AYUTTHAYA - Sixteen elderly people were injured, eight of them seriously, when a chartered bus overturned in Wang Noi district early Thursday.
The accident occurred at 2.05am on the outbound Phahon Yothin Road at kilometre marker 64 in tambon Lam Sai.
Police and Poh Teck Tung Foundation rescuers took all of the sixteen passengers, most of them over 60 years old, and Chuwong Hutaman, the driver, to Wang Noi Hospital. Eight of the passengers were seriously injured, while the rest sustained minor injuries.
Those seriously injured were Sakda Itwikrai, 64, Supoj Wiriwipanan, 63, Suchada Itwikrai, 59, Areeporn Itwikrai, 56, Jidapa Suthisit, 65, Pornhathai Sunthornsirisopha, 65, Achara Limprasert, 63, and Piroon Wanicha-olarn, 79.
Police learned from the injured passengers that they had just returned from a tour of Taiwan. From Suvarnabhumi airport, they took a chartered bus of Nakornchai Air Co to Khon Kaen province.
Most of them are well-to-do business people of a Chinese origin in Khon Kaen's Ban Phai district.
Mr Chuwong, the bus driver, admitted he fell asleep at the wheel, causing the bus to swerve, crash on roadside concrete blocks and overturn.
He was charged with reckless driving, causing injuries.