Taxi driver killed in railway crossing crash in Bangkok, Thailand

A taxi drove through the barrier and was struck by a train at a railway crossing in Bangkok early this morning. The taxi driver was instantly killed in the crash.

Officers at Thung Song Hung Police Station received a report early this morning of a train crashing into a public taxi at the railway crossing opposite the North Park Intersection in the Lak Si district of Bangkok.

Officials from the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) travelled to the scene with officers from Thung Song and Nopphawong Railway Police Station, forensic doctors from Bhumibhol Hospital, and volunteers from the Por Teck Tung Foundation.

Police found the four-carriage Bangkok – Kaeng Khoi Junction train parked on the tracks next to a demolished yellow and green public taxi with a Bangkok registration.

Officers used cutting equipment to retrieve the taxi driver’s body from the wreckage. He was identified as Sub. Lt. Chucheep Wangthong.

An SRT employee stationed at the railway crossing said that at around 5:20am, the barrier came down to allow the train to pass through.

Suddenly, the taxi crashed through the barrier and onto the tracks, said the employee. The train driver hit the brakes but there was no chance of the train stopping in time, he said.

The SRT employee said the train crashed into the taxi and pushed it for 200 metres along the tracks, nearing Bangkok’s Bang Khen Station.

Police rushed to move the taxi wreckage off the tracks to make way for trains.

Trains hitting vehicles at railway crossings is sadly a fairly common occurrence in Thailand. Earlier this month, a car smashed through the barrier and was hit by a passenger train in Hua Hin in southern Thailand. Three people were killed in the crash and one person survived with injuries.

In November, dashcam footage captured the moment a train split an 18-wheeler trailer clean in half at a railway crossing in Lamphun province in northern Thailand.

In September, a train hit a car that crashed through the barrier at a railway crossing in Chon Buri province in eastern Thailand. One woman was killed in the crash and three more people were seriously injured.