An illegal level crossing in Hanoi made from wooden boards to make it easier for people to cross the railway that courses through a densely populated area. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Railway authorities said they would need at least 1.7trillion VND (75 million USD) in 2017-2020 to address long-standing railaccident hotspots at illegal level crossings.
In Vietnam,accidents caused by the trespass of railroads at such locations account for 70 percentof all rail-related accidents.
Commonlywitnessed throughout Vietnam, especially in urban areas such as Hanoi,railroads run through densely populated residential areas. Where houses androads might be just a few metres away, people in the neighbourhood oftenconstruct ‘improvised’ level crossings. These self-made crossings do notfeature any signage that warns drivers or pedestrians of oncoming trains,making them a magnet for tragedies that could easily be prevented.
Accordingto Vietnam Railways (VNR), there are at least 4,300 illegal and unplanned levelcrossings around the country, accounting for 73.7 percent of rail crossings ofall kinds, in addition to another 14,171 violations of the railroad safetycorridor.
Theamount of 75 million USD over the three-year period would only seek to shutdown 2,000 such crossings, by erecting roadblocks and building frontage roads,in addition to performing maintenance and repairs to the official levelcrossings and upgrade 452 signage-only level crossings to automatic halfbarrier crossings.
VNRclaimed it has reviewed, taken stock, and classified the improvised levelcrossings, as well as carried out a range of measures to close these passages,including erecting warning signs, but the effectiveness of the measures hasbeen modest. Pham Nguyen Chien, head of the VNR’s railway traffic safety board,said that enhancing public traffic safety “can not be achieved by efforts of asector or a locality, but the whole society’s efforts.”
Chienalso acknowledged that the persistent existence of accident black spots is dueto a lack of funds, meaning that many traffic safety projects stay on paper orfail to meet deadlines, despite 26.36 trillion VND (approx. 1.16 billion USD)officially approved by the Prime Minister in 2014 for “reestablishing trafficsafety corridors for the 2014-2020 period” along railways and roads.
Therailway sector aims to eliminate all unplanned and illegal level crossings by2025 as stated in the draft decree on the implementation of the Law on Railways2017, which the transport ministry is building and is expected to take effectstarting July 1. The decree would include a detailed roadmap to decrease andgradually remove all illegal level crossings with targets for each year.
The decreewould also clarify responsibilities of the local government in managingthousands of rail accident hotspots. District-level people’s committees mustidentify and frequently monitor dangerous locations, then work in tandem withrelevant authorities to address those black spots. Chairmen of district-levelpeople’s committees would be held accountable for the emergence of illegalcrossings under their jurisdictions.-VNA
VNA
