Speeding passenger bus crashes into van, kills 4

By Viet Quoc, Phuoc Tuan, Dinh Van September 29, 2023 | 08:21 pm PT

A sleeper bus and a van are damaged after a collision on National Highway 20 in southern Dong Nai Province, September 30, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Tu Huynh

Four people were killed and five others were injured after a sleeper bus and 16-seat van collided head-on on National Highway 20 in southern Dong Nai Province early Saturday.

At around 2:30 a.m. the Thanh Buoi company bus was traveling on Highway 20 carrying passengers from Ho Chi Minh City to Lam Dong Province when the accident occurred.

Police in Dinh Quan District of Dong Nai said the sleeper bus driven by Hoang Van Tinh, 37, had strayed into the wrong lane and onto oncoming traffic after it had "unsafely" driven past a pickup truck, hitting the truck's head.

A representative from the Department of Roads under the Transport Ministry said the sleeper bus was running at 69 kph right before the crash, while the permitted speed on the road section is 50 kph max.

Tinh has been arrested pending further investigation.

The van's driver, Nguyen Van Canh, 34, and three of its passengers died. Its other five passengers were rushed to hospital, two in critical conditions.

At the time of the accident, it was raining lightly.

Vu Thanh Long, who was driving along the road when the accident took place, said when he approached the scene he saw the van had been pushed off the road and its driver had been flung out.

Highway 20 runs nearly 280 km through Dong Nai and Lam Dong provinces, and is a key route between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat.