Westminster : Project to Help Train Vietnamese Drivers

Teaching defensive driving techniques to Vietnamese-speaking motorists is part of a program planned by the Westminster Police Department to reduce the number of traffic accidents in the city.

Using a $352,000 grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, the Police Department will hire five traffic officers to apprehend violators and educate the community about traffic safety, Officer Robert Gill said.

The grant will also be used to purchase a computer to determine the most accident-prone areas, which four of the new officers will patrol on motorcycles, Gill said. The traffic division now has four motorcycle officers, an investigator and a traffic commander.

“We want to be more visible. Hopefully this will increase the public awareness about traffic safety,” Gill added.

The department will use a trailer to bring traffic safety education to the city’s residents and visit schools to teach children about safety, he said.

The department plans to start a traffic school for Vietnamese drivers through the West Orange County Court that will refer violators to the program, he said.

The school will use videotapes translated into Vietnamese and interpreters to teach defensive-driving techniques.

“We have found in half the accidents involving Asians (that) they were the second party, not the cause,” Gill said. “We want to go out to the minorities, go to their shopping centers, go to their parks and gatherings.”

Some problems of Asian drivers, Gill said, are changing lanes without looking, making U-turns where they are not allowed and pulling out of driveways without stopping.

“The concept of driving in Asia is different than in America. As time goes by and (the Vietnamese) become more Americanized, the problem will probably take care of itself,” he said.

The Vietnamese population has increased in Westminster from less than 2% in 1982 to more than 20% in 1985, he said.

The program will also attempt to take drunk drivers off the road by training officers to spot the intoxicated driver and increasing patrols in areas where drunks have been arrested, he said.

The grant will pay for the five new employees for two years, after which the city will pay their salaries, Gill said. The officers are expected to begin working April 1.