HÀ NỘI — Driver’s fault was to blame for a traffic accident in the Central Highlands province of Kontum, killing one person and injuring 19 others early Thursday morning, an initial investigation revealed.
The coach driver, who died in the accident, allegedly changed gears when the vehicle was going down the pass, making the coach become unstable and lose control, said Khuất Việt Hùng, vice chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety.
The accident occurred when the 45-seater coach collided with a barrier then overturned and plunged into an abyss at a section of a local road running through Lò Xo Pass in the province’s Đắk Glei District.
The coach, with registration number 90B-005.32, was travelling from Hà Nam Province to Gia Lai Province.
Hùng said no record of the coach was sent to the monitoring system of the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam. The system did not receive any data from the coach’s black box on the day of the accident.
The coach owner had failed to show the transportation business licence to authorised agencies, which means the coach was illegally transporting people, Hùng said.
In a related movement, the committee has submitted a proposal to the transport ministry to urgently consider the re-designing of barriers along roads, especially roads running along passes, across the country.
The barriers should be re-designed to minimise road accidents, the committee said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister cum chairman of the committee, Trương Hòa Bình, sent his condolences to the victims’ families after he was informed of the accident on Thursday.
Local police are working hard to identify the cause of the accident. — Đức
