Covid-19 drives down Vietnam's traffic accidents

By Dang Khoa   April 6, 2020 | 12:03 am PT
Covid-19 drives down Vietnam's traffic accidents
Le Duan Boulevard in HCMC downtown is left almost empty, March 29, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Ngoc Thien.
The new coronavirus helped reduce Vietnam's year-on-year Q1 accidents and deaths by over 10 percent, the Ministry of Public Security reported.

There were 3,467 accidents nationwide between December 15, 2019 and March 14, 2020, killing 1,640 and injuring 2,568.

Vietnam saw the accident number drop by 559, or a year-on-year fall of 13.88 percent. Fatalities and injuries also plunged by 262 (-13.77 percent) and 573 (-18.24 percent).

Beside tougher drunk driving laws introduced in January, the ministry believes the novel coronavirus has contributed to the fall in traffic accidents in the first quarter with citizens ordered to remain home and many businesses closed.

In the first quarter, traffic police nationwide handled 910,954 violations of road, railway and waterway traffic safety with total fines valued at over VND773 billion ($32.84 million). Police also revoked driving licenses and professional certificates of 76,599 people and impounded 157,498 vehicles. Nearly 48,636 drivers broke alcohol content regulations, while 307 cases involved the transport of narcotics.

Road accidents are a leading cause of death in Vietnam, killing one person nearly every hour. There were over 17,000 accidents in 2019, which claimed 7,624 lives.

 
 
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