TAK: A double-decker bus, carrying Myanmar factory workers, crashed and overturned off a highway, killing six people and injuring 44 -- 12 of them seriously -- in Muang district on Monday morning.
The accident occurred between kilometre markers 68-69 on Highway 12 (Tak-Mae Sot) at Ban Mae Ta in tambon Mae Thor, near the Myanmar border.
All 50 passengers on a chartered red bus, operated by Jongjaroen Capital Co, were workers who arrived from Myanmar recently. They were heading to a factory in Plaeng Yao district of Chachoengsao.
The bus rammed into a roadside concrete guardrail on Doi Ruak mountain, fell into a ditch and overturned.
Rescue workers used hydraulic jacks to free the injured from the wreckage. They were taken to Somdejphrajaotaksin Maharaj Hospital in Muang district.
Police identified the bus driver as Pisit Tanapakpasit, 40, who emerged unscathed. The driver was charged with speeding and reckless driving leading to deaths and injuries
The bus had left Mae Sot district about 8.10pm on Monday. It went off the highway on an accident-prone, steep and winding downhill section that is about five kilometres long at 10.50pm.
Police quoted the driver as saying that he could not slow the bus down by applying the brakes. He then struck the guardrail to slow down, but to no avail. The bus went off the road and plunged into a concrete lined ditch about five metres off the highway.
Another accident, involving a chartered bus, happened almost at the same spot between kilometre markers 68-69 on Highway 12 around 10.20am yesterday morning.
The bus, operated by Yupa Tour LP, was speeding on a steep road on Doi Ruak mountain and smashed into a roadside concrete guardrail. One of its right tyres burst and the driver lost control, ramming into police and people who gathered at the scene of the previous accident.
Manida Thanyakitrungroj, a 37-year-old labour official, was killed after she was hit and dragged by the bus against the guardrail before coming to rest on the highway.
A highway police officer was injured when he was hit by the bus and thrown into the road while the driver, identified as Lampool Kaewkliang, broke both his arms.
According to police, the driver was alone on the bus as it headed to Bangkok after sending Myanmar workers to the border in Mae Sot. Police are investigating.
The two accidents happened about five kilometres from the spot where another double-decker bus caught fire and killed 20 Myanmar workers last month.
Reports from Tak province said the bus was carrying about 50 Myanmar workers from Mae Sot province to the Nava Nakorn Industrial Zone in Pathum Thani.