Forty-seven students and teachers were injured and the driver of their bus died when it collided with a truck in Nakhon Ratchasima on Friday night.
Police were called to the scene of a collision that took place around 10.30pm between kilometre markers 29 and 30 of Si Kew-Chaiyaphum Road.
A bus transporting 39 students and 12 staff for a field trip from Chaiyaphum province to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok reportedly rammed into the back of a sugarcane hauling truck after it crossed into the bus’s lane.
Bus driver Abhisit Boonyotha, 41, was killed and 47 passengers, including faculty and students aged between nine and 11, were injured. All of the injured were taken for medical attention at Dan Khun Thot Hospital.
The incident has been compared to a similar crash that took place in Sukhothai on March 17 last year, which resulted in two deaths and over 40 injuries. That collision also occurred late in the night.
Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) regulations do not permit the transport of students during the nighttime.
Calls for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the nighttime field trip have been raised.