CHACHOENGSAO - Four members of a cosmetic surgery team were killed and another seriously hurt when a cargo truck rear-ended their van in Bang Pakong district late on Thursday night.
The crash happened near kilometre marker 44 on the Burapha Vithee expressway in tambon Bang Wua, said Pol Maj Bunsarit Chuaychoo, a traffic inspector at Bang Pakong police station. It was reported around 10.30pm.
Police sent to the scene found an overturned white van with a Bangkok licence plate in the left lane of the expressway. A six-wheel cargo truck with an Ayutthaya licence plate had crashed into the concrete barrier bordering the right lane. Another damaged car was behind the truck.
The accident caused heavy traffic congestion as the three vehicles blocked the Bangkok-inbound route.
Three women were found dead on the expressway. Another woman was seriously hurt. A dead man was found on the ground beneath the expressway.
Police said the van was carrying a six-member surgical team returning from Pattaya to Bangkok. It had developed engine trouble and the driver parked the vehicle in the left lane.
The passengers were waiting outside the van when a truck travelling in the left lane ran into the the rear of it. Another car then rear-ended the truck.
The crash killed three women standing near the van and seriously injured a fourth. The force of the collision threw a man off the expressway. Only one passenger was unhurt.
The dead victims were identified as the van driver Prangthip Bunsathit, 36, Kanyapat Kaewbanchong, 35 Voranit Hongsachart, 44, and Supat Wangpitakwong, 34, whose body was found on the road below. The seriously-hurt woman is Saengthong Assawathammawong, 46. The other passenger, who was unhurt, was identified as Dr Sittiwat Intarakhao, 37, a plastic surgeon from Dream Clinic, Thai media reported.
Truck driver Kriangkrai Kabai, 38, who was not injured, told police that he was on the way to Ayutthaya after delivering auto parts to a factory in Chon Buri when the accident occured.
He claimed another truck travelling ahead of his vehicle suddenly changed lanes and he then suddenly discovered there was a parked van in the left lane. He could not avert the crash, he said. A car tavelling behind then ran into his crashed truck, said Mr Kriangkrai
Putthachart Promchan, 34, driver of the other car, said he did not see the truck hit the van. He only saw the other truck shift suddenly from the left lane to the second lane before the crash.
Dr Sitthiwat told police his team had operated on a patient in Pattaya and was returning to Bangkok when the van developed an engine problem. The van was parked and the hazard lights turned on, he said.
The doctor said he was standing in front of the van making a phone call, and the others were standing beside the van, when the truck rear-ended it.
Police were investigating the crash.
The front of the cargo truck shows heavy damage after it ran into the rear of a parked van and was in turn hit from behind by a car on the Burapha Vithee expressway in Chachoengsao province on Thursday night. (Photo by Sonthanaporn Inchan)