Hanoi (VNA) - Nearly 9,600 traffic accidents resulting in 4,134 deathsand 8,000 injuries were reported in Vietnam in the first half of this year.

The figures were released by the National Committee for Traffic Safety at a teleconferenceon July 4 to review the country’s traffic situation in the January-June period.

The numbers of accidents,deaths and injured fell by 636, 229 and 1,004 respectively compared to the sameperiod last year.

However, there were 23 serious traffic accidents that claimed a total of 81deaths, 110 injuries and other asset losses.

According to the committee’s report, the traffic fatality rate fell in 38 majorcities and provinces across the country.

Particularly, 16 of them saw the rate drop up to 20 percent.  They include Ca Mau, Cao Bang, Dien Bien, LaoCai, Tay Ninh, Kien Giang and Quang Ngai.

[HCM City’s efforts improve traffic at hot spots]

Twenty-two localities in the country reported a traffic fatality increase,including Ha Nam, Gia Lai, Hau An, Khanh Hoa, Hai Phong, Yen Bai, An Giang andQuang Tri.

The fatality rates in An Giang, Quang Tri, Can Tho and Lai Chau are over 30 percent.

Traffic jams are still a major problem, especially in major cities like Hanoi andHCM City.

As many as 33 prolonged traffic jams (lasting over half an hour) were reportedin the last six months nationwide, while 25 prolonged traffic jams werereported in the same period last year.

Police reportedly cracked down on 2.24 million traffic violations across the countryin the first half of this year, collecting fines of 1.5 trillion VND (66million USD).

Chairing the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, who is alsohead of the committee, said that despite efforts to curb traffic accidents andtraffic jams, the public remains deeply concerned about the issues.

He also raised concerns about overloaded trucks, illegal passenger pick up/dropoff of coaches and increased traffic jams.

He called on more drastic measures to tackle the problems.

Khuat Viet Hung, vice head of the committee, said that out of 33 reported majortraffic jams, 22 were caused after traffic accidents happened, three werecaused by excessive number of vehicles on roads and the other eight were causedby other incidents on roads.-VNA