- Vietnam has introduced a controversial scheme to improve road safety that relies on snitching.
- From January 1, anyone anonymously reporting a traffic violation with proof can earn up to $200.
- Other safety measures include extra cameras and making some fines 30 times higher than before.
Traffic cops can’t be everywhere at once, but in recent years they’ve been aided by drivers and pedestrians who hand over camera footage taken of dangerous activities. In Vietnam, however, authorities are taking things a step further and actually paying civilians to dob-in badly-behaving road users.
Starting this month, Vietnamese citizens and organizations are eligible for rewards of up to 5 million VND ($200) if they provide evidence of road safety violations. The actual amount earned may vary because it’s 10 percent of the fine amount, so some payouts will be much smaller.
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The Vietnamese government says the program will make the streets less dangerous, and claims money raised though the additional fines dished out, plus 30 percent of money raised through auctioning license plates, will be used to further improve road safety. Cash will help fund the purchase of vehicles and equipment, the development of information systems, maintenance of traffic databases, supporting investigations congestion management and paying for nighttime traffic officers, Vietnamnet reports.
Other safety measures introduced in Vietnam at the same time include the rollout of surveillance cameras, increased fines and stricter penalties for traffic violations. The fine for running a red light, for instance, has increased from VND 4-6 million to VND 18-20 million ($160-790), while some misdemeanors, like obstructing traffic inspections, improperly securing cargo, or ignoring police instructions, will now cost offenders a whopping 30 times more than they did previously.
From this month, drivers will also be informed via a VNeTraffic smartphone app – the same one used to tell police about offenses – when they’ve been fined, something we can imagine expanding to other countries before long.
The reward plan provides a strong incentive for people to send in their footage rather than just tut-tut and forget about the incident 30 seconds later, though some Vietnamese might be disappointed to learn that a viral story claiming a man earned 50 million VND ($1,970) in a day by reporting violations was untrue.
Yes, there’s something rather grubby about the whole idea of paying people for information, but it sounds like Vietnam needed to take radical action. Police are battling against people regularly speeding, running red lights, driving on the wrong side of the road, reversing on highways and generally causing mayhem, Vietnamnet Global says.
To get an idea of the chaos on Vietnam’s roads, check out the video below. It’s taken by a scooter rider and, appropriately enough, begins with the person filming riding across a sidewalk to shortcut intersection traffic.