Implementing the plan of the Traffic Police Department and Hanoi City Police on ensuring order and safety of inland waterway traffic, the Hanoi Traffic Police Department has directed waterway police teams to strengthen patrols and controls on key river routes, especially passenger transport activities across the Red River.
At Tho An ferry terminal, Lien Minh commune, Hanoi, recently, Riverine Police Team No. 1 inspected the compliance with safety regulations in passenger transport. Some passengers did not comply with the officials directly guiding and supporting them to wear life jackets properly before vehicles leave the station.
Major Trinh Van Truong - officer of Riverine Police Team No. 1 - said that from the beginning of the year to now, the unit has strengthened propaganda, requesting wharf owners and vehicle owners to improve their responsibility in passenger transport.
The unit's point of view is to resolutely not allow vehicles to depart when passengers are not wearing life jackets or vehicles do not meet safety conditions. This is a mandatory requirement to minimize the risk of waterway traffic accidents" - Major Truong said.
According to Major Truong, in the coming time, the unit will continue to promote the application of technology in monitoring waterway passenger transport, including researching the deployment of cameras at ferry terminals to control the process of passengers getting on and off, compliance with life jacket regulations and timely detection and handling of violations.
In fact, although the regulation on wearing life jackets when participating in waterway traffic has been propagated for many years, at some ferry terminals, there is still a situation of passengers being subjective and not complying. Many people believe that short distances do not require wearing life jackets, while weather conditions and river flow always pose risks.
Regularly crossing the river to transport goods, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, residing in Lien Minh commune, said that in the past, many people were still subjective because of the short travel distance. However, after being regularly propagated and reminded, people's awareness has changed significantly.
Functional forces also disseminate regulations on mandatory safety conditions in waterway passenger transport; the responsibility of wharf owners and vehicle owners in reminding passengers to wear life jackets, equip themselves with full life-saving equipment and guide them to use them in accordance with regulations before leaving the wharf. To support passenger ferries to improve safety conditions, Riverine Police Team No. 1 has distributed 250 life jackets to wharf owners in the area.
According to the Hanoi Traffic Police Department, besides inspecting and handling violations, strengthening propaganda, supporting life-saving equipment and raising people's awareness is an important solution to prevent waterway traffic accidents early and remotely.
