Five killed as car hits motorbike, plunges into river

At 7:50 p.m. the Ford Everest car with three people was driving on a suspension bridge across the Giang River in Thanh Chuong District when it hit a motorbike carrying two men moving on the opposite direction. The car then crashed into the bridge's barrier and plunged into the river.

After two hours of search, forces retrieved the car and pulled it to shore at 10 p.m.

Three men, aged between 37 and 47, were found dead in the car, Le Dinh Thanh, a local official, said.

The motorbike driver died on the way to hospital while his accompanying man fell into the river. The body of the latter was found at 11 p.m.

Police and other rescue forces join to retrieve a car that plunged into the Giang River in Nghe An Province, October 4, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Hai.

At 1 a.m. Monday, traffic across the bridge was resumed.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

The suspension bridge across the Giang River is 120 meters long and four meters wide, enough for two cars to avoid each other.

Road crashes are a leading cause of deaths in Vietnam. A total of more than 10,354 traffic accidents occurred in first nine months of this year, killing 4,876, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.