There were nearly 200 traffic accidents in the country during the recent four-day holiday from April 28 to May 1, according to a quick tally by the National Traffic Safety Committee.
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| Traffic congestion at Hanoi highway last Tuesday afternoon in HCM City. (Photo: Tuoi Tre) |
Between April 28 and 30 Viet Duc hospital reported that it received 421 emergency cases, 332 of which were traffic, labor and household accidents. Dr Nguyen Duc Chinh, deputy chief at the hospital’s planning department, said there were 14 fatal cases and 70 cases that required urgent operation, most of which were brain injuries.
Similarly, Dr Pham Tri Dung, head of the emergency department at Ho Chi Minh City’s Cho Ray hospital, said the there were 121 emergency cases on April 30, doubling a normal day’s figure. There were 74 and 105 cases on April 28 and 29, respectively.
According to the city’s Road and Railway Traffic Police Office, there was major congestion on the Ha Noi highway, National Road 1A, An Lac roundabout, Mien Dong bus station, Cat Lai crossroads and Hang Xanh intersection. Four traffic accidents involved casualties, namely four deaths and two injuries.
On Tuesday afternoon thousands of people returned to Ho Chi Minh City after the holiday. At the gateway between the city and Mekong Delta, traffic jams occurred in distances from Long An’s Ben Luc bridge to the An Lan roundabout, and from District 7’s Nguyen Van Linh street to National Road 1A and An Lac roundabout.
At District 2’s Cat Lai ferry station, thousands of people had to queue for 2-3km at the Dong Nai province side to catch a ferry to the city. Tran Minh Thanh, Director at the Enterprise Ferry Cat Lai, said eleven big ferries were operating but could not service the 80,000 passengers who appeared on May 1. Similarly, more than 50,000 rode the ferry of the Binh Khanh station, linking Nha Be and Can Gio Province in Ho Chi Minh City last Tuesday.
