Deputy chairman of the National Assembly Huynh Ngoc Son warned that "the traffic death toll in the past nine months of this year equaled to a division strength," considering it a great loss to the nation. Son made the statement at yesterday’s meeting to review the Government’s report about the traffic situation in the past nine months. Nearly 24,000 traffic accidents occurred in the period nationwide, killing about 7,000 people and injuring more than 25,000 others, said Nguyen Hoang Hiep, standing deputy chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, who delivered the report. Compared to the same period last year, the number of accidents decreased by 28 percent, the death toll dropped by 18 percent, and the number of injured people went down by nearly 30 percent. Recognizing that the traffic situation has improved, Son nevertheless commented that “it was still serious, since the number of dead victims was equivalent to the strength of a military division, and the number of injured people was equal to more than three divisions. This is a great loss.” Nguyen Anh Son, a NA deputy of Nam Dinh Province, said, “It is encouraging to look at the reported numbers, but I still feel that the improved traffic situation cannot be sustained. No one can know for sure that more improvements will be seen next year, since the awareness of compliance of traffic rules among the public, especially youths, is very poor in general.” Son was also worried about the loose handling of traffic violations by police. “I often use buses. I have many times witnessed police stopping a bus for a very short moment and then letting it go. I do not know what the police had checked.” Colonel Tran Dinh Thu, director of police in Gia Lai Province, agreed that it would be hard to maintain or further improve the traffic situation in the future if there is no improvement in compliance with traffic regulations and in handling violators. Thu said stricter punishments would be given to drunk drivers. Wherever there are more drunk drivers, there are more traffic accidents, Thu said.