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I
n 1998, a traffic expert from the
World Bank was sent to Hanoi to help
Vietnam improve its traffic systems. I
recall lending him my motorbike to
ride Hanoi’s streets and his joy at doing
so. But that was years ago, when rid-
ing in the capital was still an enjoyable
experience. Today, the streets are a
nightmare and I am sure that if I invited
him to ride here now, the answer would
be an unequivocal ‘no thank you’.
CASE AFTER CASE
Last month, Dr. Nishimura Masan-
ari, a Japanese archaeologist who had
lived in Vietnam for 20 years, lost his
life on the road. Born in 1965, Masanari
was known as Ly Van Sy in Vietnam,
and he spoke Vietnamese fluently. Over
the past 20 years, he had completed
many valuable studies and made great
contributions to the country’s develop-
ment. Masanari’s death is a big loss for
Vietnam, Japan and his family.
This is not the first time a foreign
academic has had a traffic accident in
Vietnam. At the end of 2006, American
professor Seymour Papert and his col-
league were hit by a motorcycle while
they were crossing the intersection
between Dai Co Viet and Giai Phong
street. The professor’s brain was seri-
ously injured and he was taken to the
Hanoi French Hospital for emergency
treatment, then sent back to America
for further treatment.
Vietnamese professor, Nguyen Van
Dao, had been killed in a crash just a
few days earlier. Dao was the former
director of the Hanoi National Univer-
sity. He was founder and chairman of
many associations and scientific organi-
sations and was also a major loss to this
country.
Reducing Vietnam’s traffic accident
rate is now high on the political agen-
da, not only due to these high profile
deaths, but due to the thousands that
occur year in, year out.
According to the National Road
Safety Commission, about 12,000 peo-
ple die in traffic accidents each year,
equivalent to 40 serious airplane crash-
es, and the number is rising.
This June was no different. A bus
carrying over 30 teachers and their rela-
tives suffered break failure and careered
into a cliff in Khanh Hoa province. Sev-
en died and the remainder were in-
jured. Some days later, six people died
and four were injured when a truck
crashed head-on with a bus on National
Highway 1A in Long An province.
Such accidents are reported on a
daily basis.
According to the Traffic Police De-
partment, in the first week of June,
339 traffic accidents occurred across
the country, 151 people died and 232
were injured.
There were 6,420 road traffic ac-
cidents in the first quarter of this year
nationwide, killing 2,542 and injuring
more than 6,300 others.
In fact, Vietnam has one of the
highest car accident death rates in the
world, close behind India and Thailand.
THE CAUSES
Normally,the more developed the
economy, the less traffic accidents are
12
timeout
Running the risk
Vietnam is famed for its chaotic traffic, which many
outsiders find utterly unfathomable.
Bich Ngoc
takes a look
at the country’s accident record and what is being done to improve it.