PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: Two Myanmar nationals were killed and 12 others hurt when a pickup truck carrying illegal migrant workers crashed into a roadside light pole at a curve in Muang district late Friday night. The driver fled.
The accident occurred at the Thung Khed curve on a road at Nong Kaprao village in tambon Koh La, said Pol Lt Col Yoswaris Thongsongsom, investigation chief at the Muang police station, who was alerted at 10pm.
A police investigation found that the pickup struck a light pole and plunged into the bushes about one metre below the side of the road.
The force of the crash threw most of the passengers out of the vehicle. Two men, aged between 30 and 40, were killed and 12 others hurt. All were Myanmar migrants. They had no official work permits.
The driver, whose name is not yet known, fled.
Some migrants who suffered minor injuries told police via an interpreter that there were 26 people on board the pickup. They said they had sneaked into the country via a pass in the Tanaosri mountain range.
An agent had arranged two pickup trucks to pick them up at the border. When the truck they had boarded arrived at the curve, the driver lost control, causing the vehicle to hit the pole, they said.
All of the migrants were destined for Malaysia, police said.
Police radioed officers along the route to block the second pickup carrying an unknown number of illegal migrants as it was heading south.