UDON THANI - A woman passenger was killed and six other people injured when the van they were travelling in from Bangkok to Sakon Nakhon crashed into a truck loaded with sugarcane in Kumpawapi district in the early hours of Tuesday.
The fatal crash occurred at kilometre makers 406-407 on Mittraparb Road in tambon Pakho around 4.30am on Tuesday, said Pol Capt Paiboon Chaisitthikul, a duty officer at Kumpawapi police station in Udon Thani province.
The van hit the rear of the heavily loaded 10-wheel truck. Rescue workers found seven people trapped in the van and extricated them from the wreckage.
One of the passengers, a woman, was dead and was identified later as Nisai Chanruethai, 65, of Sakon Nakhon. The six others in the van, including driver Boonlom Manoram, were injured. One of them was badly hurt and rushed to a nearby hospital.
Pol Capt Paiboon said the crash scene was a two-lane road and there were no lights. Mr Boonlom, who was taken to the police station, admitted his van was travelling at high speed and said he did not see the truck in the left lane ahead of him until it was too late. He tried to shift into the right lane, but failed and the van slammed into the rear of the truck.
The police officer quoted the van driver as confessing that he had also been nodding off at the wheel at the time.
Truck driver Arkhom Olarat, 46, was unhurt. He told police he was delivering the sugarcane to a factory in the district at the time.
Police were investigating.
Rescue workers surround the wrecked van, which ran into the back of the sugar cane truck in Udon Thani while en route from Bangkok to Sakon Nakhon on Tuesday morning, killing one passenger and injuring five others and the driver. (Photo by highway police via Yuttapong Kamnodnae)