A large number of traffic police officers in Ho Chi Minh City have received compliments for refraining from taking bribes in 2017. The officers were praised during a meeting on the review of traffic safety last year held by the municipal department of road and railway traffic (PC67) on Thursday. The body commended 143 groups of traffic police and 3,649 fellow officers who exhibited exemplary performance and behavior. Amongst the latter, 514 officers demonstrated integrity, refusing to receive bribes which otherwise amounted to nearly VND142 million ($6,250), and 110 others bravely fought back crime, PC67 head Huynh Trung Phong said at the meeting. No information was given about the rest of the force regarding the misconduct. A police officer uses a camera to spot traffic rule violations. Photo: Tuoi Tre A multitude of traffic law violations was reported in 2017, with more than 500,000 offences recorded which corresponded to a total fine of VND260 billion ($11.45 million), and in 80,000 cases where driving licenses were confiscated. As a progressive step, cameras have been installed over streets or used by police in major cities during the past few years to detect illegal traffic acts and provide retrospective proof in case the law-breaker claims the contrary. Nearly 44.000 offences were detected with the help of this technology, resulting in the payment of over VND17 billion ($748,800). At Thursday’s meeting, the police said they also plan to step up their activity to guarantee traffic safety in the coming Vietnamese Lunar New Year, or… [Read full story]
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has required municipal police step in and tighten their grip over payment in bitcoin to ensure order in the local currency market. Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy chair of the local People’s Committee, has demanded cooperation from the city’s police department and competent agencies in investigating transactions with the digital money and preventing investors and enthusiasts from engaging in the outlawed activity. The move was meant to ensure security and order in currency activity and minimize consequences incurred by individuals and enterprises pending an official legal framework that would allow the government to better…... [read more]
Ho Chi Minh City traffic police have announced that they will install hundreds of more traffic cameras throughout the city. Colonel Vo Van Nhuan, chief of the HCMC road and railway traffic police division, said that apart from fines, police will report the breaches to drivers' local authorities. He said police will install more cameras on 200 major streets. "There were 36,000 traffic violations detected via street cameras in 2011 and another 1,200 cases so far this year," he told a recent forum on traffic safety. Minh Hoang, a resident in Binh Thanh District, said many taxis and private cars…... [read more]
A dearth of available parking space in Ho Chi Minh City has caused taxi drivers to stop wherever they can and occupy roads citywide, despite no-parking signs and traffic cops ready to hand out fines. Cabbies know the streets where parking is prohibited, and have to work with police on a frequent basis, but "we have no other choice," a taxi dispatcher from cab company Vinasun admitted to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. A long line of up to seven Vinasun taxis can usually be found waiting along the sidewalk on Bui Thi Xuan Street in District 1, even though parking…... [read more]
Prosecutors in the southern province of Tien Giang have charged a conman for posing as a traffic police captain in a series of bold and elaborate swindles, many of which targeted real police. According to the indictment released Wednesday, Bui Anh Tuan, 30, asked a man named Pha in Ho Chi Minh City to buy him a traffic police uniform and captain's epaulets in 2013. He wore the uniform on the street almost every day. Some days he introduced himself as a deputy team leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Police; on others he posed as the head…... [read more]
As many as 35 different suggestions to tackle traffic congestion in Ho Chi Minh City were put forward at a meeting on Friday, attracting debates and arguments from around 50 local scientists, experts and officials.
The proposed solutions fall into two categories, with 19 strategies aiming to develop and expand the municipal public transportation system, and the other 16 focusing on curbing personal vehicles in the southern metropolis.
The ‘public transportation’ group includes such suggestions as deploying buses that run on eco-friendly fuel, providing more buses that can accommodate wheel-chair users, or adding more 16-seat mini-buses to…... [read more]
