17 hospitalized after Bangkok buses collide (Photos)

By Coconuts Bangkok

Sep 30, 2019 | 3:21pm Bangkok time

Seventeen injured passengers were rushed to the hospital this morning after two Bangkok buses violently collided near the Grand Palace in the capital’s frequently visited old town area.

They were injured when a blue bus No. 524 crashed into one of the fossil-era red buses on the No. 47 route at the Na Phra Lan junction, next to the palace and Prachan Pier, at about 7:30am. Much of the front of the red bus was smashed in and several windows shattered when they struck.

The passengers were rushed to six area hospitals, but police did not specify the extent of their injuries. Though the crash occurred at a location teeming with tourists for its proximity to Wat Pho, the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha, those bus routes mostly serve Thai commuters.

Several calls to Chana Songkhram police to learn more about their investigation went unanswered today.

Thailand’s perilous roads were trending topics today after 13 people, mostly students, were killed Sunday when a pick-up truck flipped while trying to change lanes on a road in a Bangkok suburb. Graphic CCTV footage from the accident shows the passengers hurled from the truck’s bed where they had been riding and onto the road.

13 dead in Thailand after truck carrying students flips over

In the first nine months of the year, 12,194 people have been killed on the road nationwide. Slightly more than 16,000 were killed in all of 2018.

In March 2018, at least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded when a bus carrying homebound holidayers swerved off a northeastern road and smashed into a tree.

Thailand regularly tops lists of the world’s most lethal roads, with speeding, drunk driving and weak law enforcement identified as contributing factors. The World Health Organization’s most recent data showed Thailand with 32.7 road deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 12.4 in the United States.

This is a developing story and may be updated without notice.