Dinh Tien Binh, 36, is being investigated for violating road traffic laws, police in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai said Sunday.

Police said Binh was driving a truck carrying gravel when he tried to pass a car carrying HAGL FC members and running in the same direction on National Highway 14 in Chu Puh District on Saturday afternoon.

Footage from local houses' cameras showed that Binh had tried to pass the car on its left side. Then he apparently noticed a truck coming in the opposite direction, so he turned to the car's right side to pass it, only to hit the car, pushing it towards the truck from the opposite direction.

Binh was driving at 55 kph right before the crash, police said.

With the car crushed between two trucks, all its three passengers, assistant coach Duong Minh Ninh, 48, Portuguese striker Paollo Oliveira, 27, and doctor Dao Trong Tri, 29, died out the spot.

Both truck drivers were wounded and tested negative for alcohol and drugs after the accident.

The car driver, Nguyen Tu Sinh, 57, is being treated in hospital with broken ribs and shoulder blades.

"The accident happened quickly in 5 seconds," Sinh said.

When the car was hit in the back, he only had time to look in the rear mirror to see what was wrong before the car was crushed between two trucks, he said.

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC's car is crushed between two trucks in Gia Lai Province, Aug. 12, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Oanh

It was locals living in the area who pulled all the victims out of the vehicles, before the police arrived.

Dang Bao Vuong, 45, said he joined others to take the two truck drivers out first. Then they attached a chain to one of the trucks and pulled it away from the car.

"We had to use two tractors to pull the car doors out, in order to remove the car's driver and the bodies of the three passengers," Vuong said, adding that the rescue took around one hour.

Vuong said he had tried to use a crowbar to break the car's doors, to no avail.