Vietnamese ride motorbikes on a sidewalk in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: T. Duc / Tuoi Tre

Monday, September 16, 2019

Nationwide statistics estimate that around 500 traffic accidents in Vietnam each year, including fatal ones, involve foreigners.

An ongoing campaign to intensify crackdown on foreigners who violate traffic laws in Ho Chi Minh City and the lively discourse it has generated among local expats provoke many thoughts on the role of law in Vietnam.

With that belief in mind, the city has since August 1 launched a campaign to educate foreigners on traffic laws in Vietnam and to begin strictly handling foreign violators after the educational period ended on August 15. The campaign is expected to last until the end of October.

C.V., a member of the ‘Expats in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)’ group on Facebook, even suggests the city authority should educate its own people on traffic laws before thinking of educating foreigners.

One can’t help but wonder why some foreigners who come from developed countries feel inclined to disregard the law when in Vietnam, while Vietnamese who can disobey traffic laws without a second thought in their home country tend to automatically switch to law-abiding mode when visiting a foreign one.

Some travel agencies even offer tours for foreigners to experience traffic in Vietnam. It shows that Vietnam’s chaotic traffic situation has become something of a ‘specialty’ in the eyes of foreign visitors.

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