A road accident in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province on Saturday night may have claimed the lives of Lao migrant workers.
According to Thairath, the Amnad Charoen-registered Toyota van lost control and crashed into a median ditch on the Mitrapap Highway while transporting eleven passengers from Amnad Charoen to Nakhon Pathom province.
The LNG-powered van then caught fire, killing ten passengers and the driver, with only one passenger surviving with minor injuries.
So far, authorities have been unable to identify the bodies due to having suffered major burns.
A source from Laos, however, suggests that several passengers may have been Lao migrant workers from Savannakhet and Salavanh provinces.
The passenger who managed to escape from the fire, 20-year-old Mr. Thanachit Kingkaew, a resident of Amnat Charoen province, was later transported to a local hospital.
He informed the officers during their visit that he had been sleeping for the entire trip until an extremely loud crash woke him up. When he awoke, the car had already been flipped over and he saw the other passengers engulfed in flames while screaming for help.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but authorities suspect that the driver may have dozed off.
