VietNamNet Bridge – Eight people died and 10 were injured in a coach accident on the Trung Luong Highway in the Ben Luc District of Long An Province early yesterday, June 13.

Coach accident victims recover in Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City. The crash in Long An Province yesterday killed eight people and injured 10 others. (Photo: VNS)

Five people died on the spot while three others, including the coach driver, died on their way to hospital.

Although one lightly injured person has since been discharged, nine others are currently receiving treatment at the Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City, one woman still in a serious condition, said Dr Ton That Quynh Ai, head of the hospitals' Emergency Ward.

Phan Van Nang, who is currently receiving treatment, said that the coach driver had been speeding when the accident occured.

Head of the Long An Traffic Police, Tran Van Hung, said that his department was doing all in its power to conduct and conclude their investigations in discovering the reasons for the coach crash.

A traffic jam, caused by the accident, lasted until 10pm.

HCM City's VND10 trillion (US$500 million), 61.9km Trung Luong Highway, opened to public on February 3 last year, is the country's first to be used by both coaches and trucks. Via the highway, it only takes around 30 minutes, compared to the previous 90 minutes, for a coach to run from HCM City to Tien Giang Province.

Also on the same day, there were two further accidents in Tinh Gia District in the central province of Thanh Hoa that left 31 people injured, eight of them seriously.

At 13.15pm, a coach carrying 47 passengers collided with a container running in the opposite direction, leaving 25 passengers and the driver injured.

Earlier at 11.28am, a passenger train from Nghe An to Ha Noi hit a tanker leaving five people injured.

All the victims were sent to hospital for treatment.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News