Traffic police in southern Dong Nai province have spent 92 billion VND(4.3 million USD) on installing traffic cameras in Bien Hoa city to helpcurb traffic violations and road accidents.

As many as 58cameras have been installed at 25 points along crowded road junctions inthe city. Police officials have also said the cameras will help policemaintain better control over traffic flows and impose fines forviolations.

The camera system has been connected with the city'straffic management centre, which uses automatic software to tracetraffic violations such as speeding, ignoring red lights and recklessdriving, and identify sources of traffic accidents.

The systemalso boasts the ability to identify the number plates of vehiclesinvolved in accidents while accurately identifying the exact causes ofaccidents.

All information will then be sent to police to imposepenalties on the spot or send fines to the work or residentialaddresses of traffic offenders.

The province also plans to continue investing in more cameras on various key routes throughout the province.

Figuresfrom the provincial Traffic Safety Committee showed that 635 accidentstook place last year, killing 425 people and leaving 512 injured.

Althoughthe number of accidents reduced compared to the previous year, thecommittee said the quality of roads had declined and that vehiclescontinued to drive in opposite lanes, increasing the risk of accidents.

ViceChairman of the provincial People's Committee Tran Van Vinh hasrequired transport authorities to improve the quality of roads andstrengthen penalties for offenders. The province will also aim to reducethe number of traffic accidents by 5 percent from the previous year.

Theinvestment adds to traffic cameras already installed on key routes onNational highway No1 to help trim the number of accidents occuring onthe route.-VNA