At
2.15 am on November 7, ten more people died in a traffic accident after a
container truck crashed into a bus carrying more than 30 passengers travelling
in the opposite direction. Many of them burned like a torch as they were stuck
inside the vehicle and could not be pulled out.
Witnesses said they could grasp the hands of a
young woman but could not drag her out of the window as her two legs were still
trapped inside. They had to let go of her hands and saw her being swallowed up
by the flame. Quite tragically, the people heard the victims crying and
screaming, seeing them begging for help, but they could do nothing but stare.
Just a few hours before, the young woman and
other passengers were dozing off on the bus and probably dreaming of a reunion
with their relatives and family members the next day. They didn’t expect that
they would be among 11,000 victims who die in traffic accidents in the country
every year.
The number has been mentioned many times in
many campaigns launched to stanch a wound and stop a pain. In the end, it just
gets repeated year after year in the same formula: bad and narrow streets, plus
the lack of sign boards and road separators, coupled with the driver’s
inability to control the speed, equal to massive deaths.
If only there had been road dividers on
National Road 1A in Ham Thuan district, Binh Thuan province. If only the
22-year-old driver had not been allowed to drive the container truck
(regulation requires that a driver should be 24 years of age to drive such type
of vehicle).
Can we limit or lessen tragic accidents, at
least through the effort of the authorities? On the 200km stretch on National
Road 1A running through Binh Thuan province, there have been several serious
accidents taking place. The authorities have identified 25 hotspots where
crashes often happen.
Since 2010, Binh Thuan’s police have
petitioned the responsible authorities to help eliminate these hotspots. The
petition has not been handled properly and traffic accidents in this province
this year have increased faster than last year. It is easy to understand that
money is needed to expand the road, install separators, and change the speed
signs. Admittedly, the budget is tight, but it is not for the lack of money
that these proposals have been ignored.
In many wars that Vietnam has been involved
in, the two sides had bloody fights but the number of deaths is less than the
number of innocent people dying in traffic accidents every year in our country.
Some accidents were caused by careless drivers while others were due to the
inadequacy of the infrastructure.
That is why leaders of the government have
signed a document holding responsible local authorities who cannot reduce
traffic accidents in their administrative area.
Despite those documents, no one has stepped up
and assumed responsibility for traffic-related deaths. Only when there are
individuals taking responsibility for the accidents, only when road defects get
fixed will there be some dim hope on the reduction of victims killed in road crashes.
NGUYEN VY DU
Tuoi Tre
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