Three vocational students were killed while on their way to receive scholarships in Bangkok when the passenger van they were travelling in crashed into the rear of a lorry early yesterday in Lampang.
The van, with 16 passengers, rear-ended a 10-wheel truck loaded with corn on Phahon Yothin Road in Ko Kha district about 1am. All on board were injured, six of them seriously.
Lampang police chief Pol Maj Gen Anucha Uamcharoen said at the accident scene that three students later succumbed to their injuries in Lampang Hospital in Muang district.
The three dead students had been studying at the Northern Mubankhru Technological College Lamphun campus and were travelling to the main campus in Bangkok, he said.
The injured van driver was identified as Techinpotch Phothong.
The driver of the 10-wheeler, Somyot Thongsri, told police he was travelling in the left lane when he heard another vehicle crash into the back of his truck.
A family of five people in a car following the van were also injured when the driver swerved to avoid the crash in front. The car hit the concrete median strip.
The car driver, identified only as Somchai, said he, his wife and three young sons were heading from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.