CHON BURI--Four people were killed and another seriously injured when a passenger van they were travelling in veered off the road and crashed into an electricity pole in Muang district of this eastern province shortly after noon on Tuesday.
The accident thappened at kilometre maker 111-112 on inbound Sukhumvit Road in tambon Saensuk, in front of the Bang Phra electricity office, said Pol Lt Surchart Charoensri, a duty officer at Saensuk police station. Police were informed about 12.30pm, Thai media reported.
The driver of the van, operating between Chon Buri and Rayong, lost control and the vehicle slammed into a roadside power pole. Two men in the van on the spot, police said. One of them was van driver Kraisorn Vorasarn, 31, who suffered a broken neck and died behind the wheel. The other man, 23, was sitting beside the driver and was thrown out of the vehicle.
Three other passengers, two women and one man, were seriously hurt. They were rushed to a nearby hospital, but the women, identified later as Sukjai Srikaew, 43, and Kanya Kasemjirakarn, 55, were pronounced dead shortly after.
Witnesses told police the van was travelling at high speed, and seemed to be racing another van, when the accident occurred.
Police said they would examine footage from closed-circuit television cameras to help determine the cause of the crash.