PRACHIN BURI -- One passenger was killed and 30 others injured in an accident involving a tour bus, a van and a pickup truck on a mountain road in Nadi district early on Monday, police said.
Pol Capt Ponkhan Rattananet, the duty officer at Wang Khon Daeng police station, said the accident occurred about 1.50am at a curve near kilometre marker 210 on Highway 304 in tambon Bupram.
Survivors said the double-decker bus, plying between Ubon Ratchathani and Pattaya, lost its brakes and rammed into a van and a pickup truck travelling in front of it while going down a 45 degree slope.
The bus skidded off the road and overturned and nearly plunged into the ravine. The van also overturned, lying top-down on the road. The pickup truck slid into one side of the road.
One male passenger on the tour bus was killed. About 30 other people in all three vehicles were injured. They were sent to Nadi Hospital in Prachin Buri and Wang Nam Khieo Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Kwanmongkol Koeyphutsa, 19, a bus passenger, said he and his girlfriend boarded the bus in Nakhon Ratchasima for a trip to Pattaya. The bus left Nakhon Ratchasima about 10pm. He recalled that at the time of the accident the bus was going very fast downhill. The bus hit two vehicles in front of it, skidded off the road and hit a power pole. He was hurt when thrown out of the bus by the impact. His girlfriend had a broken collar bone.
A 12-kilometre section of Highway 304 that runs over a mountain through Thap Lan and Khao Yai national parks is accident prone, with many casualties every year.