Last Saturday, the Hoa Vang Police in Da Nang decided to prosecute and impose a 4-month temporary custody order on 43-year-old Le Nhat Phuong from Quang Tri Province for his involvement in a very serious road accident which killed 6 people.  He was charged with ‘violating the regulations about road traffic control’.

At noon on 29 April, Mr Phuong was driving the sleeper bus at a high speed when it crashed into a 5-seater car at the intersection of the bypass on the southern side of the city’s Hai Van Tunnel and the newly opened road that links Da Nang centre with the Ba Na-Suoi Mo ecotourism area.

The scene at the fatal accident

At the time, the sleeper bus was enroute from Quang Tri Province to Ho Chi Minh City, whilst the car was on its way back to Da Nang centre from a trip to the Ba Na Hills Resort.

As a result, the car was thrown about 100 metres from the collision site, and the severe collision completely wrecked the car with debris scattered all across the road.  The car’s driver, 28-year-old Nguyen Chi Hoang Anh, his two-year-old son, his 50-year-old mother, and his 65-year-old father-in-law died on the spot.

The seriously damaged car

Anh's 54 year-old mother-in-law and 20-year-old sister-in-law were rushed to a local hospital for treatment, but they eventually succumbed to their very serious injuries.  His wife, 24 year-old Nguyen Thi Huong Mai who is two months pregnant, is currently being treated in the Da Nang General Hospital.  She is in a very critical condition and in a deep coma with a brain injury and a femur fracture.

According to Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee Khuat Viet Hung, the bus’s monitoring device showed that Mr Phuong was driving his vehicle at 85kph when the collision happened whilst the speed limit at that point is 50kph.