NAKHON SAWAN - Four people were killed, one a monk, and five others injured when a van taking them on a pilgrimage rear-ended a trailer truck in Tha Tako district of this northern province on Wednesday morning.
The crash occurred near kilometre marker 84+801 on Highway 11 at Ban Khok Kwai Yai in tambon Donkha.
Pol Lt Col Phisol Phasuk, a duty officer, said he received a report of the accident about 7am. Police and rescuers were immediately ordered to the scene.
On arrival they reported that an 18-wheel trailer truck with Nakhon Sawan licence plates was parked on the roadside with rear end damage.
A passenger van with Bangkok licence plates was stopped on the road nearby. It was badly damaged with its roof torn off and lying on the road.
Four people were dead at the scene, trapped in the wrecked van - two men and two women. One was a Buddhist monk. Five other injured passengers had already been rushed to hospital.
The trailer truck driver, Ror Changniam, was waiting at the scene.
He told the officers he was on his way to pick up a load of sugarcane in Nong Bua district of Nakhon Sawan. He slowed down, intending to park on the roadside, and heard a loud crash as something hit the truck from behind.
He got out and went to see what happened. There was a wrecked van on the road and people trapped inside it, some of them clearly dead. There were also injured people crying out and he rushed to help them out of the vehicle.
He said one of the injured was a Buddhist monk and another the van's driver. The monk told him the driver had looked to be sleepy before the crash.
Pol Lt Col Phisol said the van was carrying monks and lay followers from Wat Phra Dhammakaya on a pilgrimage to a branch of the temple in Phichit province.
Police said the van driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Their investigation was continuing.
Part of the roof torn off the van lies on the road near the damaged trailer truck after the accident that killed four people and injured five others in Nakhon Sawan on Wednesdaya morning. (Photo: Chalit Poomruang)
