Truck crushes motorbike rider to death in Phuket

A tragic road death occurred in Phuket after a truck crushed a motorbike rider‘s head yesterday morning. A Facebook post with a video of the incident by Phuket Info Center read…

“At 10.39am today (March 23), there was an accident involving a motorcyclist who lost control [of his bike] and fell under the rear wheels of a truck. He was run over by the truck’s wheels and died. The incident took place on the road running along Rawai Beach in Rawai sub-district in Phuket’s main city district.”

Pongpan Nakwanit, a rescuer from Ruamjai Foundation, said the rider’s head was completely crushed by the truck’s wheels, causing him to die instantly, The Phuket News reported.

The victim’s body was transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital. At the scene, the truck driver, 58 year old Samam Kontha, was interviewed. Chalong Police are continuing to investigate the tragic incident.

This news comes only three days after another tragic death of a motorbike rider on Tuesday night.

The motorbike accident killed a woman and seriously injured a man on Phuket’s Patong-Kamala Road. After an initial investigation, police said the two were driving at a high speed from Kamala toward Patong when the driver lost control on a curve. This sent the motorbike flying and carrying the two into large rocks beside the road.

The Thailand Road Safety Committee (ThaiRSC) reported in January that as many as 939,713 road accidents were reported in Thailand last year, up 4.7% from 2021. Road accidents killed 14,737 people, and injured 924,799 last year, ThaiRSC said. The committee reported that 536 deaths and 7,885 injuries were among foreigners.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre reported 2,440 road accidents during the annual “7 dangerous days” (December 29 to January 4) when people head to their hometowns to mark the new year.

During this time there were 2,437 injuries and 317 deaths, with Surat Thani having the highest number of accidents at 79 and Kanchanaburi with the highest number of injuries at 81. Chiang Rai recorded the most deaths at 15.