Many sleeper bus companies provide good service for people such as the elderly, who live far away. Sleeping comfortably on the bus will ensure good health.
Recently, at the Conference with road transport businesses on ensuring traffic order and safety on August 1 organized by the Traffic Police Department (C08, Ministry of Public Security ), Hoang Long Transport Company Limited stated its opinion: " Sleeper buses are unsafe vehicles. The nature of sleeper buses is a type of vehicle converted from 45-seat cars. To limit accidents, sleeper buses should be banned ."
However, many opinions from businesses and traffic experts do not agree with the above view.
Because, in fact, road transport is currently playing a very important role in the context of aviation, railways, and waterways still having many limitations; airfares continuously reaching new peaks; high-speed railways not yet built... then to meet the long-distance travel needs of people, there is still no means of transport that can replace sleeper buses in the near future.
It's not the car's fault.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association: There is no legal basis to "ban sleeper buses". Because all sleeper buses allowed to circulate have been registered and inspected in accordance with regulations on technical safety and the environment. The conversion only involves the interior, and must be designed, approved, and constructed in accordance with the procedures by competent agencies and units.
" Just because the car has had its interior modified (approved and permitted by management agencies), it is incorrect to conclude that it is not safe enough to circulate, " Mr. Quyen stated his opinion.
According to Mr. Quyen, the cause of many accidents does not lie in the vehicle structure but in human factors, such as using expired tires, lack of maintenance checks or non-compliance with operating regulations. Putting the blame entirely on sleeper buses is not objective.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Do Van Bang, Chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association, said: Currently, 99% of sleeper buses are "original" and meet all technical standards, not converted vehicles as the business stated earlier. If it is said that sleeper buses cause accidents, it is because most long-distance buses today are sleeper buses to meet the needs of passengers, there are very few seated buses, so accidents occur more often with this type of vehicle.
"The cause of accidents is due to reckless driving, speeding, etc., not due to the vehicle. The responsibility lies with the business management unit. Most accidents are caused by humans. We cannot blame the vehicle and then propose a ban, " said Mr. Bang.
All sleeper buses allowed to circulate are registered and inspected in accordance with regulations on technical safety and environment.
Should be managed, not banned
Mr. Do Van Bang also analyzed: According to statistics, 97% of traffic accidents are due to driver error. Therefore, to minimize sleeper bus accidents, the first thing to do is to tighten driver management. Next, businesses also need to strengthen supervision and compliance with legal regulations; drivers need to raise awareness and comply with the law, including regulations on speed and working time in specific conditions...
Traffic expert, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh said: We should not ban sleeper buses, because this is a type of service that suits people's needs in terms of cost, method and current infrastructure.
"The Hanoi - Dien Bien route takes dozens of hours to travel, so if passengers only sit on the bus, they will be very tired. Meanwhile, with sleeper buses, they can get on the bus in Dien Bien at night, sleep, and arrive in Hanoi the next morning to be able to receive medical treatment or work; they can return from Hanoi at night, sleep, and arrive in Dien Bien the next morning," Mr. Thanh analyzed.
Along with that, to reduce accidents involving passenger cars, the first thing is to control the quality of the vehicles, not to expand or reinforce them. The second is the quality of the drivers, especially for mountain routes at night, it is necessary to arrange 2 drivers, drive on the correct route, and have rest hours for the drivers.
Disagreeing with the proposal to ban sleeper buses, Mr. Le Trung Tinh, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Passenger Transport Association, said: We should not ban them but only tighten management of this type of vehicle to ensure safety. At the same time, we need to find out the cause of the accident, whether it is due to technical errors, the driver or the infrastructure.
"Ho Chi Minh City has more than 1,000 sleeper buses and the provinces also have more than 1,000 buses entering the city to transport and serve people. Many sleeper bus businesses provide good services for people such as the elderly and those living far away. Sleeping comfortably on the bus will ensure their health. Therefore, when proposing to ban sleeper buses, the units need to provide specific statistics on accidents caused by sleeper buses," Mr. Tinh added.
Do not use double-decker sleeper buses to operate on grade V and grade VI mountainous roads.
Regarding ensuring traffic safety with sleeper buses due to the characteristics of the routes to Cao Bang province, where vehicles travel at night, obstructing visibility, with lots of fog and slippery conditions, the Department of Construction of Cao Bang province recently issued an official dispatch requesting the heads of transport enterprises to enhance their responsibility in managing the transport activities of the unit, monitoring the traffic safety conditions of the unit, strictly implementing, correctly and fully implementing the procedures for ensuring traffic safety.
Enterprises need to arrange staff to monitor the operation of drivers and vehicles of the unit during the entire process of transporting passengers through data from the journey monitoring device to promptly correct and remind drivers when detecting vehicles speeding, exceeding continuous driving time, exceeding working hours during the day, the journey monitoring device has no signal... Strengthen measures to correct, remind and strictly handle violations of drivers; absolutely do not use vehicles that do not ensure technical safety, do not install journey monitoring devices.
"Do not arrange for unqualified drivers to operate vehicles on the road; Do not use double-decker sleeper buses to operate on grade V and grade VI mountainous roads," said a representative of the Cao Bang Department of Construction.
For drivers, the Cao Bang Department of Construction requires businesses to use drivers with a driver's license appropriate to the type of vehicle they are driving, with seniority and experience driving sleeper buses. In order to minimize traffic accidents when driving at night, drivers are required to strictly comply with the provisions of the Road Law and the Road Traffic Safety Law such as: driving in the correct lane, driving at the prescribed speed, keeping a safe distance from the vehicle in front, avoiding and overtaking vehicles according to regulations, absolutely not using alcohol, beer, alcoholic substances and stimulants, drugs when driving vehicles participating in road traffic.
The arrangement of sleeper bus drivers must meet all the conditions according to regulations. Note to remind drivers and bus companies to use drivers with many years of experience operating passenger vehicles to operate sleeper buses on roads with many steep passes, curves, fog, deep ravines, which pose a high risk of causing traffic safety problems.
Arrange healthy drivers and sufficient number of drivers. Pay special attention to reminding drivers who drive at night or feel sleepy to be replaced promptly.
Regularly remind drivers to pay attention to unusual situations on steep mountain passes such as landslides, fog, storms, slippery roads... to ensure safety before allowing vehicles to operate. Propaganda and regularly remind drivers and attendants on the vehicle to comply with regulations for sleeper buses.
Strengthen regular inspection and maintenance of vehicles, absolutely do not allow vehicles that do not meet technical safety and environmental protection standards to participate in transportation business activities; Equip vehicles and drivers with additional warning devices such as reflective signs, reflective vests, etc. to handle situations when incidents occur on the road during rainy weather, limited visibility, foggy weather, and especially at night.
Phan Trang
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/dung-do-loi-cho-xe-giuong-nam-102250805155634062.htm
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