A bus driver was freed on bail yesterday, two days after five Songkran travelers died and several injured in a fatal incident the authorities are blaming on faulty brakes.
Patsadee Kamkhon, 48, was released on a THB150,000 (US$4,800) bond after the double-decker bus he was driving burst into flames on Mittraphap Highway in Khon Kaen province early Tuesday morning, killing three adults and two children.
The Land Transport Department reported that, after the investigation by an expertised Investigators from the Land Transport Department concluded that the natural gas-powered vehicle’s brake system overheated, causing a tire to blow out, pieces of which landed on a valve leading to a gas tank, resulting in a leak and fire.
The bus had set out from the northeastern province of Udon Thani in the first hours of the Songkran holiday with a destination of Bangkok. Just after arriving in Khon Kaen’s Ban Had district, its rear tire burst and the whole vehicle became engulfed in flames. Five passengers – including a 14-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl – died immediately at the scene, while 16 others suffered burns.
Patsadee was charged with reckless driving resulting in death and injury.
It was the worst accident reported during Songkran, one of two periods in the year when the media tracked always-high road fatalities. Due to the pandemic, travel was only a fraction of normal and the number killed on the roads was just 37 as of yesterday.
That was on track to be fewer killed than last year, when 167 died on the roads, which, due to the pandemic, was well under half of the 386 killed in 2019.
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