A North-South express train carrying 350 passengers en route to ${bigcity_Hanoi:"Hanoi"} collided with a cargo truck in Ha Nam province around 8:00 a.m. on Friday 6th of August. The collision derailed four carriages and caused it to overturn. Though the train passengers were safe, they were some who sustained minor injuries.

The other end was a bit unfortunate, however. The truck driver was taken to hospital for emergency treatment. His assistant, in turn, had one of his hands severed after being trapped in the smashed locomotive cabin and was also rushed to a nearby local hospital for treatment.

The 20-ton truck, loaded with gravel and sand, was ploughed down 20 meters from the roadway. The disaster resulted to serious traffic congestion along National Highway No1A from Nam Dinh to Hanoi. Three other trains had to wait for almost three hours from their scheduled departure as rescue workers tried to clear the path using cranes and helped transport the hundreds of train passengers to Hanoi through cars.

The accident happened at an illegally-opened crossing in Tien Tan commune of Duy Tien district. The lack of warning signs or barriers at the crossing was blamed to local authorities as such should have been among their responsibility. Thanh Van Thanh, chief of the National Traffic Safety Committee, claims that a recent inspection showed a total of 1,140 illegally-opened crossings across the country. Though efforts were done in cooperation with the Roads and Railway Traffic Police along with local governments, outlaws across the country continue to break official barriers and create new crossings. Because of that, similar incidents continue to occur in different parts of Vietnam. Reports show that a collision also occurred in the Northern provinces just a month ago which caused two lives and injured six others. That, along with this recent accident, is currently under investigation.