Four undocumented migrant workers from Myanmar were killed and nine others injured when a pickup truck in which they were travelling ploughed into a roadside ditch and overturned near the Thai-Myanmar border in Sangkhla Buri district, of the western province of Kanchanaburi, early this morning (Sunday). The car’s driver fled the scene.
Thai emergency services, dispatched to the scene near Highway 323, between Sangkhla Buri and the Three Pagoda Pass, said they pulled the dead bodies of three men and one woman from the wreckage. Nine others were injured and were taken to Sangkhla Buri district hospital.
Witnesses claim they saw two men run away from the scene of the accident, one of them is believed to have been the driver of the ill-fated vehicle.
Police said that, after the accident, a black pick-up truck was seen picking up the two men and speeding away.
Fatal road accidents involving undocumented workers from Myanmar occur frequently, because the drivers, in most cases, have little regard for the safety of their passengers and tend drive at speed, to avoid detection and to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.
Despite the chances of being caught, losing their investmentsand being involved in road accidents, people in Myanmar, desperate to get jobs in Thailand or Malaysia, are willing to take the risks.
