VietNamNet Bridge – The boat moved to the middle of the river and suddenly overturned. Only six of the nine people on the boat were rescued.

Ha Thanh River, where the accident occured.

The accident occurred at 3pm on July 13, on the Ha Thanh River, in Quang Van village, Phuoc Thuan commune of Tuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh province. The three victims are Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuy, 38 and her two sons - Nguyen Ngoc Hoang, 7 and Nguyen Ngoc Phat, 5.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ty, 36, Thuy’s husband, said that after a party held at the home of a relative, Ty had to continue his work at a construction site on the bank of Ha Thanh so his wife and his kids went home together.

At about 3pm, nine people left the party to come back to their home on the other bank of Ha Thanh River. They included Mr. Nguyen Van Phong, 28, Ty’s younger brother, Mrs. Thuy and her two sons, a cousin and four other kids.

The people got on the boat of about 3 m long, 0.9 m wide. Phong rowed the small boat with several holes which were temporarily patched.

The kids played on the boat. When the boat moved to the middle of the river, because of high winds, several holes in the boat broke. Water flowed into the boat when the kids oscillated. "My sisters panicked and screamed. They just held their kids and did not bail out the boat so the boat sank immediately. We did not have any life jacket. I did not swim well so I could not save anyone," Phong recalled.

Three people reached up repeatedly in the middle of the stream. At this time, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hon, 32, who was shoveling sand on the riverbank saw the sinking people. He rushed down to the water to save them.

Hon grabbed each victim, raised them out of the water to breathe and then put them down to raise others up. He did that way to wait for others. More than 10 minutes later, some people rowed a boat to assist Hon. Six people survived thanks to Hon’s method, except for Thuy and her sons.

The three victims were fished out in the afternoon of the same day.

In related news, a young couple drowned in Ong Tri Lake in Binh Dinh province on July 13, also in a boat capsize.

Le Mai