Lapsed and de-registered vehicles: Potentially dangerous

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Until the end of 2016, Vietnam will have an addition of 23,000 lapsed vehicles. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

Hundreds of thousands of lapsed and de-registered vehicles

According to the Department of Vietnam Registry (under the Ministry of Transport), at the end of 2016, Vietnam will have 23,075 lapsed vehicles (including 20,068 trucks and 3,007 passenger cars). Earlier, by the end of 2015, the number of lapsed vehicles was 139,500 units.

In fact, for people to strictly observe the Law to reduce traffic accidents, the Department of Vietnam Registry has asked all the Registry Centers to provide data on all lapsed vehicles for the Traffic Police Department, the Department of Transport, and Traffic Inspectorate Divisions in provinces and cities to actively cooperate with the patrol forces on the road to control and handle violations. The list of all lapsed vehicles is also posted by the Department of Vietnam Registry at www.vr.org.vn, at the page of "lapsed vehicles" and "upcoming lapsed vehicles" for authorities as well as people to search.

Speaking to a reporter of the Customs Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tri, the Deputy Director of the Department of Vietnam Registry said: “There are plenty of lapsed vehicles in traffic, potentially causing unsafe situations. Most of them are old vehicles which are not eligible to be registered. The common feature of these vehicles is that they tend to operate in a certain area, especially the remote area to avoid the control of the authorities. Notably, there are many lapsed vehicles running at night to avoid the detection of functional forces.

According to Mr. Tri, in recent times, in addition to providing full information about lapsed vehicles to the relevant authorities, the Department of Vietnam Registry has directly coordinated with Traffic Police Force, Traffic Inspectorate Force and Transport Department of provinces and cities to check vehicles. Typically, they mainly focus on areas with a high potentiality of lapsed vehicles such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hoa Binh and Mong Cai (Quang Ninh ). The Department of Vietnam Registry will conduct a statistical record of number plates of vehicles on the road, then send the videos and specific reports to local authorities to handle the violations. However, functional authorities were even attacked by owners and users of lapsed vehicles. In addition, one of the emerging problems is that the Department of Vietnam Registry does not have the right to handle lapsed vehicles and they have to wait for local authorities to handle the violations .

Lurking danger

In recent years, the operation of lapsed vehicles has received much attention by the public but it has not yet fully resolved. This situation has occured from year to year. It has not only caused concerns and worries to the public but it has really caused accidents and pain. For example, at the end of January 2015, a 16-seat bus rammed into a truck from an opposite direction at Km 605 of Ho Chi Minh Highway, through Quy Xuan, Nhu Xuan District (Thanh Hoa). There were 9 dead people and 5 wounded people after the accident. The truck with the plate number 29H-7506, IFA brand, was produced in 1989 in Germany with the registration date of 16^th July 2012, and the expiration date of registration of 16^th October 2012 and expiration date of use of 1^st January 2015. This lapsed truck was posted on the website of the Department of Vietnam Registry to report to the relevant authorities. However, regardless of the violations, the truck was still operated and caused the heart-breaking accident.

From that tragic accident to date, there have been several traffic accidents related to lapsed vehicles. According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Thai, the Director of the Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, there is a high risk of accidents for both lapsed vehicles and upcoming lapsed vehicles. In recent times, in many localities including some suburbs of Hanoi, lapsed cars have been also used for transporting students to school. This fact raises the concern of the management of lapsed vehicles.

Handling strictly

Currently, upcoming lapsed vehicles are listed by the Department of Vietnam Registry to notify owners of these vehicles. In the last registration period, upcoming lapsed vehicles will receive a sticker to help people and functional authorities to easily recognize. At the time of expiration, the owners must return the registration papers and licensed plates to authorities and are not allowed to use these vehicles in traffic.

Obviously, the provisions and sanctions related to the management of lapsed vehicles are quite sufficient. However, lapsed vehicles have still operated widely for a long time? Is the management of lapsed vehicles too difficult to solve?

In response to questions of a reporter of the Customs Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tri said: Recently, the Department of Vietnam Register has tried it best to prevent and manage lapsed vehicles to strive to achieve positive results in the near future. The problems of lapsed vehicles in traffic can be completely solved if there is drastic collaboration of all Ministries, and local authorities.

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According to Mr. Tri, besides the role of State management agencies, the role of people in the "war" against lapsed vehicles is also very important. Because in many cases, the people can easily detect lapsed vehicles to report to functional forces. If people raise their awareness and responsibility to provide information to authorities, the effectiveness of management of lapsed vehicles will be improved remarkably.