The Youth Union and traffic police from Binh Chanh, a suburban district in Ho Chi Minh City, have teamed up with local residents to collect nails and sharp metal objects littering National Highway No. 1, according to the district authorities.

The nail-collecting squad is set to operate from the first day of the new year, in response to the annual spring volunteer campaign of local youngsters.

“The nail-collecting mission was initiated in this area a few years ago when the local motorbike taxi driver Dinh Minh Canh volunteered to collect tire-puncturing nails on roads,” said Nguyen Quang Tuan, secretary of Binh Chanh District's Youth Union.

His action then inspired the youth and functional forces to run similar campaigns regularly, Tuan said.

The squad will raise their workload from now to before the Lunar New Year holiday, which is due in late January-early February.

“Since tire-puncturing nails have remained a traffic headache to the city and posed a great danger for motorcyclists along major roads, authorities and local residents have strongly supported the squad’s operation,” Tuan shared.

On the first day, the squad paraded along the National Highway No. 1 section in Binh Chanh District under the traffic police’s instruction, picking up hundreds of sharp objects and brake wire cut into small pieces with specialized nail-collecting devices.

Canh, the father of this nail-collecting model, said that he had found tens of tire-puncturing nails on just a 100m long section along the highway on New Year’s Eve.

“Compared to the same time last year, the number of nails collected has decreased noticeably,” Canh said on the campaign’s first day.

“I will quit collecting nails only when no nail is found on the roads.

"I hope nails will disappear from the streets forever, bringing safety to commuters.”

Such snails and sharp metal objects are believed to be purposely scattered by repair shop owners along the roads to cause a flat tire and thus force drivers to use their service, typically at exorbitant prices. 

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