On TV or radio, sometimes do we hear about serious traffic accidents which injured or killed a lot of people.

These accidents did a great damage to victims lives. Although everybody knows the harm of these accidents, there has still been an increase of number of traffic accidents nowadays. Why? This is the problem that we will discuss today. 1/ Traffic problems in Vietnam today: Nowadays, traffic in Vietnam is very chaotic. According to many experts, Vietnam is considered to be one of the countries that are leading the traffic accidents every year. Since the beginning of this year, there has been more than 11,000 traffic accidents and 76% of them were caused by motorbike (Source: Thanhnien online) As far as I know, the main reasons for this are the awareness of people. Some people ignore the polices warnings and they are not aware of how dangerous it is if they dont obey the traffic law. For instance, few high school students use motorbikes to go to school, many people overtake, turn left or right and park illegally. When being asked about their mistakes, they often give many excuses. Moreover, at school, children are not educated to execute traffic law, they dont have any chance to practise, they must learn all theory by hard, so it is very difficult for them to understand. May be, that is the reason why 25% people died of traffic accidents are children. The second reason is the lack of facilities. Many national highways are in bad condition. Most of them are very old, narrow and they have lots of pot-holes, thus it prevents the transportation. In addition, pavements are known as places to merchandise, park and advertise. The pedestrians have to walk at roadways and therefore make it easy to cause accidents. There problems are considered as reasons that make the traffic in Vietnam become more and more chaotic. 2/ Solutions to these traffic problem: To reduce the amount of traffic accidents, our government has passed traffic laws, rebuilt traffic infrastructure, replaced traffic light as well as recently enacted the law Wearing helmet while driving motorbike. According to this law, everybody using motorbike will have to wear helmet from Dec 15 2007. It is said that this will protect our head from injury if accident happens. It also help you avoid noise, dust when driving. Mr Hans Thomson, a representative of WHO in Vietnam reported that in Thailand, since the government passed wearing helmet law, the amount of people died of head and neck trauma reduced 24%. However, buying a high-quality helmet isnt easy at all. There are many kinds of helmets as well as artificial ones in outlet, and people dont have any guides to choose a good one. In addition, the price of helmet is so high that the poor cant buy it. For example, in Da Nang, the price of a helmet cost onefourth workers wages. On the other hand, many people dont voluntarily wear helmets. Have you ever heard of Hiring Helmets? This is a way to cop with police. In general, these helmets are in bad conditions, thus it will be very dangerous in case you have an accident.

3/ Conclusion: In my view, it is necessary to educate people and show them the benefits of executing traffic law. We should also pass strict laws the punish hard-headed people. However, the most important thing is that everyone must be aware of what they are doing and willing to obey traffic law because it affects not only themselves, their children but also other people. Last but not least, voluntarily executing traffic law especially wearing helmets while using motorbike help you to prove how civil you are. Questions: 1/ What do you think of traffic problems in Vienam today? 2/ Do you think the low price of motorbikes is one of reason to cause more traffic jam as well as accidents? Why? 3/ What difficulties do you face with current traffic jam? ( time/money/etc..) 4/ What are your ideas of wearing helmets? Advantages and disadvantages? - Do you think it is a need to wear helmet in the city? - How does it impact on your dressing? Fashion clothes with helmet? - Does it truly help to improve consequence of accident? 5/ Do you think this time people will follow this rule strictly? - If not, what do you think our government should do to get it on track? 6/ Do you have any criteria when buying? What are they/ 7/ The quality of helmet is a concern when buying. Are you pleased with its current quality? - If no, what do you expect? - How about the design/size? 7/ Beside enacting of the rule to wearing helmet, we should educate people about traffic laws. However, traffic lesions are taught very boring at school. In order to improve it, do you think what they would do? 8/ Some construction sites of water pipe or drainage obstructed the traffic and even caused traffic jam and accident. - Can you name some construction sites? - What do we expect from it? The special topic which we discuss is TRAFFIC PROBLEMS When our country develops, city people and traffic authorities have to face many traffic problems. Nearly all streets and roads in our city are narrow in bad condition, and continually dug. In addition, the traffic system does not work well, and there are not enough traffic police.

Moreover, many people do not strictly observe traffic laws when using the roads. For example, they cross the street at wrong places and ride their motors in the wrong direction. In addition, many vendors illegally occupy the pavement to display their goods or sale, so pedestrians have to use the road-bed. Another causes of traffic problems is that the number of trucks in our city is very big. As a result, they usally interfere with traffic flow. Last, the construction of houses and buidings is not properly planned, so they occupy the surface of the roads. To solve the traffic prolem in our city, we should do many things. At first, the government should increase the number of the police force, and they should be stricter to violators . Moreover, all streets should be widened, and traffic lines should be more logical. Last, heavy penalties sholud be imposed on violators, and people should be educated with traffic regulations at the same time. In short, I hope traffic problems in our city will be solved soon so that we feel very comfortable when using the road.

Questions for discussion

What do you think about the traffic situation in our city and other big cities in our country? What is the relationship between urbanization and the traffic? What are main causes of traffic jams and traffic problem in our city? It is said that the traffic congestion is unavoidable in the process of urbanization. Are you for or against this saying? What are popular means of transportation in our country? Which one is the most efficent? Have you ever been a victim of a traffic jam? If yes, how did you feel at that time? What are solutions to traffic problem? Is the extension of roads the only way to solve the traffic congestion? Why or why not? Do you think that heavy fines on violations of traffic rules are good for re-establishing the traffic order and safety? What are solutions of the government to traffic problems? Can you suggest some solutions? What do you think of The month of safety and order traffic?Do you think it is effective? What conslutions have you drawn from todays discussion?