Tran Xuan, Thien’s uncle who has received Thien’s dead body, told Tuoi Tre that he didn’t know why Thien was assigned to control the truck at that time of the accident.
“Thien had worked as a driver assistant for one year including 2 to 3 months as a trailer tractor driver’ assistant,” Xuan said.
Meanwhile, the chief driver of the vehicle has been identified as 33-year-old Nguyen Dao from the central province of Khanh Hoa.
Dao told the police that on the night of November 7, Dao felt sleepy after driving for a couple of hours and asked Thien, his assistant, to take over the wheel.
Nguyen Thai Hieu, deputy director of Hung Thinh Ltd. Company headquartered in the Suoi Dau industrial zone in Cam Lam District in Khanh Hoa confirmed with the police that before the accident, the company had given Van Cong Tuan residing in Loc Tho Ward the right to use the tractor.
Both Hieu and Tuan claimed that they didn’t know who Thien was or why Thien was allowed to drive the truck and then caused the accident.
Hieu told the police that Hung Thinh Company had only signed a contract with Nguyen Dao who has a FC (tractor) driving license.
The accident happened in Hong Son Commune at 2:30 am on November 7 when the truck traveling southward from Khanh Hoa Province crashed into a bus of Tien Bo Thai Binh Transport Cooperative traveling on the opposite lane, and then hit another bus of Hoang Long Transport Company which was running on the same lane.
The truck and the Tien Bo Thai Binh bus, driven by 40-year-old Vu Manh Hung, exploded after hard collision, killing 8 people on the spot and seriously wounding 25 others.
The injured were taken to Binh Thuan General Hospital, but 2 of them died on the way to hospital.