A wheel fell off a Yellow Line monorail train and hit a taxi on Thepharak Road in Samut Prakan on Tuesday evening. No casualties were reported.
The incident happened at about 6.30pm on Thepharak Road, above which the elevated railway runs.
A rubber wheel from a Lat Phrao-bound train fell onto the outbound side of the road surface and bounced onto the bonnet of a green-yellow taxi near the Si Thepha station.
Wirat Khumsap, the 73-year-old taxi driver, said the impact gave off a deafening sound. He and his passenger were not injured but the passenger was shocked and got out of the taxi immediately.
Local police said the falling wheel was a guide wheel that normally rolled along a side of the concrete monorail beam.
It was reported that the Yellow Line service continued and the damaged train had already entered its depot.
The incident was the latest mass-transit embarrassment in the capital region, coming just nine days after a four-kilometre length of electrical conductor rail became dislodged from the Pink Line monorail on Tiwanon Road in Nonthaburi.
In that incident, three vehicles were damaged but no casualties were reported as it occurred around 4am when no trains were running.
The 30.4-kilometre MRT Yellow Line serves Bangkok and Samut Prakan, with 23 stations along the Lat Phrao and Srinakarin Road corridors. Commercial operations began in July last year.
The Yellow Line is operated by Eastern Bangkok Monorail Co Ltd and the Pink Line by Northern Bangkok Monorail Co Ltd. Both are subsidiaries of the BSR JV Consortium, a joint venture between three giant SET-listed companies: Bangkok Mass Transit System Group Holding, with a 75% shareholding; Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction, and Ratch Group, a major power producer.
The trains used on both monorail lines are manufactured in China by CRRC Puzhen Bombardier Transportation Systems, a joint venture of Canada-based Bombardier and CRRC Nanjing Puzhen.
The 30-station Pink Line is continuing its free trial service on the unaffected parts of the route until Jan 6 while it completes repairs to the conductor rail.
The damage to the taxi. (Screenshot from Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda Kamakorn Khao Facebook page)