I can’t hear because of the earmuffs.
This video shows an accident in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where a worker responsible for blowing away debris and dust from the road surface—following asphalt paving operations—was run over and killed by a road roller. It appears the accident could have been prevented had the middle-aged man observing from the background on the right shown just a little bit of attentiveness.
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Road Roller Accident and 727 Workplace Injuries in Vietnam
This incident involved a road roller running over a worker at a road construction site in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2024, the number of workplace fatalities in Vietnam reportedly reached 727, an increase of 28 from the previous year (Việt Nam News). By comparison, the number of workplace fatalities in Japan that same year was 755—a record low according to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare statistics. While the absolute figures are roughly comparable, Vietnam’s population is smaller than Japan’s; consequently, when viewed as a ratio to the total population, the situation in Vietnam appears more critical.
The construction industry is among the sectors in Vietnam with high rates of workplace fatalities, and Ho Chi Minh City is frequently cited as a region with a high number of such deaths. In other words, this accident occurred within a sector and region already characterized by a high incidence of fatal workplace accidents.
A study analyzing 440 fatal accidents at construction sites in Vietnam between 2014 and 2022 found that 60.4% of deaths were caused by falls from heights, 38.5% by electrocution, and 1.1% by being caught between objects. It is unclear where accidents involving heavy machinery—like the one in this case—fit into this breakdown, so they cannot be directly equated with these categories. However, issues such as unsafe work procedures and a lack of protective equipment are commonly cited across workplace accidents in Vietnam as a whole.
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