The driver was killed and 18 passengers injured when a tour coach plunged off a highway into a ravine in hilly country in Long district of Phrae province late Thursday night.
Rescue workers bring victims of the bus crash out of the ravine in Phrae province early Friday morning. (Photo courtesy of FM.91 Traffic Pro)
Police said the tour bus, licence plate number 10-7603 registered in Uttaradit province, ran off Highway No11 (Den Chai-Lampang) into the ravine in Bor Lek Long sub-district about 11.30pm on Thursday.
Rescue workers found the body of the driver, Suvichai Ketthet, 61, of Uttaradit, inside the wreck. They assisted injured passengers trapped in the wreckage. Some windows had to be broken so they could be extracted.
There were 18 injured people. The seriously injured were rushed to Phrae Hospital and those with lesser wounds were sent to Long Hospital.
Pol Lt Col Wattana Khanacharoen, chief of Long police station, said it was probable the driver's vision was obscured by fog and that he might have been travelling too fast for the conditions on the downhill section of the highway.
However, Mrs Khanthong Polsa, a 66-year-old passenger, said the driver had said at a stopover in Lampang province that the front left brake was not working properly.