A Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reader has suggested that the granting of driver’s licenses for bikes of 175 cubic centimeters (cc) upward must be tightened for safety reasons.The newspaper on Monday published an article written in Vietnamese by a reader, who preferred to be identified as H. T., about the issue. According to current regulations, an A2 driver’s license is granted for those who drive motorbikes with cylinder volumes of 175 cm³ upward, T. said in the article, adding that this regulation is unreasonable and needs to be changed to ensure traffic safety. That is because, in terms of techniques, driving 175-250 cc bikes is much easier than driving those with cylinder volumes higher than 250 cc. In fact, there are bikes with 400 cc, 750 cc, 1,000 cc, 1,200 cc, and even 1,800 cc engines. Currently, driver’s licenses for motorcycles and automobiles are divided into eleven categories: A1, A2, A3, A 4, B1, B2, C, D, E, F and FC, depending on the type of vehicle, cylinder volume or load capacity. T. recounted that four years ago he took an exam to get an A2 driver’s license as he was driving a 250 cc Honda LA and he found that the other examinees used motorbikes with a maximum cylinder volume not exceeding 250 cc. Many examinees said they had borrowed a 250 cc bike to make it easier to pass the practice session of the examination, T. said. T. emphasized that a 250 cc bike is very different from bikes with higher cylinder volumes. For example, it takes only 30 seconds for a 750 cc bike to reach a speed of 100 kph, much more quickly than a 250 cc one. In addition, a 750 cc bike is heavier and more difficult to steer than a 250 cc vehicle, T. added.     Therefore, the regulation on A2 driver’s licenses should be amended to include a ceiling level of cylinder volume, not loosely saying that “for drivers of bikes with 175 cc upwards” as at present, T. said. “After the recent death of 53-year-old Lin Ma Sang, a motorcycle escort and member of Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District motorcycle club, who was killed in a traffic accident while escorting a women’s bicycle race, I thought it’s time to review management over high-capacity bikes,” T. said in his article.

The accident referred to by T. occurred on the morning of March 1 when Sang and other members of their team were escorting participants in the Binh Duong International Women’s Bicycle Race Open Championship to prepare for the race’s second lap, which stretched from Dinh Quan District in the southern province of Binh Duong to Bao Loc District in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

When the cyclists and their escorts were about one kilometer from the starting line in Dinh Quan, a group of tourists on about seven high-powered motorcycles tried to overtake the escorts at very high speed, causing collisions between the bikes of both sides. During the collision, Sang fell to the ground and was run over by one of the high-capacity bikes, while one of his teammates, Tran Ngoc Thach, broke a leg in the incident.

When the crash happened, the motorbike escorts were driving at about 40 kph while members of the tourist group passed them at higher speeds and even encroached on the wrong lane, news website VnExpress quoted deputy chairman of the Vietnam Motorcycle Federation Ngo Quang Vinh as saying.

Ngo Tien Phung, 22, has been detained after he was identified as the person who ran over Sang in the accident.

As far as Tuoi Tre knows, Phung is a member of Baby Speed, a group of people who own luxurious high-capacity motorbikes in the Mekong Delta region.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!