Vietnam’s roads have turned deadly in recent days, with a series of tragic incidents underscoring the urgent need for better traffic safety measures. The latest horror unfolded Thursday in Hue, where a truck slammed into three electric bicycles close to a high school, killing a student and a woman on the spot. A third victim was hospitalized with serious injuries as investigators piece together the chain of events.
Shifting south, Dong Nai province awoke to tragedy when an early morning fire gutted an electronics store. The blaze, which started around 5 a.m., claimed the lives of a young mother and her toddler, their bodies found by firefighters battling the inferno sparked by combustible goods. One survivor was pulled from the wreckage and treated for burns.
Rewinding to January 17, a bus carrying 18 people—including 14 passengers, two drivers, and two attendants—plunged into a roadside ditch in Son La after hitting a culvert. Four perished in the rollover amid heavy rain and fog that made roads treacherous. Toxicology tests on the driver came back negative, ruling out impairment.
The string of mishaps continued on January 14 on the busy Thang Hoa-Hanoi expressway. A collision involving two tractor-trailers and a minibus left four dead and six hurt, with twisted metal littering the scene. As Vietnam grapples with rising accident rates, experts call for stricter enforcement, improved vehicle standards, and awareness campaigns to stem the bloodshed.