Five accidents tie up highway traffic

Five successive car accidents bring traffic to a standstill for 15 hours on the National Highway 1A

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Five successive car accidents brought traffic to a standstill for 15 hours last weekend where National Highway 1A passes through central Thua Thien-Hue Province's Phu Loc District.

Cars and trucks lined the road for more than 10 kilometers through the district's Loc Thuy and Loc Tien communes and Lang Co Town.

The first accident took place on Saturday evening when a southbound bus lost control and got caught in the banister of Nuoc Ngot Bridge.

Half an hour later, around 1km from the first accident, a bus rear-ended a car, severely injuring the driver.

Immediately following the second accident, the axle of a northbound truck broke on Phuoc Tuong Mountain Pass, which is 3km from the bridge. Another truck spun around in the middle of the road when the driver lost control.

And finally, a heavily loaded truck got a flat tire at the southern mountain pass shortly after the fourth accident.

Traffic returned to normal on Sunday afternoon.

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Five accidents tie up highway traffic

Five successive car accidents bring traffic to a standstill for 15 hours on the National Highway 1A

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Five successive car accidents brought traffic to a standstill for 15 hours last weekend where National Highway 1A passes through central Thua Thien-Hue Province's Phu Loc District.

Cars and trucks lined the road for more than 10 kilometers through the district's Loc Thuy and Loc Tien communes and Lang Co Town.

The first accident took place on Saturday evening when a southbound bus lost control and got caught in the banister of Nuoc Ngot Bridge.

Half an hour later, around 1km from the first accident, a bus rear-ended a car, severely injuring the driver.

Immediately following the second accident, the axle of a northbound truck broke on Phuoc Tuong Mountain Pass, which is 3km from the bridge. Another truck spun around in the middle of the road when the driver lost control.

And finally, a heavily loaded truck got a flat tire at the southern mountain pass shortly after the fourth accident.

Traffic returned to normal on Sunday afternoon.

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Driver held for role in deadly bus accident

Police in the central province of Ha Tinh have arrested the driver of a bus that was swept away in floods on Monday, leaving 15 people dead and another five missing, VnExpress reported.

It quoted Nguyen Thanh Bao, Chief of Ha Tinh Traffic Police Division, as saying that several minutes before the accident, the bus sped past a check station in Hong Linh Town. The station was set up to stop vehicles from going through the flooded section of the National Highway No.1.

Police say that Dinh Van Luong was the main driver, but as he was sick that day, his subordinate Tran Van Truong took over the driving.

Luong died in the accident, while Truong managed to get out of the bus along with 17 other passengers as it was swept to the La River.

Truong is being held pending a police investigation of the accident.

The bus, which was en route from Dak Nong to Nam Dinh provinces, was recovered Thursday along with ten bodies. Another five were found washed upon the shore or floating in nearby waters. 

Tran Van Long, Deputy Chief of the Nghi Xuan District police told the news website that the accident was brought on by the loss of road markers.

WIthout the markers, drivers unfamiliar with the road could easily get lost and fall into the river, which runs alongside the road, according to Long. 

In related news, the Central Committee for Storm and Flood Control reported that as of Friday, at least 77 people have been killed and five remain missing in floods triggered by heavy rains in the central region last week.  

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Body of Vietnamese worker killed in Korean accident sent home

The body of a Vietnamese construction worker killed in a work accident in South Korea early this month has been sent home and buried Saturday.

Tran Quang Kham, 27, from the central province of Quang Ngai, died instantaneously on August 9 after being crushed by rock and soil when he was working at an underground expressway site in Kangwon Province, according to labor management officials with the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea.

Further details of the accident and the compensation paid to his family have not been available.

Kham worked for Sepchoen Construction Company after he went to Korea in June last year under a government’s program to give permits for workers overseas.

Danh, a neighbor, said Kham worked very hard. "First, he made iron doors, then repaired motorbikes but he didn't earn enough for his wife and kid (who is two years old).

"So he and several young men in the village went to the province vocation center to sign up for a short Korean language course before taking a test to work over there," the neighbor told local news website Vnexpress.

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Body of Vietnamese worker killed in Korean accident sent home

The body of a Vietnamese construction worker killed in a work accident in South Korea early this month has been sent home and buried Saturday.

Tran Quang Kham, 27, from the central province of Quang Ngai, died instantaneously on August 9 after being crushed by rock and soil when he was working at an underground expressway site in Kangwon Province, according to labor management officials with the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea.

Further details of the accident and the compensation paid to his family have not been available.

Kham worked for Sepchoen Construction Company after he went to Korea in June last year under a government’s program to give permits for workers overseas.

Danh, a neighbor, said Kham worked very hard. "First, he made iron doors, then repaired motorbikes but he didn't earn enough for his wife and kid (who is two years old).

"So he and several young men in the village went to the province vocation center to sign up for a short Korean language course before taking a test to work over there," the neighbor told local news website Vnexpress.

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Vietnamese tourist killed in Australian bus accident

A Vietnamese man died when the bus he was travelling in toppled to one side Sunday during a tour in Australia, injuring 23 people.

The dead person has only been identified as a man in his mid-forties. He was reported as having not fastened his seat belt, so thrown out of the bus and crushed by the bus to death, Ryan Reynolds, reporter of the Australian newspaper Geelong Advertiser, told Thanh Nien.

Two other Vietnamese were critically injured and taken to Melbourne by helicopter. Others were sent by bus to nearby hospitals.

The bus was carrying 27 people, most of them tourists from Vietnam, China and Hong Kong, when it skidded and toppled to one side at around 2:30 p.m. local time, ending up on the sidewalk of Tomahawk Creek in Irrewillipe city, 160 kilometers from Melbourne. It was raining hard at the time, the police said.

Local sergeant Shane Howard said it had been raining unceasingly for the past four or five days, making the sidewalk slippery and muddy, Geelong Advertiser reported.

Investigators have surmised that the driver had lost control as the street was slippery due to wet weather.

There're no signs that any other vehicles have been involved in the accident.

The name of the tour operator has not been released.

The accident is being investigated further and Vietnam Embassy in Sydney is identifying the victims.

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