A CALL came tonight for modifications to be made immediately to the killer bend on Phuket on which six people died today in a tragic collision between a pickup containing Burmese celebrating New Year and a truck laden with tourists.

At least two victims died at the scene of the crash on a notoriously steep, sharp bend on the Big Buddha Hill road, the same spot where an Australian honeymooner died 16 months ago. Others today died in ambulances or after arrival at Vachira Hospital Phuket in Phuket City.

Police said that 20 people were travelling in the pick-up, 19 Burmese and Thai driver Tongdan Pewjan, 41, who was among those killed. Four females died, including two young girls aged four and 13.

Tonight seven of 14 surviving injured are being kept in hospital with serious head injuries and broken limbs. The passengers in the pick-up were workers and their families from a construction site run by well known developers Phanason at Baan Borrae in Vichit, not far from Big Buddha Hill.

The 15 Australian tourists on the Siam Safari bus travelling up the hill all escaped without injury, although three were cut by flying glass. Some of the tourists joined emergency service personnel and helped treat the injured, who were scattered across the road.

Just 16 months ago, Michael Malonzo, 26, an Australian tourist on honeymoon, died when a Siam Safari vehicle ran off the road at the same bend. Eight other Australians were injured, including his bride Aimee, a dancer, who broke her pelvis.

The tour company issued a statement after today's crash, saying the tourists were on their way to a Siam Safari elephant camp further up Nakkerd Hill, which is close to Chalong in southern Phuket.

''According to eye witnesses, a pick up truck with more than 10 passengers had gotten out of control and was coming down the road uncontrollably,'' the statement said. ''In a corner where the road is very steep, the pick up truck crashed into the side of the Siam Safari truck.''

Late today, a Siam Safari spokesman told Phuketwan that the firm had upgraded maintenance and safety standards after last year's crash and the solid bus involved in today's incident was new.

The deaths of six people was ''very sad,'' he added. The serious threat posed by the steep bend had been recognised after the fatality last year, the spokesman said, but apart from warning signs, nothing had been done to reduce the danger.

An elephant camp right on the bend also makes for a distraction as driver are braking going downhill, or on their way up. The Big Buddha now attracts hundreds of visitors each day in all kinds of vehicles, making the steep and winding six-kilometre track very busy.

At 45 metres atop 380-metre Nakkerd Hill, the Buddha has not only become a popular tourist attraction but also a place of religious devotion for Buddhists on special days.

With perhaps 200,000 Burmese working legally and illegally on Phuket, the Big Buddha often welcomes Burmese Mon, and today many on Phuket were celebrating the Burmese equivalent of New Year's Day.

Suporn Wanichkul, president of the Mingmongkol Faith 45 Foundation, which oversees the Big Buddha, told Phuketwan this afternoon that the road at the bend should have been widened after last year's crash, to make it safer.

Khun Suporn said this did not happen because barbed wire strands were strung from fence posts on the corner, indicating that someone claimed it as private land.

Although development is prohibited along the roadside above 80 metres, a number of private businesses have sprung up.

Authorities are expected to now be told to act to make the corner safer. With many Burmese unable to afford any other form of transport except pick-ups to the Big Buddha, the suggestion is likely to be made that a shuttle service should also be provided in safe buses.

Sixteen Burmese were killed when a large truck overturned in a crash on April 4 in the central province of Samut Sakhon. The truck was carrying 70 Burmese.

Today's six deaths took Phuket's road toll for the Songkran ''seven days of danger'' to eight, well above the two that authorities believed should be the acceptable statistical maximum.