SAMUT SAKHON: Two people were killed and two injured when a beam fell from a U-turn flyover onto the Rama II Highway in Muang district on Sunday night.
It occurred near the 34 kilometre marker on Rama II Highway, the Thon Buri-Pak Tho road, in front of Vibharam Samutsakhon Hospital about 8.30pm.
A huge concrete beam, about 10 metres long and weighing about five tonnes, together with its concrete rail guard. fell onto three vehicles passing underneath the flyover, which had been closed for maintenance.
The beam landed directly on top of a Chevrolet car and partly on a pickup truck and an empty oil tanker on the Bangkok-bound side of the highway.
A woman in the car's front passenger seat was crushed and killed. Its injured driver was pulled out of the car by eyewitnesses. Five people travelling in the pickup truck narrowly escaped injury as the beam crunched the front of the vehicle
Two men working on the flyover were injured, and one later succumbed to his injuries.
The collapse caused a traffic jam. Motorists could use only the frontage lanes. Highways officials closed the expressway lanes for fear of the flyover structure was unsafe.
The Highways Department closed the 29-year-old U-turn flyover on June 23 for maintenance because of wear and tear.
It was heavily used by big trucks and the surface was badly eroded, in places down to the steel reinforcing rods. The maintenance work was earlier set for completion at the end of this month.