CHAIYAPHUM - An interprovincial passenger bus ran into a roadside electric pole and then the front of a house near a dangerous section of road dubbed "curve of 100 corpses" in Nong Bua Rawe district on Friday morning.
The accident occurred around 6.30am on the Nong Bua Rawe-Sab Yai route at Sok Pla Duk village, said Pol Capt Jatuporn Phorkhunthod, deputy chief investigator at Nong Bua Rawe police station.
The bus, travelling from Bangkok to the Chaiyaphum terminal, was found overturned in the garden, its nose buried in the front section of the house, when police and rescue workers arrived at the scene.
There were only two passengers, a woman and her child, on the bus at the time. Both were injured and taken to a nearby hospital.
An electricity pole in front of the house and pickup truck were damaged. The accident brought down powerlines and blacked out the entire village.
Thanwalai Kaewsom, 49, owner of the house, told police that she and her family were woken by a loud crash. They quickly went downstairs and saw the bus lying on its side at the door of their house. Her pickup truck, some possessions and her newly built watermelon vending stall were wrecked.
Bus driver Sathit Parawong, 41, said a left rear tyre had burst near a curve entering Ban Sok Pla Duk. This led to him losing control of the bus, which then hit roadside trees along the route for a distance of some 100 metres before plunging into the power pole, the roadside vending stall and the house.
Pol Capt Jatuporn said the driver would be required to undergo drug testing. He was held in police custody for legal action.
Suwan Suksing, 66, said the crash occurred near the so-called curve of 100 corpses. The body of a dead person was earlier dumped there, and since then several fatal road accidents had near the curve, he said. He believed supernatural forces were at work.
A monk looks at the house in Chaiyaphum hit by an interprovincial bus on Friday morning. (Photo by Makkawan Wannakul)