Fourteen vocational students were killed, and others were seriously injured, when their pick-up truck crashed into a roadside utility power pole and overturned in Bang Phli district of Samut Prakan province early this morning.

The pick-up was a complete wreck and was found about 200 meters from the pole in Soi Kingkaew 21 of Tambon Rachatheva.

According to an initial police report, there were 18 students, from Si Sa Ket technical college, crammed into the bed of the truck. The students had just completed job training at a factory in Samut Prakan and been at a party before attending a Mor Lum concert in Soi Kingkaew 21.

Police said that the fatal accident occurred as the pickup truck was taking the students back to their lodgings. 

Quoting eyewitnesses police said that, before the accident, the ill-fated pick-up truck was racing another truck, and the driver might have lost control and hit the roadside utility pole.  

The force of the impact threw most of the students in the truck bed onto the road. 

The driver, whose identity had not been disclosed at the time of this report, was among those who were injured.

Police said they will check CCTV footage at the scene to assess the cause of the carnage and will question the driver.