PHUKET police are pursuing the road-weary driver of a tour bus that crashed on Patong Hill today, killing one man and injuring 41 other passengers, three of them seriously.

Twenty-nine-year-old Nuan was the only driver on a 1300 kilometre four-day, five night round trip from Phuket to the north of Thailand - and he overturned the two-level bus within a kilometre or so of ending the trip in Patong, on Phuket's west coast.

As Phuket police hunted the luckless driver, rescuers hailed his fellow worker, the female attendant on the bus, as a heroine. Bootsaya Kamlangmakcharoen made calls instantly to the police, to hospitals and to rescue services - and she was photographed by Phuketwan in a firetruck using the loudspeaker as she continued to mobilise helpers.

Some of the trapped had to be lifted over the upturned bus on stretchers. Foundation workers, nurses, firemen and emergency service teams co-ordinating the tricky task of prising loose the remaining victims.

Given Khun Bootsaya's performance, today appropriately marked the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Whether it also marks a change in attitude towards the concept of drilling a tunnel through Patong Hill to replace the treacherous, winding track between Phuket City and Patong remains to be seen.

Patong Mayor Pian Keesin, leading advocate of the six billion baht engineering project, went to the crash scene late this morning as police tallied the official toll: one man dead, 41 injured, three seriously.

The three badly hurt are being treated in Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City.

Thirty-six more are in Patong Hospital, which coped with the brunt of the pain because the road to better-equipped hospitals was blocked when the bus tipped over and slid on its side to the roadway verge.

One person is being treated in Bangkok Hospital Phuket, also in Phuket City.

Patong Police Superintendent Colonel Arayapan Pukbuakao of Kathu station said that no matter how much safer a Patong Hill tunnel might seem, there would still be the potential for disasters. Safety experts say virtually every road rule would need to be enforced on Phuket before a tunnel could be declared a safer proposition than the treacherous hill route.

The effect on Phuket's economy of having its main lifeline cut for hours today was being assessed. It was certainly inconvenient, with departing and arriving tourists forced to travel south via Chalong or north through Surin, but officials at Phuket International Airport detected no additional issues.

The Phuket bus tour of 55 people, led by the president of the Motorcycle Taxi Club of Patong, Somchai Neawnan, left Patong on March 2 with Khun Nuan at the wheel.

There was to be an exchange of drivers along the way, but the replacement driver called in sick, so Khun Nuan opted to go the entire distance alone.

He almost made it all the way back today - except for that final sharp turn on the Patong Hill descent.