What do you see in the road design?

At around 10am on February 18, on the Cam Lo - La Son highway, another serious traffic accident occurred, killing 3 people and injuring 2 others.

At that time, Mr. Phan Dinh Kieu (born in 1969, residing in Kon Tum City, Kon Tum Province) was driving a car with license plate 36A - 485.67 carrying Mr. Phan Dinh Quy and his wife and Mr. Quy's two children, Phan D.Q. (born in 2015) and Phan Le KV (born in 2009) traveling on the Cam Lo - La Son highway, from Da Nang to Thanh Hoa.

When arriving at Km48+200, the car driven by Mr. Kieu collided with a tractor trailer with license plate 63C - 136.59 pulling a trailer with license plate 63R- 00.227 running in the same direction, causing the driver to lose control, swerve to the left, and was hit by a truck with license plate 63H-005.68 running in the opposite direction, flying down the negative slope of the highway.

The area where the tragic accident occurred on the morning of February 18.

After the accident, many clips extracted from surveillance cameras were shared on social networks. Watching the clips reflecting different angles of the incident, many opinions said that the primary fault belonged to the car driver, and also raised the issue that it was partly due to unreasonable road design.

Specifically, many opinions expressed concerns when the Cam Lo - La Son expressway was designed with 2 lanes, the lanes are separated by road markings. Particularly, the points where overtaking is allowed are arranged with 2 lanes, separated by a hard median. At the sections where overtaking is allowed, although there is a system of signs, because the road is arranged with "lane merging" like a bottleneck, there is a potential risk of unsafety.

In addition, some opinions also said that there are still shortcomings in traffic guidance on the Cam Lo - La Son expressway.

Also related to this expressway, in October 2023, the Ministry of Public Security sent a document to the Ministry of Transport regarding the correction of unreasonable traffic organization on expressways.

In particular, the Ministry of Public Security pointed out 132 shortcomings with 7 expressway sections that did not meet expressway safety standards right from the time of construction, operation and use. Among these 7 expressways is the Cam Lo-La Son route, where a tragic accident occurred on February 18, killing a mother and her children.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the Cam Lo - La Son expressway has only 2 lanes, a road width of 23m, no median strip, no emergency lane, and every 10km there is a 4-lane overtaking section.

Assessing that sections of the road without a hard median strip in the middle always pose a risk of traffic accidents, the Ministry of Public Security has proposed that the Ministry of Transport develop a specific roadmap to upgrade and renovate 7 expressways that do not meet expressway safety standards (including the Cam Lo - La Son route). In addition, for the Cam Lo - La Son route, the Ministry of Public Security proposed to study the downgrading of the operation to ensure compliance with regulations.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, from the opening of traffic (December 31, 2022) to October 2023 (when the Ministry of Public Security sent a document to the Ministry of Transport), there were 4 traffic accidents on the Cam Lo - La Son expressway. On November 2, 2023, there was also a traffic accident on this expressway at km 04+650, through Cam Hieu commune, Cam Lo district (Quang Tri province), injuring 2 people. And most recently, there was a particularly serious accident on February 18.

Talking to Nguoi Dua Tin about this particularly serious accident, traffic expert Dr. Phan Le Binh said that the exact cause of the above incident needs to be concluded by the police, however, the initial cause based on the dash cam footage shows that the accident originated from the awareness of the traffic participants.

“Through the dash cam images, it can be seen that 100% of the fault that caused the accident was due to the unsafe driving of the car driver. This person did not observe and could not control the speed when passing the tractor-trailer, leading to an unsafe overtaking situation, causing the accident,” Mr. Binh assessed, and at the same time said that the police agency had initiated a case and prosecuted the driver of the 7-seat car, which also proved this.

The scene of a particularly serious traffic accident that occurred on the morning of February 18, killing 3 people.

Regarding the many opinions that shortcomings in the design and construction of the Cam Lo - La Son expressway were also one of the causes of the above accident, this traffic expert said that these are "subjective" views, many people only rely on observing images to make assessments without ever going directly to the scene.

“Road safety depends on many factors. We cannot just rely on a few photos to make an assessment but must have direct evidence on the ground. In the context of limited investment resources, it is normal to divide investment in expressways including two-lane sections. Of course, this is not an ideal goal and we need to aim to expand these expressways to meet people's travel needs when resources are available.

And even these two-lane highways have been designed and assessed according to prescribed standards and regulations, and are capable of ensuring safety for operation. So at this time, the necessary thing to ensure safety is that drivers must strictly comply with all traffic rules," Dr. Phan Le Binh assessed.

In comparison, Mr. Binh said that in Japan or some European countries, there are also 2-lane highways similar to the Cam Lo - La Son route, but they are still considered safe thanks to the fact that drivers are always aware of and comply with safety rules.

According to this expert, if necessary, specialized consulting units can be allowed to conduct safety assessments of the highway section where the accident occurred in order to make appropriate adjustments if a safety risk is identified.

In the immediate future, to increase safety, additional hazard warning signs, lane merging or speed limit announcements can be added so that drivers can proactively handle situations.

Traffic expert Dr. Phan Le Binh.

“From a traffic safety perspective, any route has the potential to be unsafe, depending on the unsafe driving behavior of the driver. Over the years, we have made great efforts and implemented many synchronous solutions to reduce traffic accidents.

However, in the context that our country is increasingly expanding the highway network while people's traffic awareness and culture are still limited and slow to improve, traffic accidents may increase and will be difficult to reduce as set targets. In fact, traffic accidents occurring on highways are mainly caused by subjective errors of drivers," Dr. Phan Le Binh frankly admitted.

Also speaking to Nguoi Dua Tin about the conflicting information from public opinion about the design of the Cam Lo - La Son expressway, Mr. Uong Viet Dung, Chief of Office of the Ministry of Transport, affirmed: “The Cam Lo - La Son expressway has been constructed in accordance with the design, with adequate traffic signs and road markings. Currently, public opinion on social networks has also analyzed and evaluated a lot, but to draw a clear conclusion, it is necessary to wait for the conclusion from the police investigation agency. All information on traffic organization on this route has been announced and recommended very clearly before.”

Mr. Dung also said that immediately after the accident, the Ministry of Transport assigned the relevant units to urgently review and study the road points with the same design as the road section where the accident occurred to study the traffic organization and infrastructure plan to see if there are any problems. If there are any, they will proceed to fix them.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport emphasized that when investing in the construction of expressways, all traffic organization plans are applied and implemented according to regulations. Not only recently, but the review and research to upgrade 2-lane expressways has been directed by the Prime Minister since last year (2023). The Ministry of Transport has also reviewed and planned to invest in completing those expressways. However, this still depends on the ability to balance capital sources .

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/bat-cu-tuyen-duong-nao-cung-co-nhung-kha-nang-mat-an-toan-a650476.html