Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has sent an express message to the four Ministries of Public Security, Transport, Industry and Trade and Science & Technology asking these agencies to urgently investigate vehicle fires and strictly punish fraudulence in petrol trade and check the safety of cars and motorbikes.

A number of automobile and motorbike fires had occurred over the past few months and the Prime Minister has instructed the four above ministries to take action to control the situation.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is assigned to combine with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to inspect petrol quality and review national technical standards on fuel, particularly standards on addictives.

The Prime Minister guided that any petrol station that sell substandard petrol must be fined or even closed. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible to check the entire petrol trading system, especially petrol transportation, to prevent mixing banned addictives into petrol.

Deputy Director of the Ministry of Science and Technology's Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality Tran Van Vinh said that the recent inspections had detected four petrol samples in HCM City that contained levels of methanol that exceeded industry standards.

Methanol cost only half the price of petrol and many petrol outlets combined the two in order to boost profits. However, methanol can erode the metal in vehicle engines and consequently was blamed for the recent fires.

One of the four petrol samples contained 4.3 percent of methanol whereas the regulated amount was 3 percent, said Vinh.

Vinh also said that the Mai Dich petrol station in Hanoi was closed at the end of last month after a petrol sample was found to contain 15.3 percent methanol.

On January 4, the deputy chairman of the HCM City People's Committee, Le Manh Ha, handed out fines from VND10-30 million ($475-1,420) to three petrol trading enterprises for substandard petrol. 

The Ministry of Transport was told to cooperate with the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Industry and Trade to make surveys and research reasons that cause vehicle fires, to inspect the quality of motorbikes at agents and tighten control over vehicle maintenance workshops.

The Ministry of Transport was also instructed to ask vehicle manufacturers to inspect the quality of their products and to give warning and instruction to vehicle users of anti-fire measures.

The Ministry of Public Security is responsible to investigate fraud in petrol business and quickly investigate vehicle fires.

A total of 42 automobile and motorbike fires broke out in Hanoi from December 1, 2010 to December 18, 2011, according to statistics from the city's Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention Police.

The domestic press also reported 89 cases of vehicle fires last year across the country, of which 50 automobile fires and 39 motorbike fires killed two people and injured two others.

The causes of 72 percent of the motorbike fires and 50 percent of the automobile fires are unknown.

Saying that it is unacceptable when nobody takes blame for vehicle fires, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said that as of 2012, his minister will take responsibility for this.

Source: VNN