Three Hong Kong tourists killed and three others injured in Thailand van crash
Three Hongkongers killed as van crashes in a bid to avoid a slowing trailer truck that was reportedly being pulled over by highway police
Government immigration officers were sent yesterday to Thailand to help a Hong Kong family which was involved in a fatal crash that killed three members and injured three other people from the city during a holiday tour on Sunday.
The accident also killed the Thai driver of the Bangkokregistered van, who was travelling on the Cha-am-Pran Buri bypass in Cha-am in central Phetchaburi province, some 170km south of the capital, when he crashed at about 5pm.
He tried to swerve from a lane to avoid colliding with a decelerating trailer truck that was being signalled to pull over by highway police a short distance ahead, the Bangkok Post reported.
The van skidded and slammed into a tree growing from a storm drain in the middle of the road.
Rescuers cut open the wreckage and pulled out all six Hongkongers and the Thai driver.
Two men and two women, including the driver, were confirmed dead at the scene.
The dead Hongkongers were a woman, her husband and her Hong Kong-based mother, who came from Thailand and was taking her family to her home town in Chumphon province.