Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai on Tuesday agreed that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City should be allowed to raise fines for traffic violations after they complained about worsening traffic problems.

Nguyen Thanh Tai, vice chairman of HCMC People’s Committee, told the conference the city “dare not” report successes on preventing traffic jams and accidents as they were far different from expectations.

“Infrastructure has shown up more of its weaknesses,” Tai was quoted by newswire Dan Tri as saying.

He said traffic jams in HCMC had severely affected production and slowed down economic development of the city.

The French designed Saigon for two million people but now it is home to nine million people and five million vehicles, the vice chairman said.

Around 100 new cars and 1,000 motorbikes were registered in the city every day, but the city has no traffic management center and only 600 traffic police officers, he said.

Tai said HCMC will continue asking for higher traffic violation fines in the city. “If the government thinks it’s impossible to raise the fines nationwide, it should at least allow large cities to do that.”

He was backed by his Hanoi counterpart Nguyen Van Khoi, who said one of the most decisive solutions for the traffic problem is to strengthen the penalties.

Deputy PM Hai said the Transport Ministry is considering higher fines for traffic violations and will let city/provincial governments decide the final fines.

He asked Le The Tiem, deputy minister of Public Security, to pay attention to the requests of Hanoi and HCMC for more traffic police.

Investment in traffic projects should be considered urgent as “one day sooner can save several people,” Hai said.

More than 30 people were killed every day in traffic accidents in 2009. Figures presented at the conference showed 12,500 traffic accidents killed 11,516 people and injured 7,914 last year.

The figures were less than that in 2008 but the number of serious accidents rose by 11 and the number deaths by 45. Around 40 percent of the accidents occurred when passenger buses encroached the lanes of other vehicles, the conference heard.

Railway traffic accidents increased both in number and casualties compared to 2008 with 468 accidents killing 226 people and injuring 324 others.

Traffic accident deaths in northern provinces of Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Son La, Ha Giang and Thanh Hoa rose more than 25 percent in 2009.

Reported by Xuan Toan