The timber-carrying truck plunged down a slope in Trí Nang Commune, Lang Chánh District in the north-central province of Thanh Hóa. Photo vietnamplus.vn

THANH HÓA - Seven people died on Monday evening when their truck plunged down a slope and crashed at the side of the road on provincial highway 530 in Trí Nang Commune, Lang Chánh District in the north-central province of Thanh Hóa.

The truck was reportedly carrying timber from Yên Thắng Commune, which borders Lang Chánh Commune, when the accident happened.

All people in the truck - a driver, his assistant and five porters including four women died after the crash.

Local authorities identified the victims as aged from 33 to 59 years old, five of them from Trí Lang Commune and two from Thống Nhất Town of the same province’s Yên Định District.

Traffic police extracted the truck’s black box and found that 10 seconds before the accident, the truck was travelling at 33 km/h. The truck labelled Chenglong was made in Việt Nam with a designed load of 17,900kg and seats for two. The truck was last examined and certified for use by authorities on October 29, 2020.

The truck is thought to have been overloaded, which may have caused the driver to lose control as the vehicle went down the slope.

After being informed about the accident, Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of National Committee for Road Safety Trương Hòa Bình sent condolences to the victims’ families and called for an investigation into the incident. VNS