NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: Police on Sunday questioned the 47-year-old driver about the incident following the deaths and serious injuries caused to three other passengers.
Two passengers on a tour bus died on Sunday after the driver lost control of the vehicle when it lost power on a steep incline in southern Thailand and overturned.
Police in Nakhon Si Thammarat in Southern Thailand are investigating a freak accident on Sunday involving a tour bus in which two women were killed and eighteen passengers injured.
The bus carrying passengers from Hat Yai overturned on a steep incline in the picturesque Kanom district at 11.30 am on Sunday.
Accident occurred on a hill known as Noen Thewada
Police are understood to have questioned the 47-year-old driver of the tour bus in connection with the incident.
He told them that some of the tourists on the bus had asked him to reach the height at the top of the steep hill known as Noen Thewada, famous for its views.
Tour bus began to run out of power and momentum
As the bus made its way up the hill, the driver told police officers that he began to feel that the vehicle did not have the power to reach the top.
He reduced the gear to the lowest level but even then, he felt it losing momentum.
After this, the vehicle began to fall backwards and picked up speed.
Fall back along the steep hill road at speed
The tourist bus eventually hit a tree as it fell back along the road at an increasingly high speed before turning it over on its side.
Two passengers were crushed through the impact and eighteen others injured.
All the injured passengers were rushed to local hospitals. Reports suggest that three of them are in a serious condition.
The two deceased passengers were named by police as 46-year-old Sansanee Phurangsee and 63-year-old Ajjana Nopkhunkachorn.
Both passengers were from Hat Yai in nearby Songkhla province.
Further reading:
10 Italian tourists injured in Lampang, one woman seriously, after a minibus slides off a wet road
