4 killed, including pregnant worker, in van-truck crash

Rescue workers try to retrieve people trapped inside a damaged passenger van, after it rear-ended a trailer truck on Motorway Route 7 in Chon Buri early Saturday morning. (Photo: Sawang Pratheep Si Racha rescue team)

Four people, including a pregnant migrant worker, were killed, and nine others injured, when a van they were travelling in rear-ended a trailer truck on Motorway Route 7 in Chon Buri early Saturday morning. The crash occurred on the Pattaya-inbound lane in tambon Nong Khang Khok of Muang district, said Pol Lt Col Phudecha Chueman, investigation chief at Highway Police sub-division 8, who was reported at around 5am. Police and rescue workers rushing to the scene found a crashed passenger van with Bangkok licence plates with its front badly damaged.

An 18-wheel trailer truck hauling a container was found nearby. The van driver and 12 passengers were trapped inside the vehicle and were later retrieved from the wreckage. The driver, identified as Pattaradet Kaew-in, 55, and three passengers were killed, while the nine injured, five seriously, were sent to Chon Buri Hospital.

According to a police investigation, the van was carrying 12 migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar before the crash. The workers had hired the driver to take them to Chanthaburi border province for the renewal of their migrant worker cards. Truck driver Sayen Phalaphon, 50, told police that he was driving along the motorway when the van suddenly rammed into the back of his vehicle, and the brakes were not applied.

Police suspected that the van driver might have fallen asleep.

The investigation was ongoing.