Sometimes delays come at the cost of lives

A road can be complete enough for drivers to use and still not be officially open. That contradiction sits at the center of the questions raised by a bus crash on the QL19 bypass in Hội Phú Ward, Gia Lai, where four people died and many others were injured.

The bypass linking National Highway 19 with the Ho Chi Minh Road stretches 12.6 kilometers. Construction had finished, but the route had not been inspected, handed over to Gia Lai Province or formally opened. In principle, a road that has not been handed over cannot automatically become a public route.

Yet vehicles had traveled along it for more than two months. There were no prohibition signs or sufficient barriers to stop drivers from entering. The road existed, its surface was complete, and nothing clearly indicated that traffic was not permitted. In that setting, the use of the route by drivers was hardly difficult to predict.

After the crash, authorities installed warning signs and added barriers. The measures were necessary, but they also sharpened the question of whether the danger could have been prevented if they had come earlier. Gia Lai police had already issued a written recommendation calling for safety conditions to be secured before the road opened.

The article says that warning had not been fully reflected at the site. Heavy rain left red soil on the road, making it slippery, drainage channels had not been cleared, and, most significantly, drivers had no signs telling them the route was not yet authorized for traffic. Responsibility may ultimately be debated among the parties involved, but the road remained in daily use while safety management was left unresolved. The incident raises a broader question: how many other unfinished projects could still be used, and who is responsible for making them safe?