PASSENGERS in a fatal crash in which two tourists died were picked up from Phuket International Airport in a local bus while a much more modern vehicle with seat belts remained parked at a west coast resort.

Two Canadian visitors died when the local bus ran off the road about 12.40am on New Year's Day. Three others passengers, including an Australian still in a critical condition, remain in hospital today.

Sue Ma, Executive Director of IndoChine Resort and Villas Phuket, said today that some of the people killed and injured were distant relatives, but she was unaware they were coming to Phuket.

''What is mystifying is why that vehicle was used for an airport arrival pickup,'' she said. ''We usually use a big, solid van that sits eight people in safety and comfort.''

The vehicle ran off the road between Bang Tao and Surin, near Bang Tao Temple, on a winding and hilly stretch.

The latest double-fatality is likely to raise the issue of whether local buses of this kind should be used on Phuket. A crash involving a similar tourist vehicle on Phuket early in 2009 killed an Australian on his honeymoon.

Killed in the January 1 2011 crash were Canadian couple Aryporn Sunthorn, 50, and Kongseng Sunthorn, 61.

Ms Ma said that on the local bus, a pickup configured with seating in the covered rear, were three Canadians, an Australian, and her nephew from Bangkok. The vehicle was being driven by Kawachai Kanpai, 65.

She said she was alerted to the crash about 2.30am yesterday but it was hours later before the full extent of the tragedy was conveyed to her.

''Police said there was no other car involved in the crash,'' she said. ''It appears the vehicle swerved to miss another vehicle entering the road, ran off the road and hit a pole.''

Ditches run parallel to the road surface on many Phuket routes.

Photographs taken at the scene of the crash show that the local bus hit the pole head-on. This would have meant that the passengers, side-on and not wearing seat belts, would have been hurled into the flat surface behind the driver's compartment.

Those closest to the driver's compartment would have also suffered secondary impacts from other passengers being thrown against them.

''This vehicle usually takes staff on a slow shuttle over Patong Hill to their motorcycles, parked on the other side,'' Ms Ma said. ''It has never been used for anything else.

''In Australia, everybody has to wear seat-belts. There should also be a law making seat-belts compulsory here, too.''

Ms Ma said that one of the injured, an Australian, was conscious but had suffered brain damage, severely broken ribs and a punctured lung.

The other two injured in the crash also remained in intensive care, she said. Initial reports that one injured man had been allowed to leave Vachira Hospital in Phuket City have proven to be incorrect.

Ms Ma and her brother Michael opened the IndoChine at Kalim, north of Patong, in June. After establishing the brand in Singapore, other IndoChine outlets had been opened in Europe and Indonesia.

The IndoChine on Phuket had quickly created a reputation for nightlife and networking. Michael and Sue Ma were raised in Sydney after their parents migrated from Laos, but the family also has branches in Thailand and Canada.

The early-morning deaths took the road toll for the first four days of the seven-day New Year holiday period to three.

Killed when his motorcycle ran off the road into a canal near Wat Muang Mai in Thalang was Uthai Maikhong, 33.

Police say there have been 46 incidents involving injuries to 55 people, 43 males and 12 females.

A New Year crackdown has so far brought checks on 36,422 vehicles, with further action being taken in 1972 cases for people not wearing helmets or riding without a licence.