A traffic police officer deals with a traffic violator in a stretch of the National Highway 1A, running through the northern province of Ninh Binh. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Securityhas considered proposing a demerit point system to tackle driving offences.
The proposal would entail each driver holding acertain number of points on their driving licence, with the points managed on a data system and points subtracted afterdriving offences are committed.
When half of the points aregone, drivers might lose their licences if violations are repeated, saidColonel Do Thanh Binh, Deputy Director of the Traffic Police Department.
According to the department, to implement thesystem, data on driving licences should be made synchronous nationwide.
Current laws impose administrative punishmentsor revoke driving licences in a certain period for driver’s offences. However,these laws are reported to not be strict enough, resulting in repeatedviolations.
Drivers even did not go to police headquartersto take their revoked licences back when the penalty period is over. In 2015and 2016, there were nearly 37,400 motorbike and car driving licences whoseowners refused to return them, according to the TrafficPolice Department.
Binh said the penalty point system has beenapplied in many countries. Offences related to speeding and drink driving incurthe highest penalties.
The penalty point system will help raisedriver’s awareness of following traffic laws and reduce accidents, he said.
Driver Cao Van Tuan in Hanoi told NongThon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper he was worried about theefficiency of the system. “Will the system help reduce offences or will therebe other problems arising?” he asked.
Lawyer Vu Thai Ha, president of Youme Law Firm,said it is more necessary to deal with corruption and bribery in traffic lawimplementation and step up dissemination to raise people’s awareness offollowing the laws rather than changing penalties.
On the other side, Senior Lieutenant Colonel NguyenVan Quy, Hanoi’s former traffic officer, said subtracting points from a drivinglicence is a good idea.
“We have to make amendments to current TrafficLaw and law on administrative punishment to effectively implement the system,”he said.
Colonel Tran Son, former deputy head of lawenforcement implementation, traffic accident investigation department, saidthat along with data system of driving licences, cameras should be installed atkey traffic areas and highways to help police penalise violating drivers.
Experts should learn from internationalexperience and collect public feedback on point levels to be subtracted inrelevance with the level of offences, he said.-VNS/VNA
VNA
