7 students, driver die in horror crash
Published: 13/07/2011 at 10:17 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News
SURAT THANI / Seven youth football players from Yala and a driver were killed and 13 others injured when a van they were travelling in collided with a 10-wheeled truck in Wiang Sa district dhyesterday.
Police and rescue workers rushed to the scene and found the passenger van overturned on a section of Asia 41 Road dhbetween kilometre markers 237-238. The section of the road has been undergoing repairs.
Five students, aged 10-12 years old, and 21-year-old driver Niran Atichon, died instantly in the crash.
Two more students were found dead outside the van after being thrown from the vehicle.
Thirteen others, mainly students, were injured and rushed to nearby hospitals. The truck involved in the accident was loaded with rubber tree planks and its driver Pornchai Chamnongjit sustained injuries to his shoulders and left leg.
The crash took place at about 12.30pm when the van, carrying 18 students from several schools in Yala, was returning home after a football match for the ``Danone Nations Cup'' tournament at Bangkok's Prachanives sports stadium.
The van collided head-on with the truck at a road detour, said Bingifree Kadeh, 20, a teacher at Thessaban 4 School in Yala and football coach assistant who was in the van.
Area residents said road accidents regularly occurred in the area because two lanes on Asia 41 Road were closed to traffic for road repairs. There are no signs warning motorists to slow down in the area.
Residents threatened to blockade the road if the Highways Department did nothing to improve road safety in the area.
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