Passenger car overturned in Gia Lai, one person died, 20 people were injured

Gia Lai

Leaving Ho Chi Minh City to return to their hometown for a holiday, dozens of passengers on the sleeper bus were sleeping when the car wobbled in heavy rain, ran off the road and overturned, killing one person and injuring 20 people.

"I could only hold on tightly to the edge of the bed. Everything happened very quickly," Mr. Phan Ngoc Quoc Len, 28 years old, said while being treated for a head injury after a passenger car overturned on the morning of August 31.

The previous afternoon, Mr. Len and 30 passengers boarded the Viet Tan Phat sleeper bus at the old Mien Dong Bus Station, Ho Chi Minh City, to An Khe ward, Gia Lai for the National Day holiday.

The bus departs at 5:25 p.m. At departure, the weather was dry and the trip went normally. After many hours of travel, most passengers fell asleep, waiting to return to their hometowns the next morning.

At dawn on August 31, when the car arrived in the Ham Rong area, it began to rain heavily. Mr. Len was lying on the second floor bed, still awake and felt the car moving quite fast and continuously shaking. "The car wobbled and made me feel insecure, so I held onto the bed rail tightly," he said.

Just a few seconds later, a loud noise rang out. The car tilted sharply and then flipped to the right. Mr. Len was dizzy and had a headache. In the tilted car compartment, screams rang out and luggage and belongings were shuffled. Many people just woke up and tried to escape.

When the car stopped completely, those who were still conscious followed the gaps to get out. Nearby people and functional forces then approached the scene, removed the victims from the car and transported them to the hospital.

During the rescue, the rain was still falling, fog limited visibility, and the road surface was flooded. The passenger car overturned onto the right slope, next to the drainage ditch and garden. Luggage, furniture and debris were scattered around the scene.

The bus that was supposed to take many people home for a family reunion during the holiday season now became an emergency and rescue scene.

At around 3:40, about 30 minutes after the accident, Hung Vuong Gia Lai Hospital began receiving victims. A total of 20 people were brought here for emergency treatment.

Doctor Bui Truong Giang, Deputy Director of the hospital, said 15 people had external scratches and were discharged after treatment; Two cases of broken legs were put in casts, two people with soft tissue injuries continued to be treated. A patient with a spinal injury was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, for intensive treatment.

Mr. Len was injured in the head area, is currently conscious and continues to be monitored by doctors.

At the same time the victims were being taken to the emergency room, in An Khe, the family of Ms. Le Gia Vi, 19 years old, continuously called relatives on the bus but no one answered.

Vi's relative is a 33-year-old woman from An Khe, working as a worker in Ho Chi Minh City. Before getting in the car, she called home to say she would take a friend back to her hometown for the holidays and asked her family to pick her up.

At around 6 o'clock, seeing that relatives had not returned, the family called many times but there was no response. Worried that something bad happened, they immediately went from An Khe to Pleiku to search. "The other day, I called to say I was taking my friend home to play, but this morning my family received news that the bus had crashed," Vi said.

According to authorities, the accident happened around 3:10 a.m. Driver Nguyen Canh Ha Long, 33 years old, drove a sleeper bus carrying 30 passengers and 2 assistants on the bypass of Highway 19, heading from Ham Rong to Quy Nhon.

When reaching the section passing through Hoi Phu ward, the car hit a guardrail, crashed through a ditch and overturned onto the right shoulder. Initially, the authorities determined that when entering the bend, the driver encountered a slippery road and mud spilled down from the roadside after heavy rain, so he could not control his speed and steering wheel. When the accident happened, it was raining heavily and foggy.

Quick test results showed that the driver had no alcohol concentration and was negative for drugs. The cause of the accident is continuing to be investigated.

The location of the accident is in the Pleiku bypass section of the project to strengthen connection to the Central Highlands and upgrade National Highway 19. The 12.6 km long route, connecting National Highway 19 with National Highway 14 at Ham Rong intersection, has been completed but has not been handed over to local management and exploitation.

According to the Gia Lai Department of Construction, the authorities have placed warning signs, erected barriers and banned vehicles from traveling on this road. Checking the scene after the accident, authorities noted that mud and dirt spilled onto the asphalt concrete road surface due to drainage pipes being clogged with trash and rocks.

The Department of Construction requested the project management unit to direct contractors to clear sewers and drainage ditches, and mobilize specialized vehicles and high-pressure pumps to clean the road surface.