Lessons for life

(Baonghean) - Dropping out of school early, Hung joined the gold mining team and bought a motorbike. Without learning traffic laws, without a driver's license, without wearing a helmet, Hung traveled around the village. One day, while drunk, Hung drove his boyfriend to visit his girlfriend and got into an accident. The friend sitting behind him died, Hung was injured and was awaiting trial...

Vi Xuan Hung (born 1993) was born into a poor family in Cong village, Cam Lam commune, Con Cuong district. His parents worked in the fields all day and had no time to teach their children, so Hung dropped out of school early and stayed home to work with his parents.

A little older, when he was healthy, Hung followed the young men in the village to "join the army" in the gold mines to earn money for entertainment. After many years of working for hire in the commune but not earning any money, Hung decided to go to Quang Nam to mine gold for the owners. This time, he was better off than before, and the owner paid Hung handsomely. Returning home, Hung rewarded himself with a brand new Sirius motorbike that made the young men in the village jealous and envious.

Since he got a motorbike and earned some money from gold mining, Hung became a "playboy" in the village. Although he did not have a driver's license, did not study the Traffic Law and never wore a helmet, Hung traveled all day long around the village on his motorbike. Many times, this young man even rode while drunk. Mr. Vi Xuan Thuy and Mrs. Kha Thi Phuong (Hung's parents) were very impatient and tried to advise Hung to go to school, take a driver's license test, and obey the Traffic Law, but Hung ignored them all.

“That day, my wife and I were at home, Hung and his friend Ha Van Dong, who also lived in Cong village, went out drinking. With his face red and ears purple, Dong asked Hung to drive him to Tuong Duong town to visit his girlfriend. The two of them were not wearing helmets and got into a traffic accident. Dong died and Hung was hospitalized,” Mr. Thuy slowly recounted his son’s accident in October 2012.

When he heard that his son had an accident near Sang Le forest on National Highway 7A, Mr. Thuy hurriedly asked someone to take him to the scene, but his son had already been taken to the hospital. Mrs. Phuong fainted when she saw Dong die on the spot, and Hung, his face covered in blood, lying on the hospital bed, gasping for breath. The accident left the family devastated, selling all their buffalo, cows, pigs, and chickens to pay for their son's treatment. When their son was saved, they received an invitation from the police to handle the traffic accident.

According to the authorities, that afternoon, Hung's car was running at a low speed but neither of them were wearing helmets. When driving on National Highway 7, it crashed into a motorbike driven by Ngan Van Hai (born in 1993), residing in Tam Bong village, Tam Quang commune, Tuong Duong district, carrying a young man sitting behind. Hai also did not wear a helmet, did not have a driver's license and was driving in the wrong direction. Relatives of the victim Ha Van Dong said that the cause of Dong's death was because Hung and Hai were driving the motorbike in violation of the Road Traffic Law. Later, both Hung and Hai were prosecuted. At the first instance trial in early 2013, Vi Xuan Hung was sentenced to 18 months in prison, Ngan Van Hai was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Believing that the sentence was too harsh, Hai and Hung both wrote an appeal, asking for a lighter sentence and a suspended sentence.

During the days waiting for the appeals court to hear the case, the families of the two defendants ran around the village, borrowing money to compensate the victims in the hope that they would ask for a reduced sentence for their sons. After nearly half a year of running around, Mr. Thuy collected 23 million VND, Mr. Ngan Van Tan, Hai's father, borrowed 27 million VND to jointly compensate the victims' families.

Father and son Ngan Van Hai met in court.

Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of Hung and Hai. From early morning, the two defendants were brought to court by their relatives, sat neatly in the area and waited for the trial. Every time they heard the judge - the presiding judge of the trial ask about the origin of the vehicle that caused the accident, asked about the driver's license, about the helmet... both Mr. Tan and Mr. Thuy could not say a word, only sighed in frustration. "Because we could not tell our son, we thought that he earned money, bought a motorbike, so he had the right to ride, but who would have thought of this situation. I hope the court will reduce his sentence, after this traffic accident, our whole village has learned a lesson when riding a motorbike", Mr. Thuy stood up and asked the court. Sitting in the row of seats reserved for the defendant's relatives, Mr. Tan and his wife did not know what else to say: "He caused a fatal accident, my wife and I cannot live in peace, our family is already poor and now we have to borrow money to pay for it. I hope the court will reduce his prison sentence by a few months". Hearing their parents say that, Hung and Hai stood with their heads bowed in the dock, occasionally bowing down as if to apologize to their parents. During the deliberation, with the permission of the Court, Mr. Tan and Mr. Thuy ran to their son. "Dad, I'm sorry, because of me, the whole family has to suffer," Hai held his father's hand tightly.

After reviewing the case file, the jury found that in this case, Nguyen Van Hai was the one driving in the wrong direction, directly causing the accident, while Vi Xuan Hung was the victim, although Hung was driving the motorbike in violation of the Road Traffic Law, did not have a driver's license, and did not wear a helmet. Hung's mistakes should have only been handled administratively. On the other hand, the case file did not clearly show the location of the road section of the vehicle that Hai and Hung were driving. Therefore, the appellate court decided to return the file and reinvestigate the case.

Before letting the defendants and their families go home, waiting for the investigation agency to supplement the records, judge and presiding judge Mr. Vi Van Chat warned that, in recent times, the traffic accident situation has been increasing, especially in mountainous areas, where people's awareness of road traffic laws is limited. Many families who saved up to buy motorbikes did not pay attention to going to school and taking driving license exams, did not understand the regulations of the Traffic Law, thus causing unfortunate accidents. This was just a simple traffic collision but it caused serious consequences, causing the death of a young man, the defendants were also seriously injured, the poor family had to borrow money to deal with the consequences. This is also a lesson not only for the defendants but also a warning for everyone, especially people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Nguyen Khoa