HÀ NỘI — A series of serious traffic accidents throughout the country on Saturday left eight people dead and dozens injured.

A train travelling from HCM City’s Sài Gòn Station to Diên Trì Station in central Bình Định Province collided at about 9.30am with a truck carrying wood fibre at a railway crossing in Vân Canh District, 8km from its destination.

The accident killed truck driver Tăng Xuân Minh, while Trần Bon, also in the truck, died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Due to the derailment, the north-south railway route was disrupted for some six hours.

Lieutenant Colonel Ngô Đức Hoài, deputy head of Bình Định traffic police, told online newspaper Zing that there was a guard station and flashing lights at the crossing where the accident occurred.

“The investigation shows that while the train was approaching, the guard did not lower the barrier, so the truck driver was not aware of the train,” he said.

The investigation is continuing, in a bid to clarify the cause of accident.

A truck is heavily damaged after colliding with a train in Vân Canh District, Bình Định Province on Saturday. The accident left two people dead. Photo: zing.vn

Another accident happened later in the day at Rạch Miễu Bridge in southern Tiền Giang Province, which claimed the lives of three people.

At about 1.30 pm, a tractor trailer collided head-on with a 16-passenger van, while travelling downhill on the bridge.

The collision killed two people in the van, while the driver died on the way to hospital. Four others were injured, including one seriously. The van was destroyed.

The accident turned tragic for a wedding party, as the group of people in the van were travelling back to Bến Tre after attending a wedding in HCM City. The victims were relatives of the groom.

The accident also caused traffic to back up for hours on Rạch Miếu Bridge.

Meanwhile, in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, another accident left two students and a bus driver dead, while 16 others were injured.

The three dead included bus driver Trần Ngọc Thanh, Hà Thị Bích Vân, an eleventh grader, and Trần Thị Thu Trúc, a twelfth grader at Trần Hưng Đạo high school.

The deceased were travelling in a bus transporting students from their homes to school.

The bus crashed into a truck driven by Ngô Thành Thọ while travelling on National Route 19 from Mang Yang District to An Khê Town.

An initial investigation showed Thọ was careless while driving his truck backwards, as the bus was travelling at a high speed and could not brake in time.

In the north, there were heavy delays in Saturday’s morning commute on Thanh Trì Bridge in Hà Nội after two trucks and a tractor trailer were involved in a crash.

The trucks were travelling in the same direction when they apparently collided and jumped onto the median strip. A tractor trailer coming from the opposite direction had to swerve to avoid the crash, causing it to collide with the bridge’s side rails.

After the collision, half of the tractor toppled over the rails onto the land beneath the bridge, while the other remained atop the rails.

Officials report no loss of life, but the trucks were seriously damaged. — VNS