Photo taken on Sept. 15, 2018 shows the site of a traffic accident in Vietnam's Lai Chau province. A truck crashed into an inter-provincial coach in Vietnam's northern mountainous Lai Chau province on Saturday, killing 12 people and injuring three others, the provincial police said. (Xinhua/VNA)

HANOi, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A truck crashed into an inter-provincial coach in Vietnam's northern mountainous Lai Chau province on Saturday, killing 12 people and injuring three others, the provincial police said.

After the strong collision on Tien Binh Bridge in Cam Duong province, the two vehicles plunged off the bridge into the river.

The truck's driver lost control over the vehicle, so it broke a median strip and collided with the 16-seater coach on the opposite lane head-on.

The coach departed from northern Lao Cai province.

From January to August, 11,782 traffic accidents happened in Vietnam, killing 5,366 people, severely injuring 3,249 people and lightly hurting 5,951 others, the Traffic Police Department said.