A truck driver sleep-driving while high on meth will spend 13 years in jail after an accident that killed eight commune officials.
The accident happened on National Highway 5 in the northern province of Hai Duong in January this year, when a truck driven by 28-year-old Luong Van Tam ploughed into a bunch of pedestrians.
Eight commune officials walking back to work after lighting incense at the local martyrs’ cemetery were killed. Another eight were injured.
Investigations revealed that Tam was high on meth and sleep driving at the time of the accident, the Kim Thanh District court heard.
He turned himself in at a local police station several hours after the accident.
Tam and the truck company he worked for have compensated the late victims’ families with VND175 million each ($7,517), while the injured victims got a total compensation of VND164 million ($7,045).
Road crashes kill almost one person every hour in Vietnam.
Rising drug use has made Vietnamese roads riskier to drive on. The practice is not rare among Vietnamese truck drivers who have heavy workloads.
In a scattered 20-day inspection starting January this year, traffic police found 182 truck and minibus drivers high on narcotics. In the first half this year, they had handled 239 cases in which drivers were using drugs when driving, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.
Source: Vnexpress