CHUMPHON - A pickup truck driver chasing members of a rival gang has crashed into an oncoming passenger bus in Chumphon province, killing himself and three other people.
Police received a report of a fatal accident on Route 41, the Asian Highway, in tambon Wang Tako, Lang Suan district on the morning on Jan 1, New Year's Day .
Police investigators and emergency workers found a passenger bus had crashed into an electricity pole. Inside the bus, the driver, Samrerng Chaochom, 38, had sustained a head injury. No one else on board was hurt.
Not far from the bus was a white pickup truck with three dead bodies scattered around it. One body was decapitated, and the other two had broken necks.
The pickup truck driver, Prasert Rojarat, 24, was taken to Lang Suan hospital and later pronounced dead. Eight other passengers and bystanders were seriously hurt from the crash.
Polie said their initial investigation concluded that while on the way back from the New Year celebration, the group in the pickup truck came across a rival motorcycle gang going in the opposite direction. Some of the drunken passengers then urged Prasert to follow them. They also pulled out guns and started shooting at the motorbikes, resulting in a high speed chase on the southbound route.
The pickup truck driver lost control at a curve and slammed into an incoming bus travelling on the correct side of the road. The bus driver had braked and tried to avoid the collision, running off the road and hitting the power pole.