Vietnamese police have detained a young man for his traffic rule violation that led to the death of a motorcycle escort who was on duty during a women’s bicycle race in the southern province of Dong Nai on March 1.

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>> Motorcycle escort dies while on duty in sport event in Vietnam (video) Police in the province’s Dinh Quan District told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday that they are temporarily holding 22-year-old Ngo Tien Phung to investigate his violations of road traffic regulations. The detention was made following a deadly incident in which Phung ran his motorcycle over Lin Ma Sang, 53, a member of Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District motorcycle sport team, in a traffic accident four days ago. Tran Ngoc Thach, Sang’s teammate, broke a leg, while some other team members were slightly injured in the accident. The incident occurred when Sang, Thach and other members of their team were escorting the racers of the Binh Duong International Women’s Bicycle Race Open Championship to prepare for the race’s second lap, which stretches from Dinh Quan to Bao Loc District in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, on Sunday. When the cyclists and their escorts were about one kilometer from the starting line in Dinh Quan, a group of tourists on about seven motorcycles tried to overtake the escorts at very high speed, causing collisions between the motorcycles of both sides. During the collision, Sang fell to the ground and was run over by Phung, while Thach dropped to the ground and broke one of his legs. When the accident occurred, the motorbike escorts were running at about 40 kph while members of the tourist group passed them at higher speeds and encroached on the wrong lane, news website VnExpress quoted deputy chairman of the Vietnam Motorcycle Federation Ngo Quang Vinh, who is a member of the race’s organizing board, as saying. Members of the motorcycle tourist group were on their way from the Mekong Delta to the Central Highlands region. During the collision, Phung ran over Sang, who was rushed to the Dinh Quan General Hospital for emergency treatment but he died later from his serious injuries, including cardiac rupture.    Initial investigations showed that Phung had operated his motorbike against applicable regulations and run the vehicle beyond the speed limit, said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Tho, chief of the Dong Nai police department’s secretariat. As far as Tuoi Tre knows, Phung is a member of Baby Speed, a group of people who own luxurious high-capacity motorbikes in the Mekong Delta region.

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