Grief overtakes families after Quang Nam bus wreck

The bus flipped, killing eight people it was carrying.

Many people lost their family members and neighbors in the gruesome accident early Tuesday.

‘Everyone became motionless’

Le, 48, from Quang Ngai that borders Quang Nam in central Vietnam, and two of her neighbors got on the bus at 2 a.m. on Tuesday. They were traveling to Da Nang for a health check-up, as people from Quang Ngai often do. They were supposed to reach Da Nang at around 6 a.m., and they planned to return home in the afternoon the same day.

It was a trip Le had made so many times before. After getting on the bus, she went right to sleep. The bus stopped several times to pick up passengers, before turning onto Vo Chi Cong Street in Quang Nam. The coastal road had little traffic.

When the bus reached an intersection with the road leading to Tam Hiep Port, it was still pitch-black outside. Seemingly out of nowhere, the bus then collided with a tractor trailer crossing the road.

“Everyone was asleep when they heard a sound as loud as a bomb blast,” said Le. “The bus flipped, and I did too. Everyone then became motionless, bleeding heavily. Some people were even flung out of the bus.”

Le looked around for her two neighbors traveling with her: a mother and her child. Le found the mother already cold to the touch, no longer breathing. There was still a bit of warmth on her child. It was 3:40 a.m.

Bystanders rushed to the scene and smashed the bus’s windows to pull victims out of the vehicle and send them to the hospital. The accident was 3 km from Quang Nam Central General Hospital, so at least the ambulances were quick.

Le then found herself on a hospital bed with pain in her back and chest. Doctors said her chest was fine, but the results of her back tests were not ready yet. She was told that her neighbor’s child had perished and both bodies were being transported back to Quang Ngai.

‘All too sudden’

In the room next to Le’s were three victims from Nghia Ha Commune of Quang Ngai.

Pham Thi Mai is treated at a hospital in Quang Nam after the bus carrying her hit a tractor, killing eight people traveling with her, February 14, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Dac Thanh

Pham Thi Mai, 60, had been on the bus taking her brother-in-law for a medical check-up. She remembered that 10 minutes before the accident, her brother-in-law and the driver were still chatting with each other.

When the violent collision shook and disoriented her, Mai opened her eyes only to see that her arms were caught in-between the seats and the bus was upside down.

“I saw the bus’s window was broken, so I tried to climb out, knowing I would be hurt in the process. I called for my brother-in-law, but seeing him so still, I knew he was dead,” Mai said through her tears.

Vo Thi Thuy Tram, 37, had also been bringing her 86-year-old father-in-law to Da Nang for a routine medical check-up. Just after the accident, she had enough strength in her to pull her father out of the bus through a window. Both were then taken to the hospital.

About 70 km away from the hospital, Nguyen Luan, 60, couldn’t keep his composure upon learning of the death of his wife and son, 56-year-old Tran Thi May and 25-year-old Nguyen Tran Huu Trung.

Nguyen Luan speaks through his tears after his wife and son died in a traffic accident in Quang Nam, February 14, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Linh

Luan and his wife were both farmers. Trung was their only son, a worker at a factory in Binh Son District. Over a month ago, Trung injured himself during a football match. As the injury happened so close to Tet, he had decided to wait until this week to go to Da Nang for surgery. His mother had come along to care for him on during the 10-day trip.

The bus had picked them up at around 2:30 a.m. Just over an hour later, Luan received news of the accident.

“I ran to a relative’s house and asked them to drive me to the scene. When I got there, both my wife and son had been taken to the hospital. And when I got to the hospital, they told me they didn’t make it,” Luan said, holding back tears.

“Why is everything so sudden? How am I supposed to live now?” He wept.

Authorities said the bus was speeding when it collided with the truck, killing 8 people including the driver, and injuring 13 others.

Thick fog had been observed along the coast from Quang Nam to Da Nang that night.