Three Vietnamese Americans who were family members were killed in a tragic accident which happened early Sunday in front of a processing zone in Ho Chi Minh City.

The accident occurred on a National Highway 1 section in front of the Linh Trung Export Processing Zone, located in Thu Duc District, and claimed the lives of five people in a car.

The crash killed Ly Van Sanh, 66, Ly Thi Dang Thanh, 31, and Pham Thanh Tung, 33, who were all American citizens of Vietnamese origin.

The three were riding in a four-seat car.  Among the casualties were Dinh Thi Hong Yen, the car’s 45-year-old Vietnamese driver, and Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, 27, whose identity remains unknown.

Sanh was Thanh's biological father, father-in-law of Tung, and foster father of Yen, Huynh Van Tiep, a relative of Sanh's wife, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

According to preliminary investigation, around 3:30 am today, the car and a 45-seat coach were running on the above-mentioned stretch of National Highway 1 to head for a pagoda in Dong Nai Province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City.

What is left of the seven-seat car after the deadly accident. Photo: Tuoi Tre.

When the two vehicles were waiting at the stoplights, a speeding tractor trailer forcefully rear-ended the four-seat car.

The horrendous collision flung the car to the front, leaving it stuck and deformed between the coach’s rear and the truck’s front.

Huynh Thi Can, Sanh's wife, and Tiep were sitting in the coach, which carried poor people for a visit to the pagoda. They were unhurt and so were the other passengers.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Board, the accident is among the most serious which have happened across the city since the beginning of this year.

Seven hundred and fifty-nine traffic accidents occurred in the city within the first two months of 2015 alone, killing 138 people and injuring 686 others, the board earlier announced.

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