Collision kills truck driver on major southern Vietnam expressway

The collision occured at 4 a.m. Friday in Tien Giang Province in the delta when one truck hit a container truck in front before another slammed into it.

The accident killed the driver of the truck in the middle and caused a tailback exceeding one kilometer over several hours.

Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway stretches across 51 kilometers. Costing VND12 trillion ($494 million) in its first phase, the expressway has four lanes for vehicles to travel at 80 kph.

It was open to traffic on April 30 this year after 13 years of construction. The section, which is connected to HCMC – Trung Luong Expressway, reduces the time to travel from the city of Tien Giang by 75 minutes to one hour and 45 minutes.

The expressway has 11 emergency stops and does not have an emergency lane. Its investor said the emergency lane will be built in the second phase, of which work has been started recently and set for completion within three years at the cost of more than VND9.5 trillion.

Two months into operation, the expressway had recorded more than 40 accidents killing three people.