Hanoi - The number of fatal traffic accidents in Vietnam held steady in 2010, despite government measures to raise awareness, authorities said Friday.
Some 11,449 people died in traffic accidents this year, about the same figure as last year, Nguyen Viet Chuc of the National Traffic Police Department told the German Press Agency dpa.
The number of injured rose 31 per cent to 10,663, he added.
Recent government measures failed to reduce traffic accidents by its goal of 5 per cent this year.
Hanoi made helmets compulsory for motorcyclists in December 2007, and has introduced education programmes in schools and communities. Fines for traffic violations have also been increased.
But people still had poor driving skills and did not know or respect the highway code, said Than Van Thanh, secretariat chief of the National Traffic Safety agency.
Enforcement of traffic laws was also lax, he added.
Public Security Deputy Minister Le The Tiem said urban migration, an increasing number of vehicles, poor road quality, speeding and lack of basic road awareness were also to blame.
The issue was a 'long-term fight' that 'could not be solved overnight,' Thiem said. 'If major problems are not sorted out, it's hard to improve the situation in the future.'
Vietnam has 18 million motorbikes for a population of 86 million. Economists and organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, estimated the country has lost nearly one billion dollars annually from road accidents over the past five years.
The fatality figures were calculated using data from November 1, 2009 to November 30 this year.
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