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Posted by: Anthony Lim

Beep! Beep! A motorcyclist without a helmet snakes through a crush of oncoming traffic - going the wrong way on a one-way street while texting with one hand on the phone, the other on the throttle.

Like a school of fish, the other bikes casually wiggle out of the way as if part of a choreographed chaos. This dance of traffic violations, repeated practically every minute somewhere in Vietnam, has made the country's roads among the most dangerous anywhere. Now the government is trying to crack down, launching hefty fines Thursday for everything from racing to excessive horn tooting.

"I've been to many countries, but I've never seen traffic like what's in Vietnam," said Than Van Thanh, a manager of the government's National Committee for Traffic Safety. "Over the past five years, the traffic accidents in Vietnam have remained very high. Every day 31 people never return to their homes."

Vietnam reported 11,500 traffic-related deaths last year, but experts say the actual number could be double that. The World Health Organisation says the rate is probably about 20 deaths per 100,000 people, among the world's highest.

The new fines increase penalties up to seven times for various offenses, with the steepest hikes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the two largest cities. Car drivers caught running a red light - a common occurrence - will be fined up to 1.2mil Vietnamese dong (US$63) in either city, while motorcyclists, who account for 95% of Vietnam's traffic, will owe up to 500,000 dong (US$26).

Though fines are lower in rural provinces, they remain pricey for many in a country with an average monthly income of about US$80. However, some have argued the new penalties will not deter the growing nouveau riche, who cruise the streets on expensive Vespa motorbikes or behind the wheels of BMWs and even Bentleys.

Zigzagging, a dangerous practice where drivers whip in and out of traffic to pass others, will carry a fine of up to 12mil dong (US$630) for cars and 7mil dong (US$370) for motorbikes. For that offense, along with going the wrong way on a one-way street, drivers will now also be stripped of their license for 30 days.

Traffic troubles have grown alongside Vietnam's rapid economic development, while infrastructure has lagged behind. Narrow streets and limited public transit have led to rush-hour gridlock, with roaring motorbikes transforming sidewalks into extra lanes.

Every day, 7,000 new motorbikes and 500 new automobiles hit the road in the Southeast Asian country of 86mil people, but safety awareness from helmets and seat belts to drunk driving has not caught up, said Jean-Marc Olive, head of the WHO in Vietnam.

"The country is developing so fast, they need to change the attitude and the conduct of the people, but it is not going to happen in one day," he said.

Drivers typically don't look before darting into traffic or cutting across multiple lanes of cars, motorbikes and bicycles in a "you-look-out-for-me" driving culture. Pedestrians play a real-life version of the video game Frogger when crossing intersections jammed with everything from buses to street vendors pushing bicycles heaped with vegetables or mounds of scrap metal.

In 2006, Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was seriously injured after being hit by a motorbike in Hanoi. That same week, Nguyen Van Dao, president of Hanoi National University, was killed in a similar incident during a stroll near his home.

Thursday's law tightens a much-debated loophole from 2007, when Vietnam began fining anyone over 14 riding a motorcycle without a helmet. The WHO and others fought arguments that helmets could injure the necks of younger riders, and Olive said the new law is a compromise, penalising the parents of children over six years old riding unprotected.

In a country where a third of all traffic deaths involve alcohol, the new law bans car drivers completely from drinking, while lowering the blood-alcohol limit for motorbike drivers from 0.08% to 0.05%. But with few breathalysers and trained police, enforcement remains difficult. Some question whether the increased fines will only lead to higher bribes for notoriously corrupt traffic police. Drivers caught paying off police can be fined up to 3mil dong (US$158) while officers who accept money risk being fired.

"It's almost incurable," said Duong Trung Quoc, a member of the lawmaking National Assembly. "Heavier fines and stricter punishment are necessary, but I think it should be equal for people who abuse these new laws to pocket money themselves." - AP

Posted by: Anthony Lim

Volvo Car Malaysia officially introduced the facelifted S80 sedan at a press preview this morning, and leading the list of enhancements and improvements on the new 2.5T is a significant increase in power output.

The car's 2.5l five-cylinder twin-cam, turbocharged block - mated to a six-speed Geartronic transmission - now offers 231bhp at 4,800rpm, up from the 200bhp of before, and torque is also up, with 340Nm available at 1,200-4,800rpm, compared to 300Nm previously. Performance figures include a 0-100kmh time of 7.5secs and a 210kmh top speed.

Revisions to the exterior include a larger iron mark on the front grille and a more liberal use of chrome trim - in this case, on the front and rear eyeliner as well as on all the lower doors.

Insides, changes include the use of silk metal effect sheeting as decor trim on a new four-spoke steering wheel and centre stack, as well as on the gear selector and around the starter button. There are also new instrument dials with aluminium outlines and soft leather upholstery, finished in Sandstone Beige.

The S80 now gets equipped with a Blind Spot Information System, which uses cameras mounted in the door mirrors to register if another vehicle is in the blind spot at the side of the car.

Other technology systems present in the car include Adaptive Cruise Control, which works at speeds above 30kmh to automatically adjust - from five different selectable time intervals - the car's distance to vehicles ahead, as well as Collision Warning with Auto Brake, Driver Alert Control and Lane Departure Warning. The car also comes with Personal Car Communicator (PCC) with keyless drive as standard.

Riding on 17-inch Canicula alloy wheels with 225/50 series tyres, and available in two new additional colours, Ember Black and Ice White, the S80 2.5T is priced at RM295,000 (on the road, without insurance). As with all Volvos, the car comes with a three-year warranty and three years of complimentary Volvo On Call roadside assistance.