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| Mobile police stops a motorcycle for inspection__Photo: VNA |
At about midnight of November 2, while stopping at the red light at an intersection in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi, N.N.Q., aged 27, was hit by a group of young people riding motorcycles at top speed and died immediately on the scene.
The police later arrested nine youngsters aged between 16 and 19. Among them, the 16-year-old N.T.M.K. and the 19-year-old N.H.N. confessed to directly crashing into the victim.
The ill-fated young girl was the latest victim of street racing, a burning issue that still exists despite great efforts of functional agencies. According to statistics released in an article in the Việt Nam News, in the first nine months of 2024, in Hanoi alone, police officers seized 800 vehicles involved in cases of driving motorbikes at high speed, weaving, swerving, and revving. When these motorbike riders saw the police, they recklessly ran red lights, bypassed checkpoints, increased speed, and fled, endangering themselves and other vehicles operating on the road.
More seriously, most participants in street races are teenagers.
Shocking figures revealed at a workshop on prevention and combat of street racing showed that 38.5 percent of street racers were school-aged persons, mainly high schoolers, of whom 23.5 percent had dropped out of school. Ninety-nine percent of participants in cases of gathering, racing, and using weapons to resolve personal conflicts were men; 34.8 percent aged under 16 years, and 46 percent aged between 16 years and under 18 years.
Who is to blame?
The persistent existence of illegal racing, especially among youngsters, gives rise to many questions. Whether the penalties for street racers are not strict enough or are there any other reasons behind?
Under Article 12 of the 2015 Penal Code, revised in 2017 (the Code), persons aged full 16 years or older are subject to penal liability for all offenses. Persons aged between full 14 years and under 16 years will bear penal liability if they commit certain crimes in very serious or particularly serious circumstances, including the offenses of participating in illegal vehicle races and organizing illegal vehicle races specified in Articles 266 and 265 of the Code.
Accordingly, the penalty for street racers will range from monetary fine and non-custody reform to 20 years of imprisonment. As for those convicted of organizing street races, the heftiest penalty is life imprisonment.
In addition, under Article 264 of the Code, those who clearly know that other persons are not qualified for operating a vehicle on the road but still let such persons do so may face an imprisonment sentence of up to seven years.
Looking at the above-mentioned regulations, it can be said that the penalties for those participating in or organizing street races are relatively tough. Hence, what is the root cause of this phenomenon?
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, cites the lack of due care and attention of parents as the reason behind teenagers’ thoughtless actions, including participation in illegal activities like street racing.
“Many parents are too busy earning money that they don’t know what their kids are doing or learning or where they are. Young people lack a direction in life and hence want to assert their personality through actions that others dare not to do. Participating in street racing is just one of the ways for them to express themselves,” Dr. Nam analyzed.
“During adolescence, youths begin to expand their social networks. If parents do not pay due attention, their children might likely join bad friend groups and be infected with deviant behaviors,” Dr. Nam said. The expert cited the case of a teenager from a wealthy family as an example. “His racing motorbike had all the brakes removed. When I asked why he participated in street racing though knowing that it is dangerous, he said: “Life has no meaning. Only when I’m close to death do I feel the value of life,” Dr. Nam told the story on the VietNamNet.
According to the expert, many parents just pay attention to their children’s material needs but forget about education, lifestyle orientation, provision of inspiration for their children, and creation of space for their children to share and reveal their thoughts and feelings.
“Many parents hand over vehicles to children while not providing them with sufficient safety knowledge for operating the vehicles. This is similar to going swimming. Before pushing children into the water, parents must equip them with necessary skills like diving, etc.”
The appearance of street racing and wheelie videos on social networking sites is also a factor luring youngsters to participate in such dangerous activities. It is not difficult to search for social media profiles and fan pages posting these types of videos or even live streaming street races. The Public Security agency of Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province, has just arrested eight youngsters who live streamed while running motorcycles at high speed on the street, weaving and doing wheelies.
Recommendations
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, when chairing a recent meeting discussing the draft decree on administrative sanctions for violations of the regulations on road traffic order and safety, suggested that competent authorities should be empowered to confiscate evidence vehicles.
Under the current law, evidence vehicles in illegal racing cases are seized but authorities have to return the vehicles to their owners and are only allowed to confiscate such vehicles if they belong to the illegal racers.
The Deputy Prime Minister suggested revising regulations so that evidence vehicles in all cases of illegal racing will be confiscated, regardless of who the vehicle owners are.
As an education expert, Dr. Tran Thanh Nam had another approach to the issue. Emphasizing the important role of education, he suggested that schools should devise specialized intervention programs for students who are easily drawn into illegal activities.
The expert also proposed a penalty for parents of juvenile offenders, i.e., compulsory participation in parenting courses. Specifically, when their school-age children violate traffic law, parents will be forced to participate in parenting courses where they will learn how to teach traffic skills to their children and even learn traffic law to teach their children.
“This penalty will not only help parents raise their awareness and skills in educating their children, but is also a reminder of their responsibility in managing and guiding their children,” Dr. Nam explained.
Meanwhile, lawyer Tran Viet Ha, deputy director of Nam Son Law Firm, proposed imposing administrative sanctions on social media platforms that fail to prevent the sharing of contents concerning law violations. “In my opinion, it is necessary to impose massive fines so as to ensure that social media platforms are serious about controlling videos published on their websites,” Ha shared his viewpoints with the VnEconomy.-
