A recent survey found that 6 in every 1,000 drivers in Vietnam are using the phone while driving.
Using the phone while driving is known to increase the chances of collision by up to 20 times, but that fact does not seem to be a deterrent for many foolhardy drivers.
Last year, a law was implemented that state drivers could be fined up to US$35 for using mobile phones while driving. Nonetheless, the 2017 regulation has not dissuaded many drivers from engaging in the hazardous activity.
Tuoi Tre reported that the Vietnamese-German Transport Research Center at the Vietnamese-German University in Binh Duong Province conducted a survey and found that 6 in 1,000 drivers are either talking with a mobile device pressed against their face, or texting.
The survey’s findings were presented Tuesday at a meeting held by the National Traffic Safety Committee. Nine locations in Binh Duong and Saigon were monitored and over 210,000 people were seen using their phones.
People driving cars and trucks were more often observed in violation of the law, and 80% of offenders were men. Over 50% of the people caught driving while using their mobile devices admitted to doing so because they felt as though they were still in control of their vehicles.
Director of the research center, Vu Anh Tuan, explained that using a phone while driving increases the risk of having an accident by three times for cars and 20 times for motorbikes. The risk increases by 8.5 times when motorists are physically holding a phone, and five times higher in hands-free mode.
Data accumulated by Google shows that over 50% of Vietnam’s population own mobile phones, and that number is expected to increase to 80% over the next two years. Meanwhile, road accidents are one of the biggest causes of death in Vietnam, killing an average of one person per hour.
[Photo via Viet Bao]
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