Ministry seeks police probe into northern Vietnam bridge collapse

March 08, 2014 | 09:33

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport will recommend local police to launch a probe into a bridge collapse in a northern province that killed almost ten people and injured many other members of a funeral procession last month, its minister said Thursday.

Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said at a meeting with an investigative group that his ministry will urge the police to look into why the bridge collapsed, while dismissing conjectures that overloading is to blame.

Local media reported that eight people died and over 30 others sustained injuries on February 24 when the cables of the Chu Va 6 suspension bridge broke, throwing a funeral procession of 50 people who were carrying a coffin across it into a shallow rock stream in Lai Chau Province.

The walkway collapsed only about one year after it was open to the public, in December 2012.

Many have blamed the accident on overload, or even resonance, arguing that its loading capacity could not stand the weight of such a number of people.

But Thang said that it is impossible to shift the blame to the victims, citing a report by the group, tasked with helping the ministry to identify the cause of the accident, as saying that the bridge’s loading capacity far exceeded the weight of the entire procession.

“We will send a document to the police, prompting them to initiate an investigation into this serious accident which caused heavy causualties,” Thang insisted. “Blaming it on the victims is out of the question.”

He added that everything should be done to demand accountability from those who should be reponsible, be it the designer, builder, or project supervisor.

The investigative group must work closely with the police to determine the cause of the accident and report to him as well as announce their conclusion in the media by March 10, Thang said.

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