A memorial day to commemorate people who have perished in traffic accidents is to be held nationwide for the first time next month. It is also an effort to remind people of the lurking danger involved in road traveling and boost their compliance with traffic safety rules.
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| The scene of an accident between a truck and four cars that left three people dead and six wounded occurring at Ha Lan Pass (Buon Ho Town, Dak Lak Province) on April 4, 2012. This is a blackspot with several serious accidents on Highway No.14 |
Alarming statistics or scary reportage on fatal accidents can easily fall into oblivion, but for those involved, the loss of their loved ones seems surreal yet unbearable.
At the Tam Hiep roundabout in Dong Nai’s Bien Hoa city, crowds of bystanders were gathering, a motorbike and a helmet were scattered on the ground, and a bloody body was lying nearby, covered by a mattress.
The dead person was Hoang Quoc Viet, 18, who had just passed the university entrance exam. Amidst all the noise the shocked look on the face of the dead man’s older sister, who was giving Viet a ride and was fortunate to cheat death, stood out, as did the distressed screams of their father, who had just arrived.
Two weeks after Viet’s death, his parents were still dazed.
“He’s our youngest child and was always adored most. His sister obsessively blames herself for carrying him and causing his death,” Viet’s mother said, wiping her tears away.
“We sent him to a boarding high school in HCMC to minimize traveling out of the fear of accidents. We were also hesitant about buying him a motorbike after he passed the university entrance exam. But we couldn’t stop what finally happened,” she confided.
Quyet, a motorbike taxi driver who witnessed Viet’s accident, said more than ten days later, another fatal accident occurred at the same roundabout. The deceased was a pregnant woman.
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| A fatal traffic accident at the Tam Hiep roundabout in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province. |
6 years, 2 agonizing farewells
The smell of incense and a gloomy atmosphere has pervaded Liem and Huong’s small house in Dong Nai province’s Xuan Loc district since the young couple and their small daughter were killed in a tragic accident almost a year ago.
A construction contractor, Liem had not finished building his own house. Trinh, Huong’s older sister, recalled in tears that they planned to add one more room for their daughter and a living room to the current unfinished house when they had enough money.
But their plan would never be realized as their lives were abruptly cut short by a coach speeding down a slope one fateful afternoon.
“Our parents have been grieving so much, they work in the garden from dawn till dusk to avoid facing this huge loss,” Trinh said.
Six years ago, Huong’s elder brother died in an accident on the National Highway.
Such losses have rendered their elderly mother a recluse, and cause her to shiver with fear whenever her remaining children and grandchildren go out on the street.
“I hold my breath every time I ride past that slope,” Trinh said, adding that a serious accident took place only four houses away from her two weeks ago.
Unfinished work, shattered dreams
Quynh Huong, the grief-stricken widow of Nguyen Ton Nhan, Vietnam’s leading translator of ancient Chinese works and poems, still can’t grasp the fact that he is gone, one and a half years after he passed.
Nhan was on his way to the Tet flower market when he was run into by another motorbike in downtown HCMC. He fell to the ground and was immediately run over by an ocoming coach.
The distressing news disrupted the joyous atmosphere of the traditional Tet holidays, which was only two days away.
She is now still filled with an overwhelming sense of loss and excruciating pain whenever she sees his unfinished drafts on his desk.
Born in 1948, Nhan translated and compiled volumes of time-honored Chinese philosophical and literary works into Vietnamese, including the critically acclaimed translation of Nho Giao Trung Quoc (China’s Confucianism).
He was working on Dai Tu Dien Tho Duong (Grand Dictionary of Poems Composed During the Tang Dynasty), which he had cherished for years and his colleagues and readers were also eager to check out, when he was killed.
A distressed mother has forlornly sat by her youngest son’s tomb every day, rain or shine, since he was killed on the way home from HCMC to inform her of his university graduation results.
The young man’s promising future and dreams were shattered to pieces by one reckless minute of a truck driver.
Living on the edge
Those who live in the proximity of traffic hot spots are always on edge.
Trinh Van Bay, who has lived near the hot spot on National Highway No.1, near Binh Dien bridge in HCMC’s suburban district of Binh Chanh, for dozens of years, is no stranger to accidents.
He could spend the whole day talking about accidents that happened there every few days.
“Though sitting inside, I’m always on the lookout for accidents. Whenever I hear a rumbling noise, brisk footsteps and piercing screams, I know that’s it,” he said.
“I’ll get there on motorbike immediately to take the injured to hospital,” he added.
Bay could clearly describe hundreds of accidents, and many of them still obsess him.
Once he witnessed an accident which caused a young couple to die instantly. Their young child was lucky to survive, too shocked even to recognize other family members who arrived at the scene later.
Also, a teen girl was crossing the street near the bridge on her bike with some of her friends when she was run into by a truck. She lived, but her legs were crushed and had to be amputated, Bay recalled, sighing.
Some months ago, he himself was hit by a motorbike which lost control when he was standing on the pavement in front of his house. He suffered a broken leg.
Bay said that he knows many doctors, nurses, and even the director of Binh Chanh district’s Hospital, as he often carries the injured to its emergency theater.
“I have also helped policemen maintain the accident scene and clear the roads, so I know them quite well. It’s all because I live near the traffic ‘black spot’,” he added.
However, he admitted to feeling uneasy whenever traveling on the street.
Volunteer amateur ‘paramedics’
At the Dau Giay T-Junction, a team of taxi motorbike (xe om) drivers in blue uniforms could easily be spotted.
“This T-junction is crowded and has dangerous curves, so all kinds of accidents happen here,” Diep Minh Hue said.
“We took the injured to the emergency room so often that we were encouraged to take first aid classes. So we did, if not, we may unknowingly aggravate their injuries,” Hue explained.
They also take turns watching for accidents, he added.
“Accidents here are all fatal. Last month, a criminal policeman was hit by a van and died instantly,” Cong Tan Bau, another team member, noted.
“We witness accidents so often, but have to travel a lot to earn a living. I feel really nervous sometimes,” Toan, another motorbike taxi driver, said.
“My heart races wildly every time there is an accident,” said Lien, who has run a small coffee stall on the sidewalk nearby for several years.
“Life is so ephemeral,” she sighed.
Chilling numbers
Within the first 9 months of this year alone, almost 7,000 people died in traffic accidents, leaving behind bereft, mourning family members and orphaned young children.
Though within these 9 months traffic accidents have dropped by over 20% compared to last year, the seriousness of the accidents has risen.
More than 48 cities and provinces were lauded for seeing their accident rate drop by over 10%, yet 6 others were reprimanded for the rising accident rate, with Dong Nai, neighboring Ho Chi Minh City, being one of the most accident-packed ones.
(Source:TT News)
