The first accident occurred at around 9 p.m. when a packed seven-seater plunged off a cliff near a highway bypass in Ha Tinh Province’s Ky Phuong Commune.

Five of the passengers died on the spot and two others were seriously injured.

Roughly an hour later, two men on a motorbike crashed into another motorist as they rushed to the scene of the accident–all three were injured.

The motorbike drivers had been told that their relatives had been among those traveling in the ill-fated seven-seater.

At midnight, a truck collided with two men on a motorbike while crossing another section of the highway; they died on the spot.

Following the third accident, Ha Tinh police arrived at the site to clear traffic backed up along the highway.