HO CHI MINH CITY, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Over the past five days, part of the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, Vietnam saw 190 traffic accidents which killed nearly 120 people, and injured 190 others, the country's Traffic Police Department announced Monday.
Compared with the same period last year, the number of traffic accidents remained flat, that of deaths dropped four percent, and that of the injuries increased four percent.
On Monday alone, 60 traffic accidents occurred in Vietnam, claiming 38 lives and injured 69 people.
During the ongoing Tet, many motorbike riders wearing no helmets, over-speeding or crossing red lights have been reported in Ho Chi Minh City and the two northern provinces of Hai Duong and Thanh Hoa. Meanwhile, drunken driving has been fairly popular in rural areas.
Over the past five days, traffic police nationwide handled 1,800 cases of traffic law violations and fined them to the tune of over 3.6 billion Vietnamese dong (160,000 U.S. dollars).
Last year, 21,589 traffic accidents occurred in Vietnam, killing 8,685 people, severely injuring 6,180 people, and slightly hurting 13,100 others, said the department.
