Southern Thailand
Tour Bus Transporting Students Crashes Killing One, Injuring Eighteen
BANGKOK – A tour bus carrying students bound for a math camp in Bangkok has run off the road hit a tree and overturned, killing one and injuring 18 students and the driver.
The tour bus crash happened in Lang Suan district of Champhon Province in Southern Thailand.
Police and Rescue workers rushed to the scene to find a male teenager dead and 19 others, mostly school boys and girls, hurt and trapped in the wreckage. They were transported to a nearby hospital, Thai media reported.
The dead teenager was later identified as 17 year-old Prompiriya Semneng, Police reported.
The 18 students,12 girls and six boys, were from Hat Yai Witthaya 2 School in Songkhla.
Jiraphat Kueakul, a math teacher at the school, told police that the school had rented the tour bus to attend a math camp in Bangkok. The buses left Hat Yai at about 5am on Tuesday.
The tour bus Driver Warodom Chudrung, 27, told police that he felt sleepy while driving and tried to drive to a rest area. However, he did not know when he fell asleep at the wheel and woke up when the bus hit a tree and overturned.
Police held the driver in custody on charges of reckless driving causing death and injuries.
Passenger Van Crash in Northern Thailand
Rescue workers release trapped, injured passengers from the wreckage of the van that crashed in Lampang’s Ko Kha district early on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, A passenger van bound for Chiang Rai has run off the road and crashed into a tree, Killing two passengers and injuring eight others.
The fatal crash occurred in Ko Kha district of Lampang in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Pol Capt Kankawee Meetham told reporters.
Police and rescue workers arriving at the scene around 4am to find a white passenger van crumpled up against a tree in the center of a ditch.
The driver and seven passengers, six men and a woman, were injured and trapped in the wreckage.
Once freed from the wreckage eight of the passengers were ruched to Ko Kha hospital.
Two other passengers were dead at the scene. They were identified as Maung Ngo, 49, and Myo Naing, 44 from Myanmar.
The injured van driver Phitsanu Sitsungnoen, 36, told police he was taking the passengers from Tak province to Chiang Rai and fell asleep at the wheel.
He said he was awoken when the van crashed into the tree after it went into the ditch.
Police said they would investigate the driver further.
Source: Bangkok Post, Thairath
