Death and chaos in the streets over holiday

      The four-day vacation reached the half-way point Friday, with traffic hazards and price hikes bedeviling holidaymakers in Hanoi, Vung Tau and Da Lat.
Traffic accidents on Thursday’s Liberation Day killed six people in Hanoi, traffic police in the capital said.
The police singled out the unusually crowded streets as the main cause.
The first fatality occurred when Pham Thi Hoa crashed into the back of a car as she was driving her daughter and 6-year-old nephew. Hoa died on the spot, the girl died later in hospital, and the boy remains in critical condition.
Later that night a motorcyclist named Nam who was driving Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, 17, and an unidentified woman on the back of bike, was speeding when he slid off the road.
The two women succumbed to their injuries at hospital. None of the three had been wearing a helmet.
More than 100 mostly young people involved in serious accidents were rushed to the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi on Thursday and Friday.
Most of the 75 cases on Thursday were brain injuries, some sustained while the riders were drunk and others because they and their passengers were not wearing helmets.
The police imposed traffic fines exceeding VND140 million and wrote out some 900 tickets, 500 of them for not wearing a helmet.
Down south in Vung Tau, police on Thursday night intercepted more than 400 motorbike racers, many of them helmetless teenagers riding three to a bike.
The police had to chase down Nguyen Cong Phuoc, 15, and Nguyen Van An, 19, after the two teenage boys ignored the police whistles.
In other cases, many drunken motorcyclists tried to stop police impounding their bikes. They swore at the officers, challenged them to a fight, and threw stones at the car of officer Trinh Van Phuong.
They only dispersed when police reinforcements arrived.
Crammed and jammed
Many hotels and guesthouses in Da Lat waited until Thursday night to reveal their vacancies, and demanded five times the normal rates.
More than 25,000 tourists arrived in the city of flowers in the Central Highlands on Thursday, according to the Da Lat Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Most hotels and lodgings in the city center were fully booked, forcing some holidaymakers to find shelter up to 80 kilometers away.
Schools and office buildings with spacious grounds are making big money by charging up to VND50,000 for overnight parking.
With restaurants packed too, meal prices have doubled, even at the small inns that cater to students.
The flood of tourists Friday caused traffic jams in many streets. Some tourist spots were so crowded that latecomers had to change their itinerary.