Over 70 hurt in truck pileup in P Sihanouk

MORE than 70 garment workers were injured in a five-truck pileup yesterday on National Road 4 in Preah Sihanouk province, with nine suffering serious injuries, and at least one in critical condition.

In Sarom, Bet Trang commune chief, said an ice truck was travelling in the same direction as the garment trucks when it tried to pass them on the left. When another vehicle heading in the opposite direction appeared, the truck moved back into its original lane, causing the five-way accident.

Y Sokha, deputy provincial police chief, originally said there were 73 victims.

“When the driver saw the obstacle in front of him, he tried to get back in the original lane, but the brake was not good,” Sokha said.

All the injured were sent to various hospitals in the province, with the critically injured worker reportedly sent to Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh.

Meanwhile, in Kandal province, a truck crashed through a barricade set up to allow schoolchildren to cross the road after the brakes failed to work. Fourteen students were hit, with three suffering serious injuries.

In a separate incident, three youths were killed instantly in the early hours of yesterday morning when a truck crashed into their motorbike in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district.

In both cases, the drivers fled.