Phuket pickup truck accident injures three people in front of school

A Phuket truck accident injured three people in front of a school on Thursday. A pickup truck overturned and crashed into another pickup truck in front of Thai Rath Wittaya School on Wichit Songkram Road in Kathu district.

CCTV footage of the incident found that the driver of a black pickup truck lost control at a curve before overturning and crashing into a white pickup truck.

Rescuers arrived on the scene to find a male driver trapped inside an overturned black pickup truck on the central reservation. The rescuers used a hydraulic cutter to free the man, who was severely injured. The rescuers rushed him to a nearby hospital.

The rescue team also found the damaged white pickup truck, along with two injured people. Their injuries were described as non-life threatening, The Phuket Express reported.

There have been a few, brutal car crashes in Phuket this year. Last month, a Polish tourist was tragically killed in a vehicle crash in Phuket’s town of Kamala. The 69 year old man crashed his motorbike into a taxi car on Patong Road.

Also last month, a motorbike and car crash in Rawai killed a Russian man, a Russian woman, and a Thai woman in the early hours of the morning. The crash happened when a big bike, a motorbike, and a taxi car all collided.

Rescuers arrived to find the damaged vehicles scattered over the road. Nearby, they found the body of the 35 year old Russian man, the big bike rider. A 29 year old Russian woman, his passenger, was found near him, and she was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

In September, a Russian man was killed after crashing his motorbike into a minivan in Phuket’s resort town of Karon. Rescuers arrived at the scene on the Karon–Patong Road to find the unconscious man lying on the road and heavily bleeding from his head. The rescuers rushed him to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Thailand’s roads are notoriously deadly. Thailand was ranked the second most dangerous country to drive in according to a driver’s educational platform. There were 21,052 accidents in 2020, and 11,138 accidents in 2021. About 20% of accidents involved motorcycles, while 8% involved six-wheel trucks, and 8% involved trucks with at least 10 wheels. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha this year announced a major goal of cutting the number of road deaths by almost two-thirds by 2027.

After the recent crash in Kathu, all three people injured will hopefully recover soon.