Ho Chi Minh City’s memorial event remembers traffic accident victims

A remembrance event was held on Sunday to memorialize victims killed in traffic accidents in 2020 which gathered hundreds of people at Ben Noc Memorial in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City.

The memorial is organized annually on the third Sunday of November.

Speaking at the event, Vo Van Hoan, the deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, declared traffic accidents as one of the pressing issues that many countries are facing.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded 2,463 traffic accidents which killed 460 and injured 1,732 others in January-October.

Hoan extended condolences to families and friends of the victims for the insurmountable griefs that they are experiencing.

He also called on each member of the public to maintain adherence to traffic safety regulations, namely helmet wearing and the avoidance of drunk driving and speeding.

Hoan underlined the significance of traffic safety education for the youth and the responsibility of schools in that process.

“We should share [the responsibility] to reduce the burden and loss for traffic accident victims and their families,” Hoan emphasized.

During the ceremony, participants queued up to offer white flowers to the dead, many of whom are families and loved ones of road accident victims.

Truong Thi My Dung, a woman from Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Chanh District, who lost both her child and her husband to traffic accidents within just three years, was reduced to tears after receiving words of consolation at the event.

“In 2017, my-17-year-old son was killed in a road crash on his way home,” Dung said as she got teary-eyed.

“The pain was insurmountable since he was too little.

“Agony struck me again a few months ago when I lost the child’s father to a traffic accident.

“Burdens seem to be only adding up in my future.”

Dung also called on all commuters to abide by traffic regulations, ensuring safety for themselves and others so that no one would have to face the same fate as hers.