On February 18, an accident on the Cam Lo-La Son highway killed 3 people and injured many others. Previously, experts have repeatedly warned about the design of this expressway, saying it does not ensure safety.
Dan Tri newspaper on March 10 reported “Accident on Cam Lo-La Son highway, 2 people died, 7 people were injured.” The news said that another serious traffic accident just happened on the Cam Lo-La Son highway, in Phong Son commune, Phong Dien district, Thua Thien Hue province, killing 2 people.
The leader of the Traffic Safety Committee of Thua Thien Hue province said that the cause of the accident, through initial determination, was because the passenger car driver was not paying attention and collided “strongly” with the stopped truck parking on the side of the road. The accident left 2 people dead, 7 seriously injured and 5 slightly injured.
On March 11, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang signed an Official Telegram, directing to urgently clarify the cause and overcome the consequences.
Public opinion said that in less than a month, the Cam Lo-La Son highway had 2 tragic accidents, killing 5 people. This highway is considered by experts to be a narrow road, with only one driving lane and one emergency lane, so limits traffic and does not allow safe passing.
Still according to Dan Tri newspaper, most of the Cam Lo-La Son highway does not have a hard median, only solid lines, but at the end points of passing, they are designed in a “narrow, bottleneck” style, causing danger to vehicles.
According to experts, if based on the information regulating the “Highway Motorway Design” standards, it is clear that this route completely does not meet Vietnamese standards, let alone international standards.
Why do such tragic accidents continuously occur on the Cam Lo – La Son highway?
On social networks, some comments commented “If a highway has a knot like that, it would be better if it didn’t exist at all, because the highway doesn’t have only 2 lanes and no median, like so it’s very easy for accidents to happen.”
More seriously, up to now, of the total length of 98.3 km of this new route, only about 10 km has 4 lanes. That is why localities have made recommendations to competent authorities to soon upgrade and expand this road to 4 lanes.
On February 15, 2023, state media reported that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested to stop investing in two-lane highways, due to the waste of resources and time spent upgrading and expanding. According to the Prime Minister, “completed highway standards have at least 4 lanes, enough emergency stopping lanes, and a design speed of 80-100km/h.” At the same time, the Prime Minister’s instruction, “doing it all at once is less expensive” is correct.
Journalist Linh Hoang, a former reporter for Tuoi Tre newspaper, revealed that the Ministry of Public Security had previously warned and requested the Ministry of Transport to downgrade the operation of the Cam Lo-La Son expressway.
Accordingly, in October 2023, the Ministry of Public Security issued a warning dispatch:
“Cam Lo-La Son Expressway has only 2 lanes, 23m road width, no median strip, no emergency stopping lane, every 10km there is a 4-lane passing section; This road section is equivalent to a level III plain road.
That makes this route unsuitable for force deployment, and difficult in ensuring traffic order and safety.
Still according to the official dispatch of the Ministry of Public Security, “The temporary traffic organization plan on this route has expired from June 30, 2023 to now (October 2023), there is no new plan to replace it.”
Public opinion believes that when putting expressways into operation and use, the issue of safety and human life must be placed first. At the same time, all “fake” expressways, which do not ensure quality and are at risk of death, must be stopped immediately from being operated.
We cannot let the Ministry of Transport and Minister Nguyen Van Thang and group interests with the current irresponsibility./.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
