A court in central Vietnam on Thursday sentenced a bus driver to 7 years in jail for crashing the bus into a flooded river, which led to the deaths of 20 passengers last year.

Tran Van Truong, 36, of Nam Dinh Province deliberately drove the bus on a flooded road although he knew it was dangerous, according to the ruling of the court in Ha Tinh Province.

He should have stopped or taken another road but he was too reckless of consequences and just wanted to go home as soon as possible, the presiding judge said.

The accident happened on October 18 last year when the bus was on the way to Nam Dinh from Dak Nong Province with 38 people on board.

When the bus got to the flooded road near the Rong Bridge in Ha Tinh’s Nghi Xuan District, strong flood waters swept the vehicle into the Lam River.

Truong and 17 other people smashed the bus windows and swam to safety.

The remaining 20 people were drowned. Rescuers later found 14 bodies stuck inside the car, five bodies were recovered after drifting off the coast of neighboring provinces and the last body was nowhere to be found.

Ha Tinh traffic police said that several minutes before the accident, the bus had sped past a check point in Hong Linh Town.

The check point was set up to stop vehicles from going through the flooded section of the National Highway No.1.

Police said that Dinh Van Luong was the main driver, but as he was sick that day, his subordinate Truong took over the wheel.

Luong died in the accident.