Hundreds of deaths, injuries as traffic accidents spike during Tet

Tet typically involves a lot of traveling, drinking and partying as the nation celebrates its most important and biggest festival. 

Numerous accidents are reported as a result and 161 people died from February 2-9, which means 20 deaths per day.

However, this represented a decline from last year's Tet which saw 28 deaths a day.

The number of accidents began to rise from Wednesday, the second day of the new lunar year.

The police recorded 1,532 violations of traffic laws on the roads and slapped fines of VND516 million ($22,230) besides temporarily seizing 456 vehicles and 204 licenses.

They also detected 35 violations on waterways and imposed fines of VND29 million ($1,249). But there were no reports of waterway or rail accidents.

The main reasons for the casualties included driving under the influence and not wearing helmets, Nguyen Trong Thai of the National Traffic Safety Committee said.

A Ministry of Health report said that, besides, 11 people died in incidents of violence between February 2 and 7.

Road crashes are a leading cause of death in Vietnam, killing almost one person every hour, according to the committee.