Crash kills 25 in Thailand as road accident casualties soar

BANGKOK: A pickup truck and a passenger van were set ablaze after crashing on Monday in Thailand’s Chonburi province, killing 25 passengers and injuring 2 others, police told dpa.

All the casualties were Thai nationals, Viroj Jaemjaras of Chonburi’s Ban Bueng police station said. Viroj said the accident happened when the van took a U-turn and hit the pickup truck on the other side of the road.

The pickup later caught fire and set the van ablaze, killing and injuring passengers from both vehicles.

Viroj confirmed the drivers of both vehicles had been killed in the accident, while ruling out drink-driving as the cause of the accident.

Monday’s crash came on top of the 280 death toll reported between December 29 and January 1 as a result of road accidents, already a record high for road accidents during the so-called seven-day “watch”period over the new year holidays.

This period, between December 29 and January 4, has already seen a10 per cent increase in road accidents compared to the same period last year, said Sopon Mekthon, Permanent Secretary to the Public Health Ministry, pointing to drinkdriving as the main cause of the surge.

Despite tough laws against driving under the influence of alcohol, road accidents caused by alcohol consumption continue to increase each year in Thailand.

Last year, a World Health Organization report found that Thailand was second only to Libya for road deaths.

The UN agency estimated that around 36 people per 100,000 die on the country’s roadways, or around 24,237 people, per year. — dpa