Phuket Updating News
PHUKET: The death of four Swedes and their Thai driver in Phang Nga earlier this month has been followed by a pickup bus crash in which five people were killed and 24 injured.
A sixth person collapsed and died when they came upon the scene and saw what had happened, Phang Nga Police Captain Chaiyut Boonyai said today.
Most of the dead and injured were from one small village in Phang Nga, the neighboring province north of Phuket.
The crash occurred on Saturday night when the pickup, converted into a small bus for carrying seated passengers, ran off the road into a tree at speed, hurling its passengers out.
The traditional part-wooden seung taew was carrying 29 people back from a funeral on Phuket when it overturned about 9.40pm north of the regional centre of Tai Muang, on the Petchkasem Road.
People in nearby houses were alerted by the loud noise, then cries for help.
Captain Chaiyut said a 22-year-old man in a BMW car overtook the bus and clipped the side of the bus as he moved back to the left-hand side of the road.
The driver of the BMW which slewed off the wet road, was named as Danupon Chem.
One person who came upon the scene of the devastation collapsed and died, Captain Chaiyut said. It was raining at the time of the crash.
Most of the dead and injured were from the same village, Thung Maphrao.
Seung taews remain a popular form of transport around Phuket and the Andaman region, and it's not unusual to see so many schoolchildren packed onto one, with boys hanging off the back.
The phrase means twin benches and there are no seat belts, with passengers alongside each other in four rows, facing sideways.
In effect, this means that in a head-on collision, those closest to the driver's cabin are struck by all of their fellow passengers.
Road deaths on Phuket have been trending down over the past two years, although six Burmese workers were killed in 2011 when their pickup collided with a tourist bus as it headed down the hill from a visit to the Big Buddha.
The tourists' vehicle had been purpose-built and no tourists were injured.
Compliments to Nurse Jenny and to all the others who have put together and man the excellently described emergency system.
Posted by ssresident on February 20, 2012 15:06