Over recent days, many coaches departing from the Da Nang Inter-provincial Coach Station in Lien Chieu District have been found violating the national regulations on parking or picking up and dropping off passengers.

Many coaches being illegally parked bumper-to-bumper along a section of Ton Duc Thang (Photo: An Nhien)

The majority of the offending vehicles are usually en fixed routes from Da Nang to such other northern central localities as Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Tri.

It is common to see such vehicles intentionally run at the slowest possible speed, even at mere 5km/h, along some sections of Ton Duc Thang to pick up passengers, which has resulted in tough traffic congestion facing other road users along this busy street.

One reason for this issue of deep concern is thought to be that many passengers prefer to catch any coach along the roadside to save time, rather than getting onto vehicles at the coach station.

According to the freshly-released report from a DA NANG Newspaper reporter, within only one hour, as many as 20 coaches were illegally parked bumper-to-bumper along the lane exclusively for bicycles and other rudimentary vehicles on a short section of Ton Duc Thang.  The main intention was to pick up as many passengers as possible.

It was also reported that this problem usually ocurs at noon and in the early morning when traffic police are not available there.

Mr Nguyen Trung Nghia, the Chief Inspector of the municipal Department of Transport said relevant local agencies have begun their joint fight against unlicensed coaches and illegal coach depots in 2004 in a bid to ensure traffic order in the city. 

Despite great efforts made by the local authorities, this matter has yet to be fully resolved.

The matter of illegally picking up passengers adversely affects traffic order and safety (Photo: An Nhien)

Mr Nghia underlined a must-do for the city authorities to give the go-ahead to the installation of surveillance cameras along the streets of Ton Duc Thang, Nguyen Luong Bang and Truong Chinh.  This move, thereby, will help to accurately detect image-based violations of the regulations on picking up and dropping off passengers.

In case there are no traffic officers on duty at or near illegal coach depots to directly handle the offence, penalty tickets enclosed with hard copies of images of the violations will be sent to violators at home, requiring them to pay administrative fines.

From now until the forthcoming Tet Festival, law enforcement forces will increase their patrols and checks to detect and handle any violations.