At least seven Thai tourists were killed and 40 others injured, some seriously, when their chartered double-decker tour bus,travelling from the northeastern province of Roi-et, crashed into a trailer truck, loaded with tapioca roots, at an intersection in Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima province Saturday morning.

One of the survivors alleged that the bus driver was speeding, scaring him and several other tourists on board to the extent that they dared not sleep.

At one point during the journey to Pattaya, he said that the bus driver appeared to fall asleep momentarily, prompting one tourist to suggest that he stop and rest for a while.

The driver declined, claiming that he was in a rush because he had to catch up with two other tour buses at Khao Hin Sorn in Kabin Buri district, said the unnamed survivor.

The driver of the tour bus allegedly failed to reduce the speed when approaching an intersection in Ban Chai Mongkol, just as the tapioca truck, travelling from Lop Buri province toward Nakhon Ratchasima, arrived at the same intersection from a different direction.

The bus collided with the trailer truck at full speed.  The force of the impact heavily damaged the bus’s front section and it tipped onto its side.  Several tourists were crushed to death.