HO CHI MINH CITY, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam saw over 370 railway accidents in 2016, declining 20 percent against 2015 but still causing big losses, the Vietnam Railways Corporation said on Thursday.
The accidents caused railway congestions for over 640 hours and late train arrivals for more than 1,200 hours, and damaged 153km of rails, 19 locomotives and 17 compartments. Some 15 billion Vietnamese dong (670,000 U.S. dollars) were spent on overcoming the incidents.
Vietnam's railway sector is striving to reduce the numbers of railway accidents, deaths and injuries by 5-7 percent this year.
The sector transported 9.7 million passengers and 5.2 million tons of cargos last year, posting year-on-year decreases of 12.6 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Last year, 21,589 traffic accidents occurred in Vietnam, killing 8,685 people, severely injuring 6,180 others, said the country's Traffic Police Department.
