HCM City insists on effectiveness of doubling road traffic fines
The HCM City People’s Committee continues to pursue its proposal to increase fines on traffic violations within the city to curtail traffic jams and accidents.
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The city has once again asked the Prime Minister to permit the country’s two largest cities, Hanoi and HCM City, to double fines for traffic violations.
The Ministry of Transportation added the city’s proposal to its draft decree on administrative fines for violations of traffic rules. However, the Ministry of Justice rejected the proposal, saying that it is unfair to impose different fines on the same violations.
A fine experiment
In its latest proposal to the Prime Minister, HCM City again claimed that fine increases are effective methods to prevent traffic jams and accidents in Hanoi and HCM City. It emphasized that in locations where traffic jams and traffic accidents are at “dangerous levels,” which hinders economic and social development, an experiment with higher fines is urgently needed.
HCM City authorities said that major reasons for violations include overloaded traffic facilities, poor awareness of road rules and lenient sanctions on traffic violations in both cities.
Le Hong Son, chief of the Ministry of Justice’s Legal Document Inspection Department, told Tuoi Tre Daily that the Justice Ministry remained opposed.
“The Government will make the decision, but I think it is difficult to approve this proposal,” Son said.
He commented that curbing traffic jams and accidents requires systematic methods, including administrative fines. If common rules for the entire country are strictly applied, they will be effective.
The Transportation Ministry’s Legal Department Chief Trinh Minh Hien said that they had suggested an experiment with higher fines in Hanoi and HCM City.
Tran Ngoc Vinh, a member of the National Assembly’s Law Committee, said that the Ministry of Justice’s opinion about legal equality has a good basis. If different fines are proved to be necessary, Vietnam will have to amend its laws.
Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem, Vice-Head of the HCM City Bar Association, said that HCM City’s proposal is a necessary step, but it must be approved by the National Assembly, not the Government.
Alternative measures
Dr. Nguyen Le Ninh from the HCM City Union of Scientific and Technological Associations argued that raising fines on traffic violations is not the optimal solution. The best method is to organize traffic flows carefully, expanding roads and preventing the construction of too many high-rise buildings in the inner city.
Ninh said that this is an urban planning matter and administrative methods cannot help solve traffic problems in Hanoi and HCM City.
Lawyer Le Dinh Phat agreed with Ninh and observed: “It is unnecessary to levy heavy fines to control traffic jams or traffic violations. There are many other technical solutions like expanding roads, organizing traffic flows, urging the people to obey the traffic laws and strengthening traffic supervision.”
Doan Phi Anh, former director of the Southern Center for Transportation Research and Development, explained that HCM City traffic jams in recent years had been mainly caused by slow-pace construction work on roads. If the local government alleviates this problem immediately, traffic snarls will be lessened and the city may not need tough administrative measures.
Source:vietnamnet.vn
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