Six die including a monk in a horrific motorway smash in Uttaradit after a car driver lost control on the road

March 27, 2023 at 11:42 pm
by News Desk
in Living, Personal, Thai World, Thailand
Tweet Share Share

Officers at Nain Police Station in the Phichai District of Uttaradit were alerted on Saturday afternoon by shocked onlookers just minutes after the horrific crash between a white sedan and an oncoming six-wheeler truck.

The road carnage on Thailand’s roads continues with a shocking crash on Saturday which saw six people in a Toyota sedan car all lose their lives after the driver lost control of the vehicle on a large motorway while travelling to Chiang Mai in Uttaradit province.

6-die-including-a-monk-in-uttaradit-smash — Rescue workers on Saturday afternoon retrieved bodies from the wrecked Toyota car after they had earlier brought in crews to cut it apart to retrieve its driver, a monk from Chiang Mai who later died in Phichai Hospital.

Six people were confirmed dead by police in Uttaradit on Saturday when it is thought that a white Toyota Avanza car crossed from one side of a four-lane motorway to another, careering into an oncoming six-wheeler truck.

The accident occurred on Saturday afternoon before 2.30 pm when police and emergency services were alerted to the wreck and fearful scene on the road by passers-by.

Five men died instantly in the white Toyota Avanza car while travelling home to Chiang Mai together

The smash left the Toyota car mangled and torn apart with five men immediately dead inside and a monk, who was driving, seriously injured.

Rescue workers and police from the Phichai District of Uttaradit responded quickly to the emergency and were faced with harrowing scenes which saw emergency personnel having to lift the wrapped dead bodies to the waiting emergency vehicles.

Thailand’s road accident rate still a red light – many factors driving the carnage with no easy fix

The 7-seater sedan car is believed to have been making its way back to the Phrao District of Chiang Mai where all those travelling in the car are believed to have lived.

Two other people besides the monk, named as Phrakru Sophon Kittiyan, who was believed to be attached to the Nong O Temple in the same district of Chiang Mai, were injured and treated in hospital.

Truck driver suffered a broken leg

These were the truck driver and a passenger with the driver suffering a broken leg from the lethal impact which left the destroyed sedan in the island area between both sides of the motorways identified by police as the Asia Road Highway between Uttaradit and Phitsanulok.

Responding to the emergency, police officers from Nain Police Station in the Phichai district of Uttaradit led by Police Lieutenant Colonel Arichai Ariyasup, a deputy inspector at the station, were present at the scene.

Police name dead men from the Phrao District in Chiang Mai as the monk who was driving later died at Phichai Hospital after being cut from the wreck

The five dead men were identified as Mr Somchai Raksa, a 62-year-old from the Wiang sub-district of Phrao District in Chiang Mai which was home to all five deceased including 60-year-old Mr Tawatchai Charoenpattanakul, Mr Narongchai Inthiya, Mr Nawaphat Buajentham and 64-year-old Mr Chalong Na Tham.

Emergency workers had to use cutting equipment to extract the injured monk and bodies from the car.

Phra Khru Sophon Kittiyan of Nong Or Temple later died in Phichai Hospital where the two others, travelling in the truck, were taken after the horror smash.

Police are investigating the accident and are working on the theory that the long, straight road may have led the driver of the vehicle to fall asleep at the wheel.