Sweden is willing to share its experiences in traffic management with Vietnam for better situation which is the aim the Southeast Asian country is striving for, said Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Pereric Hogberg at a workshop entitled “The Road to Increased Traffic Safety in Vietnam” held in Hanoi on November 8.
Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Pereric Hogberg. Photo: Minh Tuan
He emphasized the importance of traffic in economic development and building smart traffic systems is one of the keys to implement a multi-sectoral economy in the context of technologies booming.
The ambassador said that he realized about traffic problems that Vietnam is facing with as he himself experienced traveling at low speed in urban Hanoi with risks of accidents and environmental pollution from vehicle emissions.
The problems are tough to be tackled but Vietnam should have ambitions to change the situation and move forwards a safe society as part of the country’s efforts to move forwards a world of peace and safety, the ambassador noted.
Lessons from Sweden
At the conference, Dr. Matts Belin, safety strategist at the Swedish Transport Administration, shared the Swedish lessons including outstanding problems and solutions that the Nordic country applied to reduce road accidents.
Swedish transport expert Matts Belin. Photo: Minh Tuan
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Vision Zero, an expression of the ethical imperative that it can never be ethically acceptable that people are killed or seriously injured when moving within the transport system, was passed in October 1997 by a large majority of the Swedish parliament.
Belin called Vision Zero is a policy innovation that realized that unsafe traffic would result in fatalities and serious injuries and its responsibility is to make better and advanced transport systems to reduce fatalities.
Specifically, the country focused on road upgrading, speed limit, helmet coverage, and public awareness of safety.
Accordingly, Sweden focused on building safe roads by installing more traffic lights in urban areas and designing roads with different sections and lanes in rural areas.
He took an example that once a person hit by cars at the speed of 50km/hour, the possibility of getting killed was about 80% while if the cars move at the speed of 30km/hour, the risk of death fell to 70%.
Meanwhile, changing the mindset among the country’s leaders and the community is essential to increased traffic safety. As a result, information relating to road safety is always made available for citizens to help connect the whole society in fighting against traffic accidents, he noted.
Thanks to the innovation, the number of people killed in road crashes per 100,000 inhabitants in Sweden fell to 3 in 2010 from 7 in 2,000 whereas, deaths in road accidents per 100,000 populations dropped to 2 in 2016 from 8 in 1950, report at the conference showed.
Speaking at the conference, Khuat Viet Hung, deputy chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety, thanked the Swedish Embassy to Vietnam for its long-term support to the country in various fields, especially traffic management. He appreciated the embassy’s efforts in reducing traffic-caused fatalities to help the people live in a safer environment.
