SA KAEO - Five elderly people were killed and 15 others injured when a van and a pickup truck collided in Watthana Nakhon district on Thursday, police said.
Pol Capt Apiwat Susuk, a duty officer at Nong Mak Fai police station, said the accident occurred at an intersection on Sa Kaeo-Watthana Nakhon Road near Moo 1 village in tambon Chong Kum.
Eyewitnesses told police that the pickup truck, filled to capacity with relatives from Buri Ram province heading for a funeral in Sa Kaeo, collided head-on with the van trying to overtake another vehicle.
The pickup truck was only 20 kilometres away from the temple where the funeral was being held.
Altogether, five people in the two vehicles were killed and 15 others injured. The dead victims, four of whom were women, were identified as Charoon Nilphan, 97, Somchit Ruangsrichart, 60, Chamoy Nilphan, 72, Prarom Poontaweep, 60, and Mak Poontaweep, 65.