Six hurt in van-truck crash

Six hurt in van-truck crash

Taiwanese tourist and 5-year-old girl among the injured in Lampang

Rescue workers retrieve injured passengers from a badly damaged van after it rear-ended a trailer truck in Sop Prap district of Lampang early Saturday. (Photo by Aswin Wongnorkaew)
Rescue workers retrieve injured passengers from a badly damaged van after it rear-ended a trailer truck in Sop Prap district of Lampang early Saturday. (Photo by Aswin Wongnorkaew)

LAMPANG: Six passengers, including a five-year-old girl and a Taiwanese tourist, were hurt when a van rammed into an 18-wheel trailer truck in Sop Prap district early Saturday morning.

The crash occurred between kilometre makers 633 and 634 on Highway 1 between Lampang and Tak at around 5am, said police.

A white van with Nonthaburi licence plates with its front badly damaged was found in the middle of the road when police and rescue workers arrived at the scene. People were trapped in the wreckage, and an 18-wheel trailer truck was found nearby.

Rescue workers managed to retrieve all six injured passengers from the van. Among them were a Taiwanese man and a girl, aged five years old. The six injured were rushed to Sop Prap Hospital. One of them, identified later as Saengduen Phueknok, 54, of Khon Kaen, was seriously hurt.

The trailer truck driver told police that while he was travelling in the left lane, he heard a loud crash at the rear of his truck. He looked back and saw the van had rear-ended his vehicle. He stopped and called police.

Van driver Pongpipat Konsombat, 33, who was unhurt, said he was driving a group of Thai and Taiwanese tourists from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It was raining and he saw something cut in front of him. He swerved to avoid a crash, but the van rear-ended the truck instead.

Police are still investigating but indicated the van driver would be charged with reckless driving causing injury.

This trailer truck was struck from behind by a passenger van. (Photo by Aswin Wongnorkaew)

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (10)