Truck driver tests positive for drugs after crash kills mother, 3 children

Doan Van Luong, 38, turned himself in to the police on Tuesday evening, several hours after causing a series of collisions in Hanoi’s Hoai Duc District.

Authorities determined that Luong was not drunk but tested positive for drugs.

The accident took place around 11 a.m. on Tuesday at the intersection between a street and a small bridge crossing a canal leading to the Duong Lieu industrial cluster in Hoai Duc.

The 15-ton dump truck, which was carrying gravel for construction, crashed into the side of a 500-kg truck that was moving on the same direction.

The driver of the hit truck lost control and veered into the opposite lane, pushing a motorcycle carrying one adult and three children into the roadside guardrail.

The motorcycle was traveling in the opposite direction to the smaller truck and had stopped at the intersection to avoid the dump truck, a witness said.

A dump truck carrying building material that hits a small truck (R) in Hanoi’s Hoai Duc District, July 16, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Chieu

Authorities had to deploy a crane to move the truck away from the bridge railing and extract the victims. The 32-year-old mother and her three children, ages 9-13, died on impact.

At the scene, the right front of the truck was slightly dented. The rear of the truck was close to the guardrail, with the door thrown open and the side dented. The motorcycle was completely wrecked.

Dump truck driver Luong left the scene after the crash.