Rocky road: Police apprehend stone pelters on Vietnam expressway

A Honda motorbike and a handful of stones were found at the scene. The teenagers said they thought of the stone-throwing "prank" when they were driving their motorbikes for fun on the overhead bridge.

The parents of the teenagers have been summoned by the police for follow-up action.

The expressway’s management board had said earlier that last Wednesday alone, at least three unnamed drivers reported rocks being thrown at their cars, buses and trucks as they passed a flyover in Phong Coc Ward, Quang Yen Town, in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

One driver said a group of three people standing on the bridge threw rocks at his Range Rover and broke its windshield.

Rocks that a group of teen boys were about to throw at vehicles on the Ha Long-Hai Phong Expressway Friday. Photo courtesy of Quang Ninh police

The rock throwing began February 16-17, said the expressway’s management board. The throwers targeted vehicles running on the expressway, resulting in property damage and endangering drivers’ lives, it said.

Le Van Nam, chairman of the expressway’s management board, had said earlier that they’d "deployed guards at the places drivers mentioned from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., this being the time frame when most of rock-throwing cases happened."

The Ha Long – Hai Phong Expressway, which opened last September, is 25 kilometers and 25 meters wide. Costing $556 million, the expressway connects the National Highway 18 in Ha Long's Dai Yen Ward with the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway in Hai An District of the port city Hai Phong.

It reduces the commute between the captial city Hanoi and the famous Ha Long Bay by 50km to 130km and cuts down the Ha Long-Hai Phong route from 75km to just 25km.