Police probe cement truck crash near Phuket café
Officers blame unstable dirt road for shocking 19-tonne hillside plunge
Police have concluded that unstable terrain was to blame for a truck crash behind a café in Kathu last week, after a fully loaded cement mixer tumbled down a hillside and landed just metres from a busy coffee shop.
The incident occurred at around 12.30pm on Thursday, July 31, behind Coffee in Farm, a café across from the Tin Mining Museum on Route 3030. Officers from Kathu Police Station were called to the scene and discovered the overturned cement truck resting upside-down behind the shop.
The truck driver, 50 year old Patipat Somrak, was found trapped inside the wreckage. He was pulled from the cab, given first aid, and taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
A police investigation revealed that the ground beneath the truck had collapsed, triggering the crash. Patipat later told officers he had been delivering 3 cubic metres of concrete (about 6 tonnes) from M Concrete Company in Baan Manik to a construction site behind the café. When combined with the vehicle’s weight of 11 tonnes, the truck carried a total load of 19 tonnes.
“As the driver slowed down near the hillside road, the dirt surface gave way, causing the vehicle to plunge down the slope,” the police report stated.
Investigators found no mechanical faults or reckless driving. Instead, they pointed to the unstable road surface as the primary cause, likely worsened by recent rainfall and lack of proper reinforcement on the site’s incline.
A crane was later brought in to remove the mangled truck, while insurance officials arrived to assess the damage to the café and arrange compensation. Fortunately, no one inside the coffee shop was injured, and the building sustained only minor damage, reported The Phuket News.
Police have urged construction firms and drivers to exercise caution on hillside routes, especially during Thailand’s rainy season, when soil erosion can create hazardous conditions.
Coffee in Farm café has since resumed normal operations, with the wreckage cleared and only a patch of damaged earth left behind to mark the crash site.
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