Nguyen Van Thuan, the head of the TransportMinistry’s Traffic Safety Department, said that it is part of the new decreewhich regulates stricter punishment for traffic violators in order to try andminimise traffic accidents and raise people’s awareness of traffic laws.
Thuan said that violations by pedestrians used to be ignored but now itis different.
Fines of between 40,000-60,0000 VND will be imposed onpeople who stray from pavements and pathways designated for pedestrians, orthose who do not obey the commands of policemen, traffic wardens or trafficsigns.
Higher fines of between 60,000-80,000 VND (3.1-4.2 USD) will befor pedestrians who carry cumbersome objects that hinder traffic flow, and thosethat jump road barriers or hang on to moving vehicles.
Pedestrianscaught commuting along highways will receive the highest punishment of 120.000VND (6.3 USD).
However, the police responsible for enforcing these lawswill meet with a lot of difficulties.
Nguyen Van Toan, head of Bac Ninhprovince’s Traffic Police Department,said that they do not have enough manpowerto enforce these laws.
He added that if it is not possible to fine allviolators, it will be unfair.
Not to mention that poor labourers areunable to pay such high fines and there’s no way of forcing them to do so, saidToan.
Dao Duc Minh, head of Thanh Hoa province’s Traffic PoliceDepartment outlined measures that policement should take when a violator doesn’thave the money to pay a fine and hasn’t got their identity card with them.
Thuan said that there are many ways to make traffic violators pay fines.If they do not have their ID card, they should be made to call their relativesor friends to bring money or the card to them.
Under the newregulations, the fines for motorbike and car drivers who violate traffic lawswill also be increased to 2-3 times high than current levels.
Forexample, car drivers who run red lights will receive a fine of 600,000-800,000VND (31.5-42 USD) instead of 200,000-400,000 VND (10.5-21 USD).
Inaddition, the Ministry of Transport will pilot even higher punishment levels incities with a population of more than 5 million people.
The pilot finesfor the big cities will be 40-200 percent higher than in other areas.
For example, the new common fine levels for car drivers caught runningred lights will be 600,000-800,000 VND (31.5-42 USD) as mentioned above but inthe big cities, these will be 1-1.4 million VND (52.5-73.6 USD)./.