Traffic rules

That time, Tiến had sat waiting outside the emergency room all day until Hội was wheeled out and transferred to the orthopaedic operating room. For days on end Tiến looked after Hội like one of his own flesh and blood. It turned out that Tiến's little boy had been cycling to school and, somehow, had fallen into a dangerous situation with a car rushing at him and nearly running him over. Hội, at that moment, had dived in and pulled the boy out of the way in time. The result was that the bicycle was smashed to pieces and Hội broke his leg.

After Hội was stable, the two families became as close as brothers.

After Tết the two families sat together eating and chatting again. Tiến brought it up again:

• From now on I don't dare let my son ride a bicycle any more; it's too dangerous.

Hội said:

• If he doesn't ride a bicycle, when he's a little older he'll have to ride a motorbike, and if you're a little better off, drive a car. We can't forbid the children for life. What's important is that we guide them to travel safely.

- How can one travel safely in the city?

- It's because you didn't guide and train him carefully before letting him out on the streets. Did you teach him the traffic rules and how to assess dangerous situations to avoid them?

- I thought that for riding a bicycle there's no need to learn many rules, so I just told him to ride on the right.

- You're badly mistaken. Once you step out onto the street, even on foot you have to know all the traffic rules. We must know how all those other vehicles have to move so that we can choose our own path. Many families let their children out onto the streets without teaching them well, and the children never come back. Most people think that only when they ride a motorbike and get a motorbike licence do they learn the motorbike rules. That's why motorbikes get run over and killed by cars: they don't know how cars move.

Cyclists are even more careless and don't bother to know many rules, so they get run over by all sorts of vehicles. Cars get crushed by containers because they don't understand the weak points of those drivers.
In general, if you go out on the road you must know all the traffic rules for all the vehicles so as to keep yourself from being run over by those kinds of vehicles. Bicycles are the most easily run over because cyclists never learn the traffic rules.

Tiến said:

• But nobody obliges cyclists to learn the traffic rules, does it?

- Nobody obliges them because society is slow to progress, but one's own safety obliges one to learn the traffic rules well when taking part in traffic.
My children are all very good at the traffic rules, and I also have them practise anticipating dangerous situations so as to avoid them. You also have to guard against those who break the rules.
That day, when I saw your boy cycling around looking bewildered, I guessed that he was bound to get into danger, so I hurried closer and was in time to save him.

Tiến nodded:

• It's true that your thoughtfulness saved my son's life. I owe you boundless thanks. 🚲

If we know only our own business, we cannot get along with everyone in this life. We know our own business, and we must also know the business of everyone around us, so as to coordinate easily in work and in life.

To take part in traffic we must know our own rules and the rules of all other vehicles, so as to know when to give way and when to pass through quickly without obstructing other people's traffic. We even have to guard against careless, inexperienced drivers.

Pedestrians and cyclists are run over and killed in large numbers just because, although they take part in traffic, they don't bother to know the traffic rules. They think that because their vehicle is simple, the rules are simple too, never realising that once it is public traffic, everything is equally complicated.

The subject of traffic rules must be taught thoroughly at primary level, helping children know clearly the rules of all vehicles. When a child crosses the road, at that moment he already has to deal with every kind of vehicle in this life.

This also gives us a more reasonable philosophy of life: we must understand one another better when we live together on this planet.