Chinese tour minibus crashes in northern Thailand, 8 injured
A minibus carrying 30 Chinese tourists overturned in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand on Monday. Eight people were injured in the crash.
Officers from Mae Chan Police Station were informed that a minibus lost control and crashed on the Mae Chan-Fang Road in Ban Thung Thang, Pa Tueng subdistrict, Mae Chan district. Police rushed to the scene with Highway Police officers, Tourist Police officers, and rescue workers from Chiang Rai’s Saeng Thamma Sataranagusol Foundation.
Police found a minibus with a Bangkok registration plate lying on its side against the hill on the roadside. Police said that 30 Chinese tourists, male and female, were in a state of panic. Eight were injured and taken to the hospital for treatment, reports KhaoSod.
The police’s investigation so far reveals that the bus drove from Mae Ai district in Chiang Mai province to Chiang Rai before the vehicle’s tyre burst as it went around a sharp curve, causing the driver to lose control and the bus to flip. Fortunately, the bus didn’t fall off the steep slope into the abyss.
On Monday, a minibus carrying tourists from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi in western Thailand crashed into a pole when the driver fell asleep. Police from Ban Pong Police Station found 22 passengers trapped in the vehicle, including nine Thais and seven foreigners. The driver sustained a head wound and 16 passengers, including two European tourists, were injured.
Last week, a bus carrying 42 tourists from Satun province to Krabi province in southern Thailand lost control and crashed into a power pole. The driver sustained moderate injuries while 33 others sustained minor injuries, reported the Phuket Express. Everyone survived.
In April, a tour bus driver fled the scene after losing control and crashing into a lamppost on Highway 202 in Maha Sarakham province in northeast Thailand. One person was killed in the crash and 40 more were injured. Rescue workers helped trapped passengers out of the vehicle one by one, which was found lying on its side in the ditch diving the lanes of the highway.
