Discussing this issue, Lawyer Nguyen Thu Trang - Deputy Director of Heva Law Company Limited - said that according to current regulations, the "no left turn" sign does not mean no turning around.
According to Vietnamese Standard QCVN 41:2024/BGTVT effective from January 1, 2025, issued together with Circular 51/2024/TT-BGTVT, license plate P.123a "No left turn" or license plate P.123b "No right turn" only has the value of prohibiting left turn or prohibiting right turn. These license plates do not have the value of prohibiting turning around.
According to lawyer Nguyen Thu Trang, to prohibit turning around, functional agencies must use the P.124 license plate group with specific regulations.
In which, license plate P.124a is "Forbidden to U-turn", used to prohibit U-turning vehicles. License plate P.124b is "Forbidden to U-turn cars", applied to cars and 3-wheeled motorbikes.
There are also combined signs such as:
Sign P.124c: "No left turn and U-turn".
Sign P.124d: "No right turn and U-turn".
Sign P.124e: "Cars are prohibited from turning left and turning around".
Sign P.124f: "Cars are prohibited from turning right and turning around".
Lawyer Nguyen Thu Trang added that the reason why many people still confuse the "no left turn" sign with the "no turning back" sign stems from the old regulations that existed for a long time in the past.
According to the National Technical Regulation QCVN 41:2012/BGTVT applied before November 1, 2016, license plate P.123a "No left turn" is effective and also prohibits turning around.
Previously, when seeing a no left turn sign, drivers tacitly understood that they were not allowed to turn around. This regulation has formed the driving habit of many people," lawyer Trang analyzed.
Not only due to habits from old regulations, many people are also confused because in terms of driving operations, turning around often requires performing similar left turns, both needing to cut across the opposite lane and change direction of movement.
From there, many drivers default to these two behaviors as one and believe that "no left turn" is also synonymous with "no turning around".
However, from November 1, 2016, when Standard QCVN 41:2016/BGTVT took effect, then continued to be inherited in QCVN 41:2019/BGTVT and now QCVN 41:2024/BGTVT, regulations on turning left and turning around have been completely separated.
Accordingly, license plate P.123a only has the effect of prohibiting left turns. In case of wanting to prohibit turning around, functional agencies are required to place additional license plates P.124a or combined license plates belonging to group P.124 in accordance with regulations.
The lawyer also noted that if the sign "No turning" or "No car turning" is placed on a road section that is not an intersection, functional agencies must place additional sign S.503d "Direction of the sign's effect" below to determine the prohibited scope.
Therefore, when participating in traffic, people need to carefully observe each type of sign instead of applying old habits to avoid misunderstanding regulations and being unnecessarily fined.
