A collision between a passenger train and a truck occurred in the northern Vietnamese province of Ha Nam early on Thursday morning, cutting the locomotive, derailing two carriages, and slightly injuring the engineer. 

The crash happened at 4:00 am in an area between the Phu Ly and Dong Van stations of the north-south railway system in Ha Nam, when the SE4 train was on the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, the Vietnam Railways Corporation (VRC) reported on Thursday.

The accident was blamed on the truck driver who was drowsy, crashing his truck into the guard rails and causing the vehicle to overturn on the tracks, Khuat Viet Hung, deputy chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The trucker got out of the vehicle and signaled the coming train, SE4, using an electric torch.

The train engineer slowed down but could not avoid the collision due to the short distance between the two vehicles, Hung said.

The incident caused the locomotive to detach from the train and fall into a trench nearby, derailing the two cars the locomotive was pulling.

The crash caused no casualties except a minor injury to the engineer, said Tran Cao Thang, head of the VRC’s safety and security section.

At the time of the accident, several passengers were on the train waiting to reach the final station in Hanoi.

The VRC used cars to carry all these passengers to the capital city while the handling of the consequences of the accident was underway.

The accident disrupted the schedule of many trains, including the SE7, which had to be canceled after being slated to depart at 6:00 am on Thursday.

By 12:00 pm on Thursday, the handling of the accident’s aftermath remained, and more efforts were mobilized to resume normal operation of the railway section, Thang said.    

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