Chachoengsao: Traffic chaos – six crashes in two hours. Six injured.

Six accidents, six injured. 24 vehicles damaged. A busy morning in Chachoengsao, just to the east of Bangkok.

Traffic chaos reigned in the Muang district this morning (Monday) after 24 vehicles were involved in six accidents. Six people were injured, three of them severely.

The first accident occurred in the heart of Muang district at 7.30am when a pickup truck hit a motorcycle on Marupong road, but no one was injured. The accident caused traffic congestion on that road. Then at 7.35am, a car hit the rear of a pickup truck that made a U-turn on the Bang Phra bypass road. Again, no one was injured. Five minutes later at 7.40am, nine vehicles crashed into one another’s rear ends in a domino effect involving pairs and groups of three vehicles on the flyover at the 11th Infantry Division Intersection.

The bridge is about four kilometres from the second accident scene. No one was injured but the traffic snarls worsened, especially on the road leading to the Bang Phra Intersection.

Ten minutes later at 7.50am, another nine vehicles were involved in an accident on the down ramp of the Bang Pakong Bridge on the inbound Bang Phra bypass. The scene was about 3.5 kilometres from the scene where the previous nine vehicles crashed. Three people were severely injured.

Police say the accident was caused by a truck’s brakes malfunctioning, leading it to crash into six other vehicles heading down the bridge ramp. When another vehicle slowed down, it was hit in the rear by yet another vehicle.

Ten minutes later at 8am, a pickup slowed down on the outbound Bang Phra bypass to take a look at the accident scene at the 11th Infantry Division Intersection, causing another vehicle to plough into its rear, and then that vehicle was hit by yet another car. That accident caused traffic congestion, with vehicles crawling for 10 kilometres.

And yet another accident occurred at 9.30am on the Muang Chachoengsao-bound Suwinthawong road when two motorcycles hit each other, injuring three people, said police.

SOURCE: The Nation