Recent deadly road accidents involving unskilled drivers have driven relevant agencies to improve training and examinations for driving licences.
Government tightens control over driving licenses granting
Another accident occurred in Ha Noi on Sunday in which a car crashed into four motorbikes and injured six people. The accident resulted from the driver failing to differentiate the brake pedal from the throttle of the car.
Four similar accidents occurred in the city last month injuring more than 10 people.
To deal with the situation, the Directorate of Roads is implementing a project to improve the quality of training and testing for new automobile drivers.
The directorate's deputy director, Nguyen Van Quyen, said changes in training curricula and methods have been taking place since March and an international consultancy has been invited to ensure that international criteria are met.
Under stricter licensing procedures, drivers will have to attend traffic safety lessons and classes on their responsibilities as drivers. Due to lack of inspectors, however, few training facilities were applying the new standards, so the quality of training has yet to be ensured, Quyen said.
Under the procedures, a driver trainee would be required to sign a contract with a training facility which clearly defined the content of training programmes, tuition and fees and necessary driving skills to be acquired. The training facility would be responsible for making an official commitment that the learner has sufficient driving skills and has passed driving tests. If anything were to subsequently happen calling into question the quality of a driver, this commitment would serve as a basis for inspections or assessment of these training facilities.
The directorate would also create a database of licensed automobile drivers by the end of this year, Quyen said, so that traffic violators whose licenses have been temporarily revoked cannot automatically renew their licenses.
Training facilities would also receive more financial support to improve their equipment, Quyen said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has also assigned the Ministry of Public Security to inspect training facilities and examination processes for drivers to acquire automobile driving licences.
According to an officer of Ha Noi Police, police forces also need to monitor and eliminate the weakness of over 300 existing driver training facilities nationwide, many of which employ underqualified driving instructors and equipment, are conducting overcrowded classes and engaging in fraud in examination processes.
