A study conducted by the Vietnamese-German University claimed that the unsafe behavior shown by high school students on roads make them more prone to lethal accidents.
Trinh Tu Anh, the head of Ton Duc Thang University’s planning department, spoke at a workshop on road accidents and pointed out that about 2,000 adolescents aged 10 to 19 are killed on the roads every year, Viet Nam News reported.
Of those victims, high school students from grade 10 to 12 were the most susceptible, with 33 in 100,000 adolescents dying on the road. Anh stressed that the number was five times the average mortality rate of all ages in Vietnam.
She said that while the number of traffic accidents was dropping, the number of young casualties was not. The majority of accidents happened when youngsters were riding bicycles, electric bikes or mopeds.
In addition, more than 80% of accidents in Vietnam happened when an adolescent was in the driver’s seat. The causes of accidents included changing to the wrong lane, driving in the wrong direction, speeding, overtaking and dangerous street crossings.
Khuat Viet Hung, the executive vice-chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said the state government should co-operate with scientists and local groups and business to develop a solution to the traffic issues.
He pointed out that several laws on traffic safety should be amended and a national database dedicated to traffic accidents must be developed. In 2018, more than 8,000 people were killed in road accidents in Vietnam, with damage listed at US$130 billion for the years 2015-2030. Road safety and traffic education are not part of the education curriculum in Vietnam.