PHUKET: Police are pursuing a charge of dangerous driving against the driver of a concrete truck involved in a crash that killed one Australian tourist and injured his companion on their scenic ride on a newly-hired motorcycle through a quiet part of Phuket.

The Phuket police officer handling the case, Lieutenant Praman Rattaphan, said today that he believed the two men may even have already have fallen and been on the road when the empty concrete truck hit them and the expensive rented ''big bike'' motorcycle.

''There were no signs of damage to the concrete truck so either the motorcycle was already on the road or the bike fell just before the crash and went under the truck,'' Lieutenant Praman said.

Efforts by the motorcycle's owner to recover the cost of the motorcycle, which he said was valued at 300,000 baht, appear to have come to an end, Lieutenant Praman said.

''I advised him that he was unlikely to succeed in any claim made on the dead man's family in Australia,'' the officer said.

The family of Barry Saunders, 48, flew off Phuket with his ashes, along with his injured friend Peter, before a mediation session with the owner of the motorcycle could take place.

At the mediation session, scheduled for Cherng Talay Police Station the day after the Australians flew out, the owner of the hired motorcycle was planning to seek compensation for his uninsured vehicle, a 600cc big bike which he valued at 300,000 baht.

The man had previously made his wishes known to the family at Mr Saunders' cremation ceremony at a Phuket temple.

Mr Saunders died in a Phuket hospital on May 27, hours after the crash in the central Phuket Bangjo district, not far from Phuket's famous Heroine's Monument, on a road lined with rubber plantations.

Local concrete trucks are reputed to take liberties on the quiet, curling stretch of road.

The holidaying Australian friends had arrived in Bangkok on May 9, moving on to Phuket on May 17. They had been staying in an apartment in the Nanai district of Patong, on Phuket's popular west coast, hiring the big bike on the morning of May 27 and crashing it that afternoon.

It is believed the first people on the scene propped Mr Saunders in a sitting position against a tree, something that paramedics say is not advisable.

Mr Saunders' friend Peter required extensive treatment and paid all his medical bills before checking out of Phuket City's Vachira Hospital.

Phuket's road toll is down slightly on figures for the same time last year.