Trailer brings down part of bridge
A trailer truck yesterday hit a beam holding up a pedestrian bridge on a major road in eastern Bangkok early yesterday, causing it to drop on a passing pickup truck and instantly killing the driver.
Traffic on the road came to a standstill for up to six hours before four cranes were brought in to remove the 30-tonne piece of concrete over to the other side of the Borommaratchachonnani Road. Southbound traffic was directed to nearby roads to ease the congestion.
The 28-wheel truck, carrying a huge oil-rigging machine, was part of a three-truck motorcade led by a police cruiser heading to the South. The two trailers behind managed to stop in time. The driver Thanongsak Sathitpao has been charged with causing death through carelessness.
However, the police cruiser, assigned to the Traffic Police Division, has disappeared. Division chief Pol Maj-General Piya Tawichai said he was looking to see if the policemen in the cruiser should also be held liable for the accident.
Eyewitnesses said the police cruiser did not stop to help and instead sped away. The trailer-truck company Lak Thong Logistics Co Ltd had hired the officers to lead the motorcade. Normally, most companies hire cruisers from the Highway Police Division to do this job.
