Vietnam Drink-Drive workshop, HÀ NỘI, 24/3/2009

More than 300 people attended Vietnam's first-ever national drink-drive seminar to contribute ideas for the development of a national drink-drive action plan and to agree on prioritised activities to reduce the drinking and driving.

The event brought together representatives from key central political and social agencies - and all 63 of Vietnam's provinces - with international road safety experts, international organisations, hospitals, universities, NGOs, private businesses and the media.

The Vietnam National Drink Drive Seminar was presided over by the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), in partnership with the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The event shows the Government of Vietnam's commitment to reduce traffic accidents.

Since 1995, when Decree 36/CP was passed, the Government of Vietnam showed its awareness of the negative effects of drinking and driving. The first Road Traffic Law passed by the National Assembly also reflected this understanding. A new Road Traffic Law, passed by the National Assembly in 2008, and going into effect on July 1, 2009, again confirmed Vietnam's commitment to fight drink driving.

Vietnam's Minister of Transportation cum NTSC Chairman says: "Every year, our state budget and expenses to recover the losses due to drink drive is not small - it even far exceeds the contribution from the alcohol industry."

In this seminar, GRSP, WHO, World Bank and the FIA Foundation officially presented the Good Practice Drink Drive manual to government officials to help state agencies design policies preventing the overuse of alcohol when driving and riding.

Mr. Robert Klein, GRSP Regional Director for Asia states: "Experience has shown that successful Drink Driving programmes require all key agencies from all sectors to work together in a partnership."

Under the new road traffic law, the legally acceptable level of blood- and breath-alcohol content (BAC) will be lowered significantly as of July 1. For motorcyclists, the present BACs of 80mg/100ml blood or 40mg/1 litre breath will be reduced to 50mg/100ml blood or 0.25mg/1 litre of breath. For car drivers, the legal BACs will be reduced to zero.

Meanwhile, Decree 146/2007/NÐ-CP, enacted in September 2007, stipulates the consequences: fines from 1,000,000d to 3,000,000d and 60-day confiscation of driving licence for car drivers; fines from 400,000d - 800,000d, a 30-day confiscation of driving licence and 10-day confiscation of motorbikes for motorcyclists. In the coming revision and addition of the Decree 146, exceeding the regulated BACs will be penalised with even greater fines. (1,000,000 Vietnamese Dong equals roughly 57 USD).

Recent preliminary research at the two hospitals of Viet Duc and Saint Paul shows that 62% of road traffic victims admitted to the hospitals are alcohol positive. The highest BAC was 458 mg/100ml blood, which is six times higher than the present limit and is more than nine times higher than the new BAC effective from 1/7/2009.

One key immediate action already under way involves raising awareness about the new BACs based on the theme "Drink - No Drive" through various media. "We're not trying to tell people to never drink," says Mrs. Nguy?n Lan Huong, the Vietnam country manager for GRSP. "But we are sending the message that if you do drink, you cannot and should not drive."