Thailand News Today | Drivers switch places in moving bus in western Thailand, 11 tourists injured
Phuket is getting ready for the annual road safety campaign known as ‘Seven Days of Danger.’ The campaign will be held around the New Year from December 29 to January 4.
Phuket Vice Governor chaired a meeting about the campaign at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday.
Officials will use various strategies to improve road safety during the campaign. These include prosecuting traffic law violators with maximum penalties, in order to pressure drivers to obey laws.
Other strategies will include: Marking lines on roads for drivers to slow down while approaching crosswalks, …Making traffic markings clear and Making warning signs and symbols clearly visible to drivers and pedestrians to reduce speed in “tight situations” where there is busy traffic or obstructions.
Although the official ‘Seven Dangerous Days’ are December 29 to January 4, the public relations campaign will last from December 1-21. There will also be a ‘pre-intensive control period’ from December 22-28.
Thai wildlife workers are rushing to aid a highly stressed elephant rescued from smugglers.
Border police and national park officials caught two smugglers in the Huay Yang district in the western Prachuap Khiri Khan province on Sunday.
Both men have now been charged with illegally crossing a national border with a protected or reserved wild animal.
Police and the Department of National Parks (DNT) reached out to the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) to get urgent care for the elephant. The elephant is about 30 years old, and the WFFT said in a statement that she was “highly stressed.”
But there’s a happy ending because after a good night of sleep, the elephant seems to be doing much better and more relaxed.
A career drug dealer is under arrest again in Khon Kaen, but this time his wife is also in trouble with the law.
40-year-old Samakchai and his 20-year-old wife, are now in custody after narcotics suppression police searched their rented room. Police say they found 100,000 methamphetamine pills and some ketamine. The raid came after the arrests of two other suspects named Uthai and Saowalak, both from Khon Kaen.
Police say they found 6,800 meth pills in their car with the suspects admitting that they had bought the drugs from Samakchai. According to police, Samakchai has served three jail terms already for similar offences. They say he is a major drug agent in Chaiyaphum. His last stint in jail saw his release in December 2021. Investigators say they tracked the suspect and his wife to the rented room where they were allegedly hiding out. They also seized a car and motorcycle.
Ten foreign tourists and one Thai passenger were injured in a bus crash in Phetchaburi province in western Thailand at around 3 am yesterday.
Two drivers tried to switch seats while the vehicle was still moving, causing the bus to crash into a power pole, they admitted to the police.
The white tour bus, travelling from Surat Thani to Bangkok, was carrying 19 passengers when the accident happened on the Phetchakasem Road in Khao Yoi district.
A rescue team and officers from Phetchaburi Police Station and Khao Yoi Police Station rushed to the scene to help victims who were stuck inside the bus, which ended up in a ditch on the roadside.
Eleven out of 19 passengers were injured including one Thai, three Israelis, one Swiss, four Bangladeshi, and two French tourists. The victims were treated at Bangkok-Phetchaburi Hospital and Maha Chai Phetcharat Hospital in Phetchaburi province.
Police did not say if the drivers had or would be criminally charged. However, both drivers could possibly be charged with dangerous driving causing injury.
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