Vietnam’s Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu talks with a person injured in the accident

Russia sent an aircraft to Vietnam Sunday to fly back Russian tourists involved in a bus accident that killed nine of their party and their Vietnamese tour guide.

The bus drove off a hillside in the south-central province of Binh Thuan last Friday.

Fourteen travelers were injured, 13 of them Russians, as the vehicle carrying a total of 24 tourists went off the Dai Ninh hill in Bac Binh District at around 7 p.m. on Friday.

The bus was returning to Binh Thuan from the resort town of Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

The bus reportedly tumbled 300 meters down the hill.

Eight people died on the spot while the other two succumbed to their injuries at the Lam Dong General Hospital.

Phan Ba Trinh, the Russian tourists’ Vietnamese interpreter, was among the dead, doctors said.

Bus driver Nguyen The Lam was among the 14 wounded, said Nguyen Ba Hy, director of the Lam Dong General Hospital. The victims all suffered multiple injuries, doctors said.

The injured have been admitted to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The bodies of the nine dead Russians have been transferred to the FV Hospital and Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, both in HCMC.

Of the 15 victims at Cho Ray Hospital, a majority were not in critical condition, doctors said.

Lam hasn’t been able to remember everything about the accident, a doctor at Cho Ray who asked to remain anonymous, told Thanh Nien Sunday. “He just remembered that the bus’s brake was broken,” the doctor said.

A police officer, who took part in the investigation of the area where the accident occurred, said a sharp turn without a warning sign that made the driver lose control may be the main cause of the accident.

The Russian tourists had hired Antatreal-Phan Thiet Tourism Company to put together a tour package from Binh Thuan to other tourist staples like HCMC, Da Lat, Nha Trang, and the Mekong Delta.

The Dai Ninh Road, on which the Dai Ninh hill is located, was opened to traffic in 2002 to serve the construction of the Dai Ninh hydropower plant.

The road cuts the distance between Da Lat and Mui Ne by 100 kilometers compared with the old route. But the road has not been fully completed and is hazardous at several parts.

Binh Thuan leaders had asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to upgrade the road at a meeting several days ago.

But a deputy general director from Electricity of Vietnam, the country’s monopoly power supplier, had said there was no need as the Dai Ninh hydropower plant had been completed.

Vietnam’s Public Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu led a delegation to call on the victims at Cho Ray Hospital Sunday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also offered his condolences Sunday to the Russian families of the tourists involved in the crash, RIA Novosti reported.

Source: Thanh Nien