An overloaded passenger van hit a trailer truck in Chaiyaphum’s Kaeng Khro district, killing 13 people on board and injuring another four on Monday morning.
Pol Col Panas Boonyanyao, superintendent of Kaeng Khro police station, said the van veered into the wrong lane and smashed into the truck loaded with cassava. The van, equipped with liquified petroleum gas (LPG) tank, then burst into flames around 5am Monday on Highway No 201, not far from Kaeng Khro police station.
The van was hired to take a visiting group of Vietnamese Catholics from Bangkok to Nong Bua Lam Phu province, home of the Saint Michael Archangel Catholic Church.
Pol Col Panas said 12 Vietnamese Catholics and a Thai driver wered killed in the crash.
Nine of the dead were men and four were women. The four injured were rushed to the district hospital.
The burnt out wreck of the van after the accident. (Image from Twitter @HungBenjawan)