Prachin Buri 27 (TNA) – A bus taking people on a community study tour from Bueng Kan province overturned on a downhill road at Khao San Pu Tone mountain in Prachin Buri, killing 18 people and 32 others injured.
At 3am on Wednesday, police at Wang Khon Daeng were reported about the accident of a tour bus at a downhill road at Khao San Pu Tone mountain, the inbound road of Kabin Buri district. More than 40 people are trapped inside the bus. Police and rescue workers rushed to the scene to help the victims.
At the scene, police found the bus was plunged into a roadside ditch and heavily damaged. The roadside bar barriers were damaged for more than 100 meters. The police closed the road for the rescue operation, helping the trapped victims from the bus.
At that moment, police find 5-6 injured people inside the bus while 16 passengers were killed at the scene.
According to the investigation, the ill-fated bus was among a convoy of three buses carrying officials of the Porn Charoen municipality in Bueng Kan province to Rayong for a two-day inspection trip focusing on village garbage bank project.
Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered the officials to help and provide the compensation, under the regulations, to the victims for 500,000 baht each.
He said the cancellation of the study trip or field trip was not the root cause of the problem. The thing to focus was whether the safety rules and traffic rules were strictly observed or not.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences to the victims’ families.
She ordered the Transport Ministry to investigate the incident.
She said in a post on X that if it was found that there was a violation of the use of vehicles that did not meet the standards or were involved in reckless use of vehicles, legal action would be taken. She added that inspection of vehicles must confirm that the bus is safe and the bus should passed the specified standards before they were put into use to prevent further accidents and reduce losses like this again. (TNA).-813
