Hanoi launches Traffic Safety Year 2023, focusing on drunk-driving penalties

Anh Kiet

Feb 09, 2023 / 11:40 PM

The Traffic Safety Year 2023 aims to raise people's awareness about traffic rules and build a traffic safety culture.

Hanoi will enhance the Law on Preventing Alcohol’s Harmful Effects which bans all motorcyclists and automobile drivers from drunk driving, as well as strictly punishes violations.

This is one of the main tasks set for the Traffic Safety Year 2023 kicked start by National Committee for Traffic Safety and the Hanoi People’s Committee on February 9.

Vietnam’s law on drink-driving took effect on January 1, 2020, and since then the city has made efforts to crack down on drunk driving, which has caused tragic accidents over the past years. Since November 15, 202, Hanoi Police issued fines totaling VND68 billion (nearly US$2.9 million) in more than 12,000 cases and revoked driving licenses in over 7,200 cases.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said that with the theme "Obey traffic rules to build a culture of traffic safety", the campaign set three objectives, which are to increase people's awareness of complying with the law and ensuring safe traffic; reduce the number of traffic accidents and casualties by 5% to 10% annually; and lower traffic jams on main roads and in large urban areas.

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang delivers a speech at the launching ceremony of the Traffic Safety Year 2023 campaign. Photos: Quy Nguyen/ The Hanoi Times

Thang, who is also Standing Vice Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, hailed the positive results in road safety in 2022 and requested the National Road Safety Committee, ministries, departments, and localities to take drastic measures to ensure road safety in the Year of Road Safety 2023.

He stressed the need for comprehensive solutions to ensure the work in the current situation, noting that relevant departments should strictly handle violations of traffic order and safety without any exception.

Thang asked media outlets to support the traffic police, explaining to the citizens about police duties of preventing traffic accidents for the sake of people.

Hanoi police officers on parade at the launching ceremony.

Addressing the event, Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Duong Duc Tuan expressed determination in meeting the campaign’s goals.

Tuan asked the organizations to focus on combating drunk and drugged driving, speeding, overloading of vehicles, not wearing helmets, and illegal racing.

To achieve the above goal, the vice chairman asked the Hanoi Police, the Department of Transport, and the chairpersons of the people's committees of the districts to strengthen patrols, and strictly handle violations of traffic safety regulations on roads, railways, and inland waterways.

Earlier, the Hanoi government decided to spend a total of over VND1.8 trillion (US$79.1 million) on reducing traffic congestion and ensuring traffic safety in the city for the period of 2021-2025.

The US$79.1 million budget to improve public transport capacity and curb private vehicles in the long term will be allocated on a yearly basis.

Hanoi’s authorities have set the target to mitigate congestion at seven to ten hotspots every year and timely eliminate traffic accident black spots so as to bring down the traffic accident rate by 5-10% per year (in terms of cases, number of deaths, and injuries).

Remarkably, Hanoi will build an online digital traffic map to serve the management, operation, and regulation of traffic and develop a smart parking system to help people find and pay for parking conveniently.