Newsroom

Hanoi, 12th March 2009 – Leading road safety organisations joined together today to celebrate the commencement of road safety inspections on over 3,000 kilometres of Vietnam’s highways.  The inspections are being undertaken as part of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to saving lives through the provision of safer road infrastructure.

Speaking at the official launch of the iRAP Vietnam project in Hanoi, Vice Minister Tran Doan Tho said that the road safety inspections will help authorities to save lives by targeting safety improvements along high-risk sections of road.

“Too many families have been touched by the tragedy of road death and injury. Worldwide, road crashes are the leading cause of death for young people aged 10 - 24 and a global killer on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis.

In Vietnam, over 30 people are killed on the roads each day,” Vice Minister Tran Doan Tho said. “Vietnam has made outstanding safety improvements recently through the successful motorcycle helmet program. We want to continue that improvement by improving the safety of high risk roads,” he said.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Allaster Cox, welcomed the opportunity to support the iRAP Vietnam project, which is funded by the Australian Government through the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility. “The safety inspections that begin today are vital in ensuring that roads which are critical to Vietnam’s economic growth, trade and employment are also safe,” Mr Cox said. “Worldwide, the social and economic impact of road crashes is shocking.  As part of a systematic approach to road safety, involving safer road use, safer vehicles and safer roads, the iRAP Vietnam project can help address this serious issue and save thousands of lives,” he said.

iRAP Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer, Mr Rob McInerney, said the iRAP Vietnam project will use the latest digital imaging technology to inspect 3,000km of the nation’s high-risk roads, including 2,000km of National Highway 1 which connects Hanoi in the north with Can Tho in the south.

“The inspections will focus on more than 30 different road design features that we know influence the likelihood of a crash and its severity. These include intersection layout, road cross-section and markings, McInerney said.

“The inspections will help us to identify affordable improvements that can dramatically reduce road death and injury. We know, for example, that the provision of flexible posts in the centre of the road can significantly reduce head-on crashes.”

“iRAP Vietnam will benefit from our worldwide experience in road safety. Road assessment programmes are now active in more than 50 countries and have assessed more than 100,000km of highways,” he said.

Mr Nguyen Van Quyen, Vice Chairman of the Viet Nam Road Authority (VRA) said one of the key aims of the project is to build a strong partnership between road safety specialists and organisations leading road safety in Vietnam.
“Working together with our partners in road safety, the MOT, VRA, TDSI and ITST plan to identify simple and affordable improvements that will make roads safer for car occupants, bicyclists, pedestrians and especially motorcyclists,” Mr Quyen said.

About the iRAP partnership

The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) works in close partnership with government and non-government stakeholder organisations.

Oversight for iRAP Vietnam is being provided by the Ministry of Transport (MOT), through the Traffic Safety Department.  The Vietnam Road Administration (VRA) is the implementing agency. 

Project partners include the Transport Development and Strategy Institute (TDSI), the Institute of Transport Science and Technology (ITST), the Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), BP, Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF), Vietnam Police and ARRB Group (Australia).

The project is funded by the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility with supporting funds from Australian Agency for International Development - AusAID.

iRAP Vietnam project details

The iRAP Vietnam project involves:

• using the latest digital imaging technology to inspect over 3,000km of the nation’s high-risk roads
• analysis of the road images to provide a detailed assessment of the road features that impact road crash likelihood and severity
• producing star rating maps that provide a simple and objective measure of the level of safety which is ‘built-in’ to the road network for car occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians
• generating an affordable and economically viable Targeted Road Safety Plan. The plan will include recommendations for road improvements and estimates of the numbers of deaths and injuries that could be avoided
• building and sustaining the capacity of stakeholder organisations through training and direct experience in using iRAP technology and software.

The road inspections will be completed during March and April 2009, with analysis of inspection data and production of the Targeted Road Safety Plan occurring in the second half of the year.