HÀ NỘI —A total of 147 accidents occurred within the four-day New Year’s holiday (December 29-January 1), claiming 111 lives and wounding 61 people, traffic police said.

On average, there were nearly 28 deaths a day, higher than last year’s figure of 22.

The most serious accident was a collision between a passenger coach and a truck on National Road No 1 in the south central province of Bình Thuận, leaving two dead and seven wounded.

The top causes of accidents were speeding, driving in the wrong lane, changing lanes or direction without signalling, or driving under the influence, while violations like not wearing helmets were very common, police noted.

Road traffic made up the majority of the accidents with 145 cases out of 147 and the remaining two were blamed on rail transport, with one death and one injury.

Traffic police officers handled a total of 15,200 violations, giving out fines of VNĐ15.17 billion, revoking licences of 3,300 drivers and impounding more than 2,800 vehicles.

According to reports, on the first day of the four-day holiday, heavy traffic and frequent congestion were witnessed in the two largest cities in the country, Hà Nội and HCM City.

On the contrary, even during afternoon rush hour on the last day, when masses of people were expected to return to Hà Nội, important traffic junctions including Pháp Vân, Giải Phóng, Thanh Trì Bridge, Minh Khai, Tam Trinh and Chương Dương Bridge did not suffer serious jams, only slight difficulties in moving were reported due to higher traffic than usual.

During the holiday, the National Committee for Traffic Safety said they received more than 80 calls reporting coaches loading more passengers onto vehicles than allowed, collecting fees higher than the printed amount, and other types of road annoyances on the expressways. — VNS