Ensuring traffic safety for students

The conference was connected online to the People's Committees of provinces, cities, district and commune levels across the country.

Comrade Luu Van Ban, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference at the bridge point of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee headquarters. Also attending were members of the Hai Duong Provincial Traffic Safety Committee and leaders of the Provincial Police.

Reporting at the conference, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Long said that from December 15, 2022 to October 14, 2023, there were 881 traffic accidents involving students (aged 6-18) nationwide, killing 490 people and injuring 827 people.

Traffic accidents among school-age children are caused by many factors, including driving in the wrong lane (21.41%); not paying attention (19.39%); changing direction improperly (11.77%); avoiding or overtaking improperly (7.06%); not giving way (4.71%); not keeping a safe distance (3.36%); drinking alcohol (2.69%); not obeying road signs (3.14%), and crossing the street improperly (3.14%).

Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Long assessed that the situation of students violating traffic safety laws is increasingly common and complicated, especially the phenomenon of not wearing helmets, driving in a row, speeding, recklessly overtaking, weaving, causing public disorder, not obeying traffic lights, using phones while driving, especially driving without a driver's license.

Notably, among the 10 localities with the highest rate of traffic accidents involving students in the country, 8 are southern provinces and cities, including: Ho Chi Minh City, Tien Giang, Binh Phuoc, Vinh Long, Binh Duong, Long An, An Giang, and Ben Tre. To limit traffic accidents involving students, many localities have had very creative models associated with organizing surprise inspections and monitoring to promptly detect and prevent violations, ensuring the implementation of the models in the most practical way.

For example, in Bac Ninh City, in addition to the traffic safety school gate model, this locality also organizes teams to conduct surprise inspections of student parking lots at schools to promptly detect and prevent students from using vehicles in violation of regulations.

Gia Lai province has coordinated with the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation to implement the "Speed ​​Reduction - Safe Schools" project in Pleiku City. The project has a total investment of 23 billion VND, focusing on renovating the gate areas of 33 schools; installing speed bumps; placing signs limiting the speed to 40 km/h during school pick-up and drop-off times; and helping parents and students access electronic textbooks on traffic safety.

After 5 years of implementation (2018-2023), Pleiku City has become a model in improving road traffic safety for children going to school when no traffic accidents occurred, traffic collisions decreased from 19% to 2%.

Gia Lai province has also mobilized buses and contracted vehicles to transport students to and from school. However, due to difficult economic conditions, the whole province only has 111 vehicles, most of which are old.

Consideration should be given to taking students to school by public transport.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son emphasized that the report of the Ministry of Public Security showed that traffic accidents are mostly related to personal vehicles and students' awareness. Therefore, schools need to be responsible for regularly reminding students, while families and society also have an important role because if families and society comply with traffic safety regulations, violations by students will be significantly reduced.

Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son suggested that local authorities should consider sending students to school by public transport, especially in big cities, and strictly punish parents who let their children ride motorbikes to school.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho said that students need the attention of the whole society because they are a priority group, requiring measures to ensure greater safety for students, including promoting the role of the Youth Union, improving propaganda effectiveness, and organizing traffic well from the school gate, especially schools built on national and provincial highways.

According to Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam, the ministry is focusing on reviewing and eliminating from the online environment harmful information in various fields, including traffic safety.

Central and local agencies recommend that there should be a separate system of legal regulations on means of transporting students based on the experience of foreign countries, including the United States; there should be a policy of tax exemption and reduction for vehicles serving to transport students; penalties should be increased taking into account regional factors and it is possible to calculate a pilot program of testing and granting driving licenses to students.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang commended and highly appreciated the efforts of the traffic police force and authorities at all levels in ensuring traffic order and safety across the country.

The Deputy Prime Minister especially appreciated the good models and practices of Bac Ninh, Gia Lai, and Ho Chi Minh City, which not only brought about initial positive results, but also clearly demonstrated seriousness in organization and implementation, which is still the weakest link; at the same time, he suggested that localities replicate these models and share them with other localities across the country.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the immediate task is still heavy, requiring higher determination, greater responsibility and absolutely no subjectivity.

Localities must uphold the responsibility of leaders; consider making traffic safety for students one of the criteria for assessing the year-end completion of schools; link the implementation of models with surprise, substantial inspections and supervision to create strong, substantial changes in ensuring traffic safety for students.

Along with preventing and eliminating bad and toxic information on the internet, there needs to be persuasive and oriented propaganda content to gradually form awareness and culture for everyone when participating in traffic.

The Deputy Prime Minister also hopes that the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations will pay attention to and respond to the propaganda, education, and raising awareness of traffic safety for students, because this is a content that is very close to everyone and every family.