SURAT THANI: A British man and his elderly father died and the man's mother was seriously hurt when their pickup truck crashed head-on with a trailer truck on a curve in Phanom district of this southern province on Friday night.
The crash occurred at kilometre maker 16 on the Ban Takhun-Phanom Road in front of Phanom Uppatham Witthaya School in tambon Khlong Cha-oun, said Pol Capt Kanthapol Srisuksai, deputy investigation chief at the Phanom police station. The incident was reported at 8.30pm on Friday.
Police and rescue workers found three injured British nationals -- two men and a woman -- trapped inside a Chevrolet pickup truck with a Phuket licence plate on the two-lane road. They were badly hurt and rushed to Surat Thani Hospital but the two men died shortly afterward.
An overturned 18-wheel trailer truck carrying wood pellets, with a Nakhon Pathom licence plate, was found lying on its side about 10 metres away. Driver Parit Limpairoh, 23, was waiting for police at the scene, which was very dark.
A police investigation found that the 44-year-old driver and his 82-year-old father were sitting in the front seat and the driver's 78-year-old mother was sitting in the cab. They were on the way to Phuket when their vehicle lost control at the curve, causing it to crash head-on with the trailer truck travelling in the opposite direction.
Police believed the driver might have not been familiar with the route. They are continuing to investigate.
Jintana Suwannarat, director of the Surat Thani office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the Thai wife of the British driver had contacted authorities to take the bodies of the two victims for religious rites at Chalerm Prakiat in Nakhon Si Thammarat.