Floods sweep pickup into dam in eastern Thailand, 1 survives and 2 missing

Floods swept an ice delivery pickup truck into a dam in Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand, in the early hours of this morning. The driver managed to escape and swim to safety but two Burmese labourers are still missing.

Police from Bo Win Police Station received a call at 5.30am to say that two people were missing after a vehicle was swept away by the floods. Police, rescue workers, a dive team, and a disaster response team rushed to the scene at a dam in Sri Racha district.

At the scene, police found the driver, 47 year old Somchai Namrat, who said he managed to get out of the car and swim to shore. A silver Ford pickup truck was found overturned and completely submerged in the fast-flowing water.

The driver explained that he and two Burmese labourers picked up a delivery of ice from Ban Bueng district at around 4am. On their way home, the vehicle got caught in a flood near the overflowed dam. Somchai said he lost control of the vehicle and the next thing he knew, the strong currents pulled the pickup into the water.

Somchai managed to get out of the vehicle and swim to safety. He found some villagers who helped him request help from the authorities, but he couldn’t find his two Burmese colleagues. The rescue workers arrived at 6:30am and began their search.

The rescue team got the car out of the water but have not yet found the missing two people. At 8am, the rescue workers called off the search due to strong currents and poor conditions. The search would resume once weather conditions improved, said the rescue team.

SOURCE: Thai Rath