Traffic accidents kill 6,113 people in nine months

The figures represented decreases of 6.24 percent, 5.11 percent and 13.35 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year, according to statistics released by the National Committee for Traffic Safety at a teleconference on October 21.

However, 15 out of the country’s 63 provinces and cities still saw an increase of over 10 percent in the number of fatalities in traffic accidents.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, who is Chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety, asked for more efforts from ministries, agencies and localities to achieve the target of reducing the number of traffic accidents by 5-10 percent in 2017 from the previous year.

Binh requested the 15 said-above localities to take more drastic measures to ensure local traffic safety and order.

He pointed out weak state management and law enforcement, especially in monitoring vehicles’ loading capacity and contracted passenger cars, in several places.

Therefore, the Deputy PM requested localities to tighten inspections over vehicles’ loading capacity in order to soon stop operations of overloaded vehicles, prevent and strictly punish illegal sand and gravel mining in rivers.

It is essential to intensify the application of high technologies in order to effectively detect and solve traffic safety and order violations, Binh suggested.

He also asked the Ministry of Public Security to take measures to ensure safety of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week slated for November in the central city of Da Nang.