Draft Road Law: Need to review to avoid overlap and difficulty in application

It is necessary to review the provisions in the draft Road Law to avoid overlapping with the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order, which is difficult to apply in practice. This was the opinion of many National Assembly deputies in the discussion session this morning, November 24.

Delegate Tran Thi Thu Hang, National Assembly Delegation of Dak Nong province, said that based on the 2008 Road Traffic Law, after being divided into two laws, the Road Law and the Road Traffic Order and Safety Law, the drafting committee needs to carefully review the two draft laws to avoid overlapping provisions.

Assessing the two Law projects, they were carefully and meticulously prepared and coordinated to clearly define the scope of regulation, but according to Delegate Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong, National Assembly Delegation of Gia Lai province, there are some contents in the two Law projects that continue to overlap, some contents are regulated in both Law projects, so it is easy to cause overlap, difficulty, and duplication in the implementation process.

Specifically, Clause 1, Article 43 of the draft Law stipulates that “The Intelligent Traffic System Management Center is the place to collect, store, analyze and process data to connect and share with state management agencies for traffic command activities.” Meanwhile, according to Clause 2, Article 69 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order, “The Traffic Command Center is the place to collect, store, analyze, process data and provide information and traffic situations under the Traffic Command and Operation Department.”

Therefore, Delegate Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong suggested that it is necessary to clarify the functions, tasks, and powers, especially the information that needs to be collected, stored, analyzed, and processed of these two types of centers to avoid duplication, overlapping of tasks, and waste of resources.

Regarding some contents regulated simultaneously in two draft laws such as passenger transport by car and transportation and pick-up of students by car, responsibilities of drivers and service staff on passenger transport cars, Delegate Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong said that having to apply both laws would make it difficult to monitor and implement.

Accordingly, delegates suggested that it is necessary to actively review these two draft laws to handle problems and ensure convenience in applying the law for people and businesses.

This is also the issue pointed out by Delegate Nguyen Hoang Bao Tran, National Assembly Delegation of Binh Duong Province. According to Delegate Bao Tran, both the Road Law Project and the Road Traffic Order and Safety Law Project have provisions related to the construction, management and use of the Intelligent Traffic System Management Center and the Traffic Command Center. The delegate expressed concerns about the implementation method and effectiveness of the construction, management and use of the Intelligent Traffic System Management Center and the Traffic Command Center in these two laws and suggested a thorough assessment to avoid overlapping functions and tasks, duplication and waste, and possibly consider merging the investment in the construction and operation of the two centers.

It is also recommended by delegate Nguyen Thi Mai Thoa, National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong province, to continue reviewing to avoid duplication between the contents of the Road Law and the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety. According to Ms. Mai Thoa, separating the Road Law to focus on regulating issues related to road traffic infrastructure and road transport is necessary and the drafting agency has tried to most reasonably distinguish the contents within the scope of this law and the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety.

However, the delegate said that there are still some regulations that are being stipulated in two laws at the same time, causing inconvenience to people in the process of applying and implementing the law. The delegate suggested that the drafting agency continue to review to ensure that the regulations are not omitted, but also not duplicated, and easy to apply.

In a more specific analysis, Delegate Nguyen Hai Dung, National Assembly Delegation of Nam Dinh province, said that there are many issues that need to be distinguished and considered to decide whether to regulate in one law or both laws. For example, the issue of school buses, one person is the driver, one person is the student manager. The draft Road Law stipulates that drivers must have at least 2 years of experience in passenger transport, however, the draft Road Traffic Safety Law only stipulates regulations for managers. The delegate said that with two overlapping or inconsistent laws, implementation in practice will be very complicated and difficult. Therefore, the delegate suggested that the Drafting Committee consider and review the above contents so that they can be consolidated into regulations in one law.

Not only does it overlap with the draft Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order, Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan, National Assembly Delegation of Binh Duong Province, said that the draft Law on Roads also overlaps with the Land Law. Specifically, the delegate cited Article 50 on investment in the construction and development of expressways, in Clause 7, which mentions compensation and resettlement support, and this is a very specific provision in the Land Law, so there is no need to re-specify it in this law.