On October 13, the People’s Court of Region 4 in Vinh Long province will reopen the case against driver Nguyen Van Bao Trung, who is charged with violating road traffic regulations. Prosecutors say his truck fatally struck a schoolgirl in September 2024. The hearing has already been postponed three times.
On August 28, the Region 4 court began the first-instance hearing. The legal representative of the schoolgirl’s family was absent, while several lawyers representing the victim’s legal rights and interests were absent without explanation, asked for a postponement or declined to participate. The panel postponed the hearing.
On September 3, the Region 4 court scheduled the case for September 17. On September 14, however, it announced another postponement, moving the hearing to September 29.
The court resumed the hearing on September 29. At the start, Nguyen Thi Hien, the victim’s mother, was unwell. She was helped out of the courtroom and taken to a medical facility. The victim’s lawyer asked for another postponement, and the panel agreed.
According to the indictment, at about 9:45 a.m. on September 4, 2024, Trung was driving a truck on Provincial Road 901. In a section of Vinh Loi Hamlet, Vinh Xuan Commune, Vinh Long province, he saw a pickup truck ahead moving toward the right side of the road.
Trung began overtaking on the left. At the same time, two 14-year-old schoolgirls, identified as T.N.X.N. and N.N.B.Tr., were riding electric bicycles in the opposite direction.
After seeing the truck cross into the oncoming lane, N. stopped. Tr., who was riding behind her, hit N.’s bicycle, fell onto the road and was run over by the truck driven by Trung. The girl died.
The scene examination, diagram and photographs established that the driver overtook without keeping watch and crossed into the oncoming lane. This was identified as the main cause of the crash.
In his statement and written explanation dated September 5, 2024, Trung admitted that he did not see the two bicycles approaching while he was overtaking. He noticed them only after completing the maneuver and could not react in time.
During the handling of the case, some law-enforcement bodies in the former Tra On district and Vinh Long province initially treated Trung’s conduct as a criminal violation before reclassifying it as an administrative violation.
On August 18, the Investigation Agency of the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam concluded its investigation and proposed charges in a case involving the failure to prosecute a person who had committed a crime. The case concerns the former police investigation office of Tra On district in Vinh Long province.
The Supreme People’s Procuracy investigation agency proposed that Department 6 of the Supreme People’s Procuracy prosecute six former police and prosecutorial officials from Tra On district.
They include Le Quoc Viet, former deputy head of the Tra On district police investigation office and now head of the logistics division of Vinh Long provincial police; Nguyen Hoang Van, former chief of Tra On district police, now retired; and Nguyen Quoc Khanh, former investigator at the Tra On district police investigation office and now an officer at Tra On commune police.
The proposed defendants also include Phan Thi Truc Ly, former deputy head of the Tra On district procuracy and former deputy head of Region 2 Procuracy in Vinh Long province; Le Phong Canh, former Tra On district prosecutor and former Region 3 prosecutor in Vinh Long province; and Huynh Minh Trung, former chief prosecutor of Tra On district and former chief prosecutor of Region 2 in Vinh Long province.
Sources: Dân Trí
