PHICHIT: A teenager was killed and about 50 others injured, 16 seriously, when a packed Bangkok-Nan passenger bus veered off a highway and plunged into a tree in Bung Na Rang district early on Saturday.
The fatal crash occurred at kilometre maker 60 on Highway No.117 at Dong Sai village in tambon Bung Na Rang at around 5.10am, said Pol Lt Pratchaya Thabankhong, a duty officer at Bung Na Rang police station.
Police and rescue workers rushing to the scene found the interprovincial bus overturned near a roadside ditch. The bus driver and other people on board the bus were injured and trapped in the wreckage.
Chinnakorn Sungyang, 17, believed to be a bus staffer, was found dead and almost 50 passengers and the driver were hurt. Of the injured, 16 were badly wounded. All were rushed to three nearby hospitals.
One passenger told police that he and other passengers felt the bus was shaking shortly before the crash. He did not know whether the driver dozed off behind the wheel at the time or not. This prompted many passengers to fasten their safety belts before the bus plunged off the road and hit the tree, he said.
Police were investigating.
This crash brought the total number of people killed in road accidents in this lower northern province to two, with 68 injured, on the second New Year holiday as revellers were returning to their home provinces to celebrate.
Rescue workers try to help people trapped in a bus in Phichit's Bung Na Rang district on Saturday. One teenager was killed and about 50 people injured. (Photo by Sitthipoj Kebui)
(Photo by Sitthipoj Kebui)