 alone were equivalent to about 2.9 per cent of
the country’s gross domestic product, or VND32.6 trillion (US1.9 billion, 2007
exchange rate).

The number of accidents, casualties
and injuries increased sharply in Viet Nam from 1999 (by 8.3-10.7 per cent on a
yearly basis) and only began to fall after 2003.

The
decrease, however, is “far from sustainable and stable”, the report states.

To
tackle the problem, the Transport Ministry drafted the 2011-20 National Traffic
Safety plan. It is expected to get the Government’s nod of approval in the
second quarter. The draft aims to reduce the number of road deaths per 100,000
people by about 40 per cent to eight by 2020.

The
country is aiming for “a safe living environment… full of humanity and without
accidents,” the draft report states.

Under
the strategy, VND41 trillion ($2 billion) will be spent on various projects to
improve law enforcement, traffic management, road upgrades, training and
licensing, first aid, rescue and education.

Precise goals

Do Tien
Duc, who helped draft the plan, says its goals have been “carefully worked out”.
However, World Bank transport specialist Tran Thi Van Anh says the draft’s goals
are “probably unrealistic given the current situation and scope of the problem
across the country and the current institutional capacity”.

“While
it is encouraging to see a formal overall target set and many performance
measures identified for several interventions in the draft strategy, there will
need to be a large investment and very effective intervention to realise the
targets set,” she says.

Thanh,
chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, agrees. “It will be very
challenging to achieve the goals,” he says.

To lift
the GDP by 1 per cent, volume of transport must rise 1.5 per cent, he says.

“So if
Viet Nam is set to have its GDP rise by 6 per cent a year, the volume of
transport needs to increase by 9 per cent on a yearly basis,” Thanh says.

But
transport safety expert Takagi Michimasa, from the Japan International
Co-operation Agency, says the draft’s goal of reducing road fatalities by 40 per
cent within 10 years was eminently achievable.

He said
Japan managed to halve the number of road casualties between 1970 to 1980, even
though the number of vehicles doubled over the same period.

Most
accidents he says are the result of ignorance and unsafe driving.

“Once
they get used to the new environment, they can learn how to avoid having
accidents,” Michimasa says.

This agrees with a report by the Transport Ministry that states
most road accidents in Viet Nam (85 per cent) were the result of drivers
breaking traffic regulations, with speeding being a
primary cause.

Experience in industrialised countries indicates that the number of road deaths
increases rapidly in the initial motorisation period and sharply drops within a
few years if intensive traffic safety countermeasures are introduced, Michimasa
says.

However,
the number of road casualties in Viet Nam has remained virtually unchanged since
2002.

That
suggests safety measures so far adopted are “not sufficient enough to enhance
road users’ knowledge and awareness,” he adds.

WB specialist Van Anh says the Government has implemented several
key important road-safety initiatives, such as the creation of the National
Traffictraffic law in 2001. But she says more needs to be done.
Safety Committee in 1997 and the introduction of a road.

“There
is still considerable work to do to improve the integration and co-ordination of
multi-agencies activities, which, from the point of view of the population,
still appears disparate and to not have had much impact on improving motorists’
behaviour,” she says.

Thanh
says poor traffic education programmes a decade ago were largely to blame for
the currently mayhem on the country’s roads.

Teenagers, particularly those aged between 15 and 18, have already adopted
dangerous ways of driving. That doesn’t bode well for the future, he says.

Michimasa agrees that traffic safety education should begin at a very young age.
He also says infrastructure needs to be upgraded and law enforcement stepped up,
and that the emergency services should be improved.

Meanwhile, Dr Khuat Viet Hung, dean of the University of Transport’s Transport
Planning and Management Department, says priority should be given to improving
traffic management rather than infrastructure.

“Before
we’re able to build new roads, we need to make the best use of the existing
ones,” he says.

A wary
Hellinker says Viet Nam should improve public transport – as does Huy.

In the
meantime, Hell-inker is busy Googling road safety tips in Viet Nam. As for Huy,
he says he will only let his daughter cycle when she turns 18.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News