Nine injured as tour bus skids off road in multi-vehicle collision

Nine tourists were injured when a tour bus skidded off the road in a multi-vehicle collision in Thailand.

The bus was said to have lost control on Highway No. 304 following heavy rain in Nakhon Ratchasima on May 12.

Passengers screamed as it skidded across the wet pavement before colliding with a pickup truck and an oil tanker.

A rescue team rushed to the scene along the Rayong–Pattaya–Ubon Ratchathani route, where they found the wrecked tour bus on the roadside, with its front end heavily damaged.

Officers evacuated the passengers. They said nine people, including the driver, were injured.

The driver was trapped behind an airbag that had deployed, and rescuers had to use cutting tools to extract him.

A police officer said slippery road conditions may have caused the multi-vehicle accident.

He added: 'The initial cause of the accident is believed to be slippery roads due to heavy rain, causing the bus to lose control and resulting in the accident. However, the police will conduct further investigations to determine the true cause of the accident.'

Thailand has one of the world's worst road safety records. Ministers have set the goal of reducing fatalities from 32.7 deaths per 100,000 people to 12 per 100,000 people by the year 2027.

However, a lack of road safety education in schools, along with notoriously easy driving tests, police failures to enforce road laws, and chronic under-investment in infrastructure, all appear to hamper the efforts.