Regional News
4 Dead, 20 Injured after Pickup Overturns in Prachin Buri Province
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PRACHIN BURI – Pol Capt Sahawat Dathong, the duty officer at Wang Takhian police station, has reported that 4 Cambodian Nationals were killed and 20 others injured when a pickup truck overturned on Highway 359 in Kabin Buri district early Sunday.
Pol Capt Sahawat Dathong, told reporters that the accident occurred at about 5am with the a small pickup that was taking 27 Cambodian migrant workers and their children, from Bangkok and Chon Buri to the Cambodian border.
The workers, hired the vehicle to take them to Sa Kaeo province to cross the border to go home.
Witnesses told police that they heard a loud noise from a bursting of a tire, causing the pickup suddenly swerved and overturned, dumping bodies everywhere from the back of the small pickup.
A man and his one year old toddler were killed instantly and two more died on the way to the hospital. Twenty other passengers were admitted to Kabin Buri Hospital.
The driver of the pickup truck fled the scene before the police arrived.
The practice of overloading vehicles and stacking multiple people into the back of pickup trucks in common practice in Thailand. Police rarely if never stop or prevent overloaded vehicles from travelling on Thailand’s roadways.
according to Section 20 of the Land Traffic Act 1979: “A driver is responsible for not letting his passengers, animals, or loads to fall, leak, give out smell, reflect light, etc, which may cause harm or danger to the public.”
The penalty for breaching this section is a fine of B500, but the fine can be much more if the driver is involved in an accident or causes injury to the passengers
– See more at: http://www.thephuketnews.com/is-it-legal-to-carry-people-in-the-back-of-pickups-and-large-trucks-53427.php#sthash.m7hauaDi.dpuf
Allowing passengers to sit in the back of a pickup truck while operating on a public roadway is banned in almost every western country.