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Last might 34 people were killed in an overnight bus trip from my home town of Buon Ma Thuot en route to Ho Chi Minh City.



The bus nose-dived 18 metres off the bridge linking Dak Lak Province with it's southern neighbour of Dak Nong. The river is running fast die to recent rains.

If you do travel use Mai Linh Express or Hoang Long -their drivers work / rest periods are strictly controlled. The buses also have event recorders on them.

The only other reliable line to Ha Noi is Sinh.

As part of an investigation of OpenTour buses two tears ago, we had 17 observers spaced out along the Ha Noi / Ho Ch Min route. We placed 2 passengers on each of three buses we observed for a week We also tracked the buses using vehicles.

Typically a bus driver would get on his bus at 17.00H in the Ha Noi bus park and then drive his bus to the pick up strip. Thew driver would then drive to Hue with two sops. The drivers assistant would usually drive the bus between the road side stopovers.

The buses arrive Hue between 08.00 and 09.00, depending on weather. The passengers were then discharged at the Camel office and the driver then took the bus to the sports arena parking lot.

The driver then gets a ride back to the Camel office where the 'sleep' until around 16.00H when they get the bus from the arena, board the passengers and depart for Ha Noi.

This is their work routine, week in and week out. No breaks, no proper sleep.

On one run a bus suddenly stopped and pulled over. The driver and his assistant got out and were working on the front of the bus. One of our riders got out and saw they were wiping red stuff from the bus. Our guy called the police and walked back along the road and he found a dead motorcyclist with his motorcycle engine still running. The police arrested and detained the driver.

The OpenTour cowboys also drive buses with poor tires. We photographed tires and tire serial numbers and kept them on a database. There were some good tires and these were always switched to buses just prior to their six month police inspections.

Remember, Mai Linh Express and Hoang Long 45-seaters are safest, don't be a statistic.