A motorbike rental shop on Pham Ngu Lao Street, District 1, HCM City.

A year ago, at the annual consular consultation meeting between Vietnam and Russia, the Russian delegation asked Vietnam to not rent motorbikes to Russian tourists who do not have a valid driving license. If Russian tourists who drive motorcycles and cars in Vietnam break the law, causing traffic accidents, Russian insurance firms would not pay compensation, they said.

In August 2013, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism issued a dispatch on management of motorcycle rental services for Russian and foreign tourists. Accordingly, motorcycle rental shops are not allowed to rent vehicles to foreigners if they fail to present a valid driving license in accordance with Vietnam law. However, the regulation has not been properly observed.

In HCM City’s “Foreigners’ Street” - Pham Ngu Lao Road in District 1 - there are 12 motorcycle rental shops. To hire a motorcycle, foreigners only need to leave their passport and deposit, about VND5 million ($250). The daily rent is VND150,000 ($7).

Fines, deportation for violators

In fact, foreigners are rarely stopped for checks by traffic police officers unless they break traffic rules or cause traffic accidents because of the language barrier. In many cases, foreigners caused traffic accidents but they were only fined or expelled.

Lawyer Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy from the HCM City Bar Association said there were several reasons for this situation: firstly, because of nature of the offense, this is not an intentional crime with the consequences that it causes; secondly, many foreigners are willing to pay adequate compensations so the victims' families withdraw their complaints.

However, under the guidance of the Supreme People's Court, if an accident is completely caused by the driver who has had alcohol, the violator will not be put on probation but must be sentenced to imprisonment, whether they are Vietnamese or foreigners.

In another perspective, lawyer Nguyen Thanh Cong, a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said that the liability of the driver of the vehicle needs to be determined. This is a kind of special legal relationship as cars and motorcycles are considered to be "a source of extreme danger" and are a special type of property. Therefore, the lessor must determine whether the tenant is eligible or not. Specifically, the vehicle rent must have a driving license under the provisions of Vietnam.

If the lessor does not comply with this regulation, when accidents occur, depending on the accidents, they will be administratively sanctioned or examined for penal liability for "Mobilizing or assigning road means of transport to those who are ineligible to control road transport vehicles", according to Article 205 of the 1999 Criminal Code, with the highest imprisonment sentence up to 12 years, said lawyer Cong.

On September 27, 2012, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court fined a Norwegian national VND30 million. The man, Lars Bjornar Hanssen, had been drinking alcohol before he collided with a woman who was standing on the sidewalk in District 5. The accident killed the woman.

On January 19, 2011, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court decided to deport Makhov Vladimir (Russian nationality) for causing the death of a vendor in Mui Ne (Binh Thuan province) in a traffic accident.

In the latest case, an American man died and two local people were injured in an accident at the intersection of Dien Bien Phu and Dinh Tien Hoang streets in Da Kao Ward, District 1, HCMC.

The American man, Fluery Otavio Augusto Formigoni, 24, was driving a high-capacity motorbike on Dien Bien Phu Street towards the city’s downtown when he collided with another bike driven by a local man on Dinh Tien Hoang Street.

Due to the collision, the foreigner lost control of his bike and crashed into the wall of a nearby house. He was thrown two meters and died on the spot. The local man, Tran Hoang Giao, 27, from the southern province of An Giang, and a lottery ticket vendor were injured and taken to a hospital for emergency aid.

The foreign man was driving at high speed when the collision occurred, witnesses said.