SURAT THANI - Four people were killed and nine others injured when a box pickup truck carrying Myanmar workers rear-ended a trailer truck in Tha Chana district in the early hours of Wednesday.
The crash occurred on southbound Asian Highway 41 in tambon Prasong and was reported to Tha Chana police radio about 2.42am.
Police and rescue workers sent to the scene found an 18-wheel trailer truck with Samut Prakan licence plates stopped in the righthand lane. Parked behind it was a Bangkok-registered box pickup truck with a crumpled front.
Three people were dead at the scene, the pickup driver and two passengers. Ten other passengers were injured, six men and four women. All the passengers were Myanmar nationals.
Seven of the injured were rushed to Tha Chana Hospital, five men and two women, where one later died, raising the confirmed death toll to four. The other injured passengers, one man and two women, were being treated at Chaiya Hospital.
Police found two other Myanmar workers, a man and a woman, hiding in forest alongside the road.
Police investigators said the pickup was taking the migrant workers from Bangkok to the southern province of Phatthalung.
The pickup driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel or been driving too fast, and crashed into the rear of the loaded trailer truck travelling ahead of him, police said.
It was also suspected the Myanmar passengers were all illegally in the country. The investigation was continuing.
This box pickup truck carrying Myanmar workers was badly damaged when it crashed into the back of a trailer truck in Tha Chana district, Surat Thani, early on Wednesday. (Photo: Surat Thani rescue team)