Aus4Transport is committed to supporting Vietnam’s efforts to reduce road death toll
IN BRIEF
With 1.35 million people dying every year on the roads, traffic accident data around the world is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, Vietnam is no different.
Traffic accidents remain the biggest single cause of fatalities in Vietnam, despite the country’s efforts to make its roads safer through new policies and stricter measures. Speeding, inadequate law enforcement, risky driver behaviour, poor driving skills and bad infrastructure conditions are often referred to as the main reasons for road crashes.
Aus4Transport, the partnership between the Government of Australia and the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam working to enhance the Vietnamese transport infrastructure sector, is making road safety a priority and mainstreaming it across all projects and activities.
Since the beginning of the Program in 2018, Aus4Transport has been ensuring that robust road safety countermeasures were included in its two largest activities, the Detailed Engineering Designs for the Central Highlands Connectivity Improvement Project and the Northern Mountain Provincial Transport Connectivity Project. Aus4Transport has also supported online training for MOT officials and other professionals from the Vietnamese Transport sector on the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) Star Rating Methodology and, most recently, just approved a new Stream B activity to design a Road Safety Awareness Campaign to be implemented before and during the construction phase of the upgrading of National Highway and Provincial road sections connecting to the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Expressway.
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Road traffic accidents cost Vietnam around 8,000 lives every year (2,000 of them are children), 14,000 injured citizens, and close to USD10 billion (230 VND trillion). With such a huge toll hindering the country’s development, the Government of Vietnam has been taking strong action already for some time. Different laws and regulations on road traffic have been issued addressing two of the major risk factors for road traffic injuries: non-use of helmet and driving under the influence of alcohol.
With the aim to support the Government’s efforts in improving road safety and social welfare, Aus4Transport wants to ensure all its transport infrastructure projects address traffic safety, not only through the engineering design, but also through safety awareness campaigns targeting the infrastructure users and the local communities.
As part of the Detailed Engineering Design for the Central Highlands Connectivity Improvement Project, and through a Road Safety Countermeasures Plan, Aus4Transport has introduced several road safety measures along National Highway 19, meeting international road safety standards and positioning many sections of NH19 under the 3-star iRAP rating. The road safety plan caters for adequate roadside equipment, such as bus stops guardrails and pedestrian paths, ensuring traffic safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
In its goal to support not only the development of hard infrastructure, but also uphold capacity building that promotes long-term sustainable change, Aus4Transport provided online training on the iRAP star rating methodology system to Government road officials and other project partners involved in the Program’s two Detailed Design Activities. The objective of this internationally recognised training program was to upgrade the skills and strengthen capacity within the participating organisations to undertake high-quality safety assessments of roads and proposed designs. The training, which was conducted between November 2020 and February 2021 targeted professionals from the transport sector in Vietnam, including staff from MOT, the University of Transport and Communications, AIP Foundation, and international and local consultants currently working on road infrastructure projects in Vietnam.
However, Aus4Transport believes that it is not just engineering solutions that save road users lives, but also road-user behaviour and education. As such, raising awareness and educating people on road safety is crucial to preventing traffic accidents that lead to loss of lives and compromise the country’s social and economic development. For this reason, Aus4Transport has recently approved a new Stream B activity focused on designing a Road Safety Awareness Campaign that will complement the Detailed Engineering Design of the Northern Mountain Provincial Transport Connectivity Project. The campaign aims to mitigate the risks associated with larger traffic volumes and higher speeds that the upgraded road will bring. It will be implemented before and during the civil works, targeting construction workers, road users, local communities and businesses, and paying special attention to the ethnic minorities living in the project area. Aus4Transport is currently recruiting the consulting team that will design this campaign.
The delivery of safe roads is a key element of the assistance that the Government of Australia is providing to Vietnam through the Aus4Transport partnership. The Program aims to work together with the Vietnamese Government to enhance the quality of its transport infrastructure to accelerate economic, sociocultural, and environmental development, supporting economic growth and poverty reduction.
