At noon on July 22, speaking with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thuong - Deputy Head of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (Dien Bien Provincial Police) said that the unit is coordinating with Thanh Yen Commune Police and local forces to deploy measures to search and salvage the crashed car.
"The preliminary plan is to deploy reconnaissance forces to accurately determine the location of the drifting car and the possibility of sinking deep. After that, divers and specialized vehicles will be arranged to lift and pull the vehicle to shore" - Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thuong informed.
However, the rescue work is facing many difficulties. The Nam Nu River in the scene area is 8-10m deep, the water flows rapidly, significantly affecting the process of reconnaissance and searching for the location of the car.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan - Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Yen Commune, Dien Bien Province said that the incident occurred at around 8:30 a.m. on July 22.
At that time, the main cable on the right side of the Pa Thom suspension bridge across the Nam Mua river, in Pa Xa Lao village, suddenly broke, causing the entire bridge surface to overturn and make it impossible for traffic.
The accident injured the pickup truck carrying 3 people and 1 motorbike driver moving across the bridge, and has now been taken to Dien Bien General Hospital for emergency treatment. Of these, 3 people were on a pickup truck and the truck fell into the Nam Nu River.
"The initial assessment of the cause of the incident was due to the impact of heavy rain, the bridge was old. The initial damage is estimated at about 1.2 billion VND, of which the cost of bridge damage is 800 million VND and the damage to pickup trucks is 400 million VND" - Mr. Tuan added.
Mr. Luong Van Phan (38 years old, Pa Xa Lao village, Thanh Yen commune) - one of the first people to be present at the scene - said that while having breakfast, he heard a very loud explosion, ran to the Nam Nua river and saw the Pa Thom suspension bridge tilted.
Seeing people floating in the middle of the river, Mr. Phan quickly swam out to rescue one of the 3 people on the pickup truck to safety, then called for help from everyone to take the injured to the commune health station for first aid.
According to the reporter's research, the Pa Thom suspension bridge was built in 2004 and has just been repaired by the Economic and Infrastructure Department of Dien Bien district (old) in 2024.
The suspension bridge is 84m long, 2m wide, with a designed load of 2 tons, this is a vital traffic route, serving the daily travel needs of people in Pung Bon, Pa Thom, Huoi Moi and Pa Xa Lao villages in Thanh Yen commune.
