Chairman of the Phu Hoa District People’s Committee Ha Trung Khang yesterday
afternoon ordered an end to the search for victims of a coach accident. The
coach veered off Highway 25 into an irrigation canal in Phu Hoa District in the
central province of Phu Yen on Tuesday.

Thousands of people gather along the banks of an irrigation canal to follow the search for victims of Tuesday’s coach accident. The search ended yesterday with 35 of the estimated 60 passengers rescued. (Photo: VNS)

Local authorities and
rescue workers had accounted for 35 passengers by Tuesday afternoon.

Dong Cam Co Ltd closed
irrigation sluice gates in an effort to search for any more bodies. Bus driver
Pham Minh Dung, 48, said that between 35-40 passengers had been on the bus when
the accident occurred.

Deputy director of the
Phu Hoa Police Huynh Huu Lap, told the Vietnam News Agency that 60 bus tickets
had been sold, but passengers disembarked at various bus stops along the route.

Twenty passengers were
hospitalised for slight trauma, with two still under treatment at Phu Yen
Hospital. Each passenger received a VND500,000 (US$25) allowance from the Phu
Hoa authorities.

The remaining
passengers were discharged from hospital in good health.

Bus driver Dung told
police he had lost control of the Cuc Tu Transport Enterprise bus.

The canal is one of
two main waterways as part the Dong Cam irrigation system and supplies water to
the Tuy Hoa Plain.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News