Road accidents: the agony never abates

The deaths of accident victims aren’t an end. They commence years of excruciating pain and immense hardship for their bereft loved ones, particularly their young children.

A poor family in Hanoi’s Son Tay commune lost their son and daughter-in-law in two accidents which occurred less than four months apart from each other. Their daughter lost both her parents when she was just 8 months old.

Less than four months ago, Nguyen Truong Ca, the breadwinner of this 10-member family, including his aging, sickly parents and his elderly, disabled aunt and uncle, never made home one fateful afternoon when he was driving home from work, which was only a few kilometers away,

Nguyen Van Hai and his family still do not know how his son was killed and who caused the accident.

When Hai saw his son in the hospital, Ca was already unconscious. Several days later, he passed away, leaving behind his mourning family, particularly his 8-month-old daughter.

“He was really a good boy, and was the most muscular among my brother’s three children,” Ca’s uncle remembered about his nephew.

“He did most of the hard work at home and was the only one in the family who wasn’t working as a farmer. He was working at a nearby mechanic workshop to earn more money to provide for us all,” added Ca’s uncle, who is in a wheelchair.

“The doctors at Son Tay hospital told us that if Ca had been rushed to the hospital sooner, he wouldn’t have died so tragically,” said Quan, Ca’s older brother.

Hai tearfully recalled a day when his family was still dazed by Ca’s sudden death less than four months earlier that they once more received distressing news: Ca’s widow, Nguyen Thi Hong, had been killed in an accident on a section of the national highway only 6 km from home.

Hong had just begun to talk again after her husband’s death, and she asked her parents-in-law to let her sell goods at the local market to earn some more money.

“We had a poor crop this year, so we allowed Hong to sell things at the market. We hoped it would help soothe her distress over her husband’s death, in addition to earning some more income. I couldn’t imagine…,” Hai heaved a long sigh.

After leaving home for the market at 4:30 in the morning, two hours later her in-laws got the appalling news that she had been hit by a car and perished from the full impact of the crash.

“After taking her body home, we still don’t know what has been going on and what to expect after this,” Hai moaned.

Deprived of both of her parent’s love and care, Ca and Hong’s 8-month-old daughter, Mai Trang, has to breastfeed from neighbors.

“She hasn’t learned to speak yet, but to everyone’s astonishment she suddenly screamed ‘mom’ in her dream last night,” Ca’s mother recounted in tears.

“Now my eldest daughter-in-law takes care of Trang along with her own 1-year-old child. We can try to get over material hardship, but mental misery is much harder to survive,” Hai lamented.

Baby girl Trang is taken care by her aunt and grandmother. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Devoted traffic warden, rescue worker

In his 16 years of working with traffic accidents, Lieutenant Mai Thanh Liem, of District 12’s traffic police bureau, can’t remember how many accidents he has handled.

He not only maintains the accident scenes, but has also saved many lives after rushing them to a hospital in time.

One of these survivors is Ngoc, who sustained severe head injuries from an accident. After Liem rushed Ngoc to a hospital and returned from the accident scene, he was frustrated to find that Ngoc was still waiting to have a CT scan, as his family had yet to arrive.

Only when he had a serious ‘talk’ with the doctor was Ngoc admitted to the CT room and operation theater.

However, Liem remains distraught, as in many cases the victims were already dead when he arrived.

An elderly woman was torn apart by truck wheels, her torso and legs scattered across the road. Her child was also dead, crushed by the truck, Liem sadly recounted.

The police officer, no matter how experienced he is, couldn’t help being deeply moved by such appalling, tragic scenes.

“All I can do is hope that they rest in peace. Whether they were wrong or right, their heartrending, untimely deaths are unfair for them and their families,” Liem confided.

Not hardened to such horrifying scenes and the pitiable victims, Liem said many times he has wanted to give a good beating to the culprits, some of whom were still drunk even after causing an accident, or the youngsters who sped recklessly, loading three or four people on their bikes.

Tran Hong Thiet, from neighboring Dong Nai province, was among hundreds of people who have come to consult with Liem on how to solve accident consequences.

“Officer Liem rushed all the victims to the hospital, but unfortunately one of them didn’t make it,” said Thiet, whose relative – the person causing the accident – had to sell his house and take loans to pay the victims’ families in compensation.

True empathy

Seven years ago, when their youngest son turned 6, Liem’s wife died of cancer.

“I deeply empathize with those who are bereft of their loved ones because of accidents. Accidents not only deprive them of shoulders to lean on in hard times but also plunge many families into financial crisis,” Liem shared.

A single father struggling to take care of his motherless children, Liem fully understands the impact of tremendous losses on his children.

“I really don’t want other children to be deprived of parental love and care like mine. So I never waste a minute whenever I learn of an accident,” Liem confided.

He revealed that he was sometimes so obsessed with these tragic accidents that he couldn’t sleep. But he is hugely comforted knowing that many victims survived thanks to his prompt rescue.

“It also takes heart, sensitivity and promptness to be a traffic policeman,” he concluded.

Liem has kept a record of minor crashes and fatal accidents in two separate notebooks every year.

“Each day at work, I hope I won’t have to any entries to the book recording fatal accidents. Unlike others who want lots of work to do, I want to be jobless,” he said.

No more young casualties, please

It is a common sight in Vietnam for many parents to carry their young children on motorbikes without heeding safety rules.

They ride fast with only one hand, with the other holding their infants or toddlers or shielding the kids’ mouths from dust and smoke.

These mindless adults also let the kids stand up between them and the person sitting behind, or don’t make the kids wear helmets, as recently stipulated.

They often even carry two or three kids or even adults at the same time, ignoring the lurking danger of having accidents.