January witnessed 1,526 traffic accidents which left 728 people dead and 1,137 people injured, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
The numbers of accidents, fatalities and injured people increased by 116, 98 and 49 respectively compared to December 2018.
The police dealt with over 368,800 violations and collected over VND255bn in fines. Nearly 64,600 cars and motorbikes were seized. Compared to December 2018, there was a 43,800 increase in the number of incidents, with fines up VND32.18bn and the number of vehicles involved increased by 5,681 vehicles.
As many as 110 people were killed in 147 traffic accidents in the four-day New Year holiday alone.
Most of the main routes in Hanoi and HCM City have been overcrowded and jammed in the lead-up to Tet.
Road use has massively increased as people are shopping for the festive period while people from other provinces are travelling into the cities to deliver goods. Meanwhile, both Hanoi and HCM City still have many on-going constructions that have badly affected the traffic flow.
Lax urban management has also seen pavements used by temporary businesses. Road rage and disregard of traffic laws have become increasingly common.
Vu Van Vien, head of Hanoi Department of Transport said they had ordered to stop any construction work affects roads and pavements from January 25. Ring Road 3 and Lang expansion projects are being sped up.
The authorities in Hanoi and HCM City have asked related agencies to monitor the main routes to deal with congestion and accidents more quickly.
Source: Dtinews