Nghe An Newspaper responds to Van Minh Company's petition regarding the information "Car causes fatal accident"

(Baonghean) -On the "Life and Law" section of Nghe An newspaper, page 6, issue dated April 13, 2012, there was an article "Car causes fatal accident" reflecting the accident between the car of Van Minh Company Limited and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan (Ky Loc commune, Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province). After the information was published on April 18, 2012, Nghe An newspaper received a response from Van Minh Company Limited requesting to correct the information.

According to Document No. 92/KN - CTVM dated April 17, 2012 of Van Minh Company Limited sent to Nghe An Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Dam Van - Director of the Company stated that: The above news report of Nghe An Newspaper is untrue, wrong in nature of the problem, causing bad consequences to the brand reputation of Van Minh Company.

Van Minh Company also said that the investigation results of Nghi Loc District Police and the scene left behind showed that the fault lies entirely with the victim, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan.

At that time, the Van Minh Company's sleeper bus did not pick up extra passengers, was driving in the correct lane, at the correct speed, and did not violate road traffic laws. As for the victim, before crossing the street, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan was standing outside the door of a container truck parked on the other side of the street to discuss something with the driver, then hurriedly crossed the street in front of the Van Minh bus without looking and paying attention, so she was hit head-on by the vehicle.

According to Van Minh Company Limited: "The fault lies entirely with Ms. Thuan, so in the incident that occurred on April 12, 2012, Van Minh Company did not have to bear legal responsibility for the victim (such as material and spiritual compensation) but only provided moral support; the driver of the vehicle was also not legally prosecuted."

In response to the petition of Van Minh Company Limited according to the Press Law, Nghe An Newspaper sent a reporter to work with the Investigation Police Team - Nghi Loc District Police to verify the content that Nghe An Newspaper stated as well as the information that Van Minh Company had provided. According to the investigation of Nghi Loc District Police and the autopsy report: The accident between the passenger car of Van Minh Company Limited and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan (the victim was Nguyen Thi Thuan, not Nguyen Thi Thuan as Van Minh Company stated in Document No. 92, dated April 17, 2012 sent to Nghe An Newspaper) occurred at 03:55 on April 12, 2012 at Km 437 + 200m of National Highway 1A, passing through Tien Phong hamlet, Nghi Yen commune, Nghi Loc district. At that time, Van Minh passenger bus with license plate 38N - 3480, driven by Vo Duc Binh (residing in Cau Giat Town, Quynh Luu District) was traveling from Hanoi to Vinh. When reaching the above road, it collided with Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan, causing her death on the spot.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Binh - the investigator directly handling the case of the Nghi Loc District Police Investigation Team, determined: This is a serious accident, but because the case is under investigation, the cause of the accident cannot be determined yet. However, if considered from the perspective of the Road Traffic Law, we see that Van Minh Company violated a number of regulations on speed. Specifically, according to Clause 1, Article 12 on vehicle speed and distance between vehicles, it is stipulated that: "Drivers and operators of specialized motorbikes must comply with regulations on vehicle speed on the road and must keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of their vehicle". Specifically, in this case, Article 5, Circular No. 13/2009/TT-BGTVT dated July 17, 2009 of the Minister of Transport stipulates that drivers of vehicles participating in road traffic must reduce their speed below the maximum permitted speed to a level that is not dangerous (can stop safely) when encountering a case of "There is a danger warning sign or an obstacle on the road". In this case, "the dangerous obstacle is a passerby and if the driver controls correctly, he must reduce speed or stop". Considering this situation, according to the testimony of driver Vo Duc Binh at the investigation agency, when he saw the woman, "the distance between the woman and me was 7 - 8m", he had enough conditions and time to reduce speed, but unfortunately, the driver failed to do so, leading to the unfortunate accident above. In addition, the driver also violated Section 23, Article 8 of the Road Traffic Law, which strictly prohibits "Acts violating road traffic rules and other acts that endanger people and vehicles participating in road traffic".

Whether Van Minh Company is legally responsible for the accident or not, has not been confirmed at this point because the case is still under investigation. As for the victim, Ms. Thuan, it has not been determined whether she was at fault or not. As for the driver Vo Duc Binh, due to the lack of results, he has not been legally prosecuted, but currently his driver's license and vehicle documents are being confiscated by Nghi Loc District Police - Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Binh added.

Regarding the fact that Van Minh Company said that Nghe An Newspaper reported "has affected the reputation, brand, and business activities of the company". First of all, the information that Nghe An Newspaper reported on April 13 was only a reflection of a traffic accident in the news series of the column "Life & Law”. The source of information is compiled by the Provincial Police Information Center and provided daily to the newspaper. The reporter has no further comments. The newspaper only states the parties involved, the cause of the accident and the victim, for readers to know, and has not concluded the case, so the Van Minh Tourism Company's claim that Nghe An Newspaper published information that affected the reputation and brand of the Company is unfounded.

On the other hand, we believe that the reputation and brand of a company must not only be reflected in the quality of customer service but also in strict compliance with the State's regulations on traffic safety and ensuring social order. Regarding this, according to the reflection of many people, right at the company's headquarters at 101 - Ly Thuong Kiet (Vinh City), the situation of Van Minh Company's passenger cars stopping and parking illegally still occurs frequently, hindering the movement of vehicles. Especially during rush hours such as late afternoon or 10 - 11 pm, due to many trips going back and forth, the pick-up and drop-off of passengers is very chaotic. According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky - Director of the Department of Transport, regularly picking up and dropping off passengers at places without parking lots is "against the provisions of the law, because according to the regulations, before running, all vehicles must go through the station". Previously, Decree 91/2009/ND-CP on business and conditions for automobile transportation business also stipulated that a transportation company wishing to be licensed to operate must "arrange sufficient area according to the business plan and ensure requirements on order, traffic safety, fire prevention and fighting and environmental sanitation". In fact, at Van Minh Company Limited, in the business registration documents there is a land lease contract for a parking lot at Mr. Chu Ngoc Quang's house (Nghi Quang commune - Nghi Loc district), but the company's cars are not usually parked at this location but at the company's headquarters at 101 - Ly Thuong Kiet (Vinh City). At the same time, at the Department of Transport Inspectorate, Mr. Tran Trong Thanh - Chief Inspector of the Department said: In the past, the Department's inspection force has repeatedly inspected the stopping and parking of Van Minh Company Limited and has repeatedly imposed fines. Most recently, at 2:30 p.m. on April 1, 2012, the inspection force fined driver Nguyen Thanh Nguyen driving a passenger car with license plate 37B - 00369 parked in front of the company headquarters for the violation: Picking up passengers in the wrong place.

Above is the response of Nghe An Newspaper regarding the content of Document No. 92/KN-CTVM dated April 17, 2012 of the Director of Van Minh Company Limited. Hereby, we would like to correct and apologize to readers for some inaccurate information in the news "Car causes fatal accident". That is, the accident occurred at 3:55 am, not 1:40 pm, the person who caused the accident was driver Vo Duc Binh, not Vo Duc Minh, and the victim was Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan, not Nguyen Thi Thuan.

Nghe An Newspaper sincerely thanks the Company for its feedback on the information provided by Nghe An Newspaper. Nghe An Newspaper hopes to continue receiving the Company's attention and feedback in the future.

PV Group