Northern Thailand
Truck Collides with Train in Chiang Mai, Seven Dead
CHIANG MAI – Seven people have been killed and two injured after a Chiang Mai-bound train hit their truck in Saraphi district Tuesday evening.
The accident involving a Chiang Mai-registered pickup and the Nakhon Ping express train occurred at a railway crossing in Soi Local Road near Saraphi hospital at 5.30pm during heavy rain.
The crossing was equipped with signs and warning signals but no barriers.
Police quoted witnesses as saying that the pickup carrying nine people cut in front of the moving train but was struck before it could cross the tracks. Police said the driver may not have seen the train due to the heavy rain.
Seven people, five men and two women, died instantly. Two others, one of them seriously injured, were taken to Saraphi hospital.
Police said the deceased and injured were construction workers at a nearby temple and their identities and nationalities were currently unknown as police could not find ID cards or other documents at the scene.
Meanwhile, Kritsana Buaboon a 20-year-old plumbing contractor was seriously injured when he drove his pickup truck through an unguarded railroad crossing and was struck by a Trang-bound train in Huay Yot district Wednesday.
Police said the pickup driven by Kritsana Buaboon from Phetchaburi cut in front of a packed Bangkok-Trang express train No 83 in the Lam Phura Market community late in the morning. The accident followed a train-pickup truck collision in Chiang Mai on Tuesday that left seven people dead and two injured.
The crash left Mr Kritsana stranded in his mostly wrecked pickup while the locomotive was only slightly damaged. Bystanders helped rescue him from the vehicle before paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital.