Drivers unfazed by video proof

Police stop a driver whose traffic violations had been recorded by security cameras. Photo by Tuổi Trẻ News

At the site, traffic police randomly entered license plates as vehicles on Điện Biên Phủ Street in Bình Thạnh District headed toward Hàng Xanh Intersection.

When a violator’s plate was detected, officers notified colleagues, who were positioned a kilometre away, to stop the violator and issue the appropriate penalty.

Within 45 minutes at the checkpoint, traffic police were able to detect 10 licences of cars that had been previously caught on video violating traffic laws.

But because the videos had not captured the images of the drivers’ faces, many of the drivers stopped by police said that another driver had committed the violation.

“What did I do wrong?” asked Vũ Văn Quân, a driver from Thái Bình Province, when he was stopped by police near the checkpoint.

However, as soon as he was shown a video recorded at 2:33pm on January 8 of his violation, he agreed to hand over his personal papers and pay the fine.

Phạm Ngọc Oanh, another driver, told police that he did not know who was driving his car when security cameras on March 30 detected a speeding violation in the Thủ Thiêm Tunnel. He asked the police to free him.

Similarly, taxi driver Dương Hoàng Sang refused to admit his violation which was recorded on March 23, explaining that the car was owned by a taxi company and that it had been driven by another driver at the time of the incident.

The police then asked Sang to report the incident to his taxi company to identify the violator.

Lieutenant Trần Minh Thức told Tuổi Trẻ News that he had often encountered difficulties issuing traffic tickets to drivers whose offenses had occurred previously.

Though drivers might lie about the incidents, Thức said it was the police officers’ responsibility to ask drivers to help them identify the person who was driving the car seen on video.

In cases when the violators’ identity has been confirmed, but the driver refuses to pay the fine, the car owners must pay and then sue the violators to get their money back, according to Lieutenant Colonel Phạm Công Danh.

Since it often takes a long time to show the evidence and talk the violators into paying the fines, many violators do not show up to pay the fine.

The city’s traffic police unit, called PC67, said that 8,552 traffic violations were recorded from April 23 to October 28.

Only 779 of the violators showed up to pay their fines, bringing VNĐ476 million (US$21,234) to the State Treasury.