Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Watch out for buses in HCMC


Serious stuff getting out on the streets in Saigon - 38 bus related traffic accidents last year = 38 deaths. Read about the carnage in the last month in following article-



City orders bus driver clampdown after accident fatalities


A public bus picking up passengers in District 1.
The Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Committee Tuesday ordered a clampdown on bus drivers following a horror spate of fatal accidents this month.
The committee requested the city’s Transport Department and Public Passenger Transport Management and Operation Center to tighten control over public bus operators and ensure bus drivers follow traffic safety rules.
It asked the HCMC police department to instruct the traffic and district police to get heavy on bus drivers who flouted the rules.
Nguyen Ngoc Tuong from the committee said many bus drivers were a danger to public safety as they drove carelessly, sped and dropped off and picked up passengers haphazardly.


Tuesday, driver Phan Van Toai drove over the leg of an alighting passenger, 71-year-old Tran Ngoc. The bus dropped Ngoc on Le Dai Hanh Street, District 11, and swung back onto the road before the driver was alerted by other passengers that he had run over the old woman.
Ngoc was rushed to Cho Ray Hospital for urgent surgery. So far no action has been taken against the driver.


On Monday, bus driver Nguyen Van Phuoc turned sharply to stop at a bus stop, causing an accident that killed a man engaged to be married this Sunday.


Last Thursday bus driver Ho Van Tay went the wrong way on a roundabout and crashed into a motorbike in District 8, killing the male motorbike driver and his nephew instantly while the man’s 12-year-old daughter died Friday in hospital. Tay was arrested and police have said they will press charges against him.


HCMC public buses last year caused 38 traffic accidents that killed 38 people, the city road traffic police reported earlier this month.

Reported by: Dinh Muoi â Thanh Tung