Obstructing Road Traffic Safety May Lead to Imprisonment

Yesterday, more than a dozen passenger buses transporting hundreds of workers to their workplaces were blocked by some residents on Provincial Route 536, Nghi Loc District (Nghe An). The reason for this incident is that over 1,000 rental rooms invested in by local households remain excessively vacant. Local commune officials have propagated the message to help residents understand that blocking the buses is wrong.

Indeed, anyone engaging in such acts, whether unintentionally or intentionally, will be considered guilty of obstructing road traffic as stipulated in Article 203 of the Criminal Code 1999. To be specific:

Anyone committing one of the following acts that obstruct road traffic causing damage to life or causing serious damage to the health or property of others will be fined from five million VND to thirty million VND, be subject to non-custodial reform for up to two years, or be imprisoned from three months to three years:

- Illegally digging, drilling, or cutting road traffic works;- Illegally placing obstacles that obstruct road traffic;- Illegally dismantling, moving, distorting, obscuring, or destroying traffic signs or road safety devices;- Illegally opening cross-roads through roads or roads with medians;- Encroaching, occupying sidewalks, roadways;- Encroaching on road protection corridors;- Violating regulations ensuring traffic safety when constructing on roads;- Other acts causing traffic obstructions.

Committing the crime under one of the following circumstances will be sentenced to imprisonment from two to seven years:

- On pass roads, steep hills, and dangerous road sections;- Causing very serious consequences.

Committing a crime causing particularly serious consequences will be sentenced to imprisonment from five to ten years.

Committing the crime in a case that could realistically lead to particularly serious consequences if not promptly stopped will be fined from five million VND to twenty million VND, be subject to non-custodial reform for up to one year, or be imprisoned from three months to one year.

The regulation is such, but due to a lack of legal awareness, the local residents are "driven to desperate measures." To prevent this situation from occurring, management officials need to implement measures to disseminate legal information to the residents and simultaneously propose solutions to help them address the vacancy issue of the rental rooms. For instance, they could transition to food and beverage services for travelers or use the rental rooms as rest stops for long-distance travelers.

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