SAMUT PRAKAN: A couple escaped with minor injuries when their pickup truck loaded with lamyai fruit plunged from an expressway onto the road below in Muang district on Wednesday.
The accident occurred at around 11.30am on an elevated section of the Kanchanpisek expressway near the Erawan Museum in tambon Bang Duan, said Pol Lt Charnwit Srianuwatphong, deputy investigation chief at Muang police station.
Police and rescue workers found an overturned Toyota pickup truck with Chanthaburi licence plates on the road below the expressway. Baskets of lamyai fruit were scattered over the road.
The driver and a woman passenger sustained only minor injuries although the vehicle plunged more than 10 metres down to the road below.
The driver was later identified as Somchai Traiprom, 32, and his wife Renu Chumjangreed, 42.
Mr Somchai told police he was driving the pickup truck loaded with lamyai fruit from Chanthaburi for delivery in Nakhon Si Thammarat. On arriving near the scene of the accident, where traffic was congested, he used GPS on his mobile phone to ask for another route.
The GPS guided him to an alternative route, he said, requiring him to negotiate a sharp bend. He then lost control of the vehicle, smashing into the barrier wall and plunging off the expressway onto the road below.
He believed he and his wife survived because Luang Pu Thuad protected them, he said. Luang Phu Thuad was a legendary and highly revered monk in the South who passed away more than 300 years ago.
Mr Somchai said he had a small statue of the late monk in his pickup truck. His wife also had an amulet of the revered monk.
The pickup truck is seen upside down on the road after it plunged more than 10 metres. (Photo: Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)
Crash survivor Renu Chumjangreed shows a statue of the revered monk Luang Pu Thuad. (Photo: Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)