Train Crash , Hua Hin

8 killed as train derails
Driver may have dozed off, says top SRT source

Driver carelessness is suspected as a possible cause of a train derailment at Khao Tao station in Prachuap Khiri Khan which has left eight people dead and another 88 injured.

The Bangkok-bound express train from Trang derailed at Khao Tao station in Hua Hin district at 4.47am yesterday.

It left Trang at 5.20pm on Sunday and was supposed to arrive in Bangkok at 8.25am.

Twelve of 14 carriages on the train left the track, with six of them overturning and one slamming into the ground. Four carriages were badly damaged with the first railway staff car being the worst hit.

The State Railway of Thailand has estimated the damage from one of the deadliest accidents in Thai railway history to be at least 100 million baht.

The train was driven by Roengsak Panthep with Uthai Raksakhet the engineer. Mr Roengsak fled the scene.

The source said Mr Roengsak jumped the light at Wang Phong station, which is eight kilometres south of Khao Tao.

Honeymoon Britons survive horror train crash in Thailand that killed 10

By Andrew Drummond
Last updated at 5:09 PM on 05th October 2009


A pair of British honeymooners have told today of their miraculous escape when a train on the Orient Express line in Thailand crashed, killing ten people and wounding up to 50.

Richard Stroud, 43, and his bride Dawn, 34, were thrown from their beds as the Bangkok-bound train flew from the rails and collided with another train on the tracks near Hua Hin, a Thai beach resort 150 miles south of Bangkok early this morning.

The train was due in Bangkok at 08.25am. Among the dead was a two-year-old girl.

BANGKOK, Oct 12 (TNA) - The State Railways of Thailand (SRT) on Monday fired a train driver who collapsed while on duty, causing the train he was driving to Bangkok to derail in the resort town of Hua Hin in Prachuab Khiri Khan last week, leaving seven passengers dead and injuring nearly 90 others.

SRT deputy governor Pakorn Tangjetsakow, who is also chairman of the committee probing the derailment of the Route No. 84 passenger train, bound from Trang to Bangkok, said that the investigation showed that the accident was not caused by a technical glitch, but by collective human error--the train driver, an engineer and other staff.

He said driver Roengsak Phanthep told investigators that he had taken medicines for fever and allergy and collapsed without warning as the train approached the accident scene.

Mr Parorn said the train under Roengsak's control jumped the stop light at Wang Phong Station and ran at high speed to Khao Tao station in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district before derailing there.

The SRT deputy governor said the committee decided to dismiss Mr Roengsak, while the engineer and staff of the derailed train will be punished by cutting their salaries by 15 per cent for 10 months.

The government-owned railway is facing a severe staff shortage and numbers of train drivers have been unable to take holidays or sick leave.

The SRT earlier said it will request Transport Minister Sopon Zarum for permission to recruit more personnel to offset its manpower shortage, and that train maintenance will be upgraded following the worst rail incident in Thailand for many years. (TNA)