Thailand Bus Tragedy: At Least 20 Children Feared Dead
Kanako Mita and Michiyo Tanabe
Modern Tokyo Times
A tragic bus accident involving primary school children hit Thailand.
It is feared that at least 20 children and three school teachers have died when a bus crashed and then caught fire. Reports claim that 22 children are unaccounted for – after this tragic incident happened.
The BBC reports, “The bus was one of three that were carrying children and teachers returning from a school field trip in the northern province of Uthai Thani.”
Suriyahe Juangroongruangkit (Minister of Transport) notified people that an “extremely risky” compressed natural gas was used to power the bus.
Suriyahe continued, “The ministry must find a measure… if possible, for passenger vehicles like this to be banned from using this type of fuel…”
Piyalak Thinkaew (Ruamkatanyu Foundation – search and rescue) said, “Some of the bodies we found were very, very small… The kids’ instinct was to escape to the back – so the bodies were there.”
He continued, “Initial reports said there [were] 44 onboard, 38 students and six teachers. As far as we know now, three teachers and 16 students got out.”
Channel News Asia says, “The bus was one of three carrying children – ranging from kindergarten age to around 13 or 14 years old – from Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani.”
Conflicting reports claim the death toll of children is either 20 or 22. Irrespective of the final death toll – a very tragic and sad event.
Doctors treating children who escaped claim that many have horrendous burns.
The World Health Organization says Thailand is blighted by approximately 20,000 deaths a year concerning vehicles.
The driver survived the crash and fled the scene – rather than caring for the injured.
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