Deputy premier demands investigation into fatal car-trailer truck crash

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, who also leads the National Traffic Safety Committee, requested in a fiat on November 20 that the investigation be carried out urgently.

Binh has sent condolences to the families of the dead and wounded victims, and demanded local authorities hold anyone involved accountable.

The committee’s report showed that a trailer truck crashed into a seven-seater car from behind while driving on the Hanoi-Thai Nguyen expressway at 3:40 pm on November 19. 

This car had its rear badly damaged after it was rear-ended by a trailer truck in northern Vietnam on November 19, 2016.

The car was carrying 10 passengers, four of whom died instantly while the other six were injured.

Giao Thong (Traffic) newspaper quoted Ngo Van Son, the driver of the car, as telling police officers that he had been hired to drive 10 people to Hanoi from Thai Nguyen to attend a wedding.

Son said that one of the passengers urged him to slow down as they traveled past the Yen Binh intersection in Pho Yen, a district-level town in Thai Nguyen.

He claimed to have signaled before moving the car to the right-hand side of the road but the trailer truck still rear-ended the seven-seater vehicle and pushed it for some distance.

The driver of the truck, Vu Van Hoang, said that he was driving 60m behind the car when it came to an abrupt stop because the seven-seater had driven past the exit ramp.

“Many vehicles were nearby, so I could not change lanes,” Hoang said, adding that he had no choice but to brake swiftly.

The truck slammed into the car and pushed it for 10m, he recalled.