Thai police arrest driver in school bus fire that killed 23
· CNA · JoinBANGKOK: Thai police have arrested the driver of a bus carrying young students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in suburban Bangkok, as families arrived in the capital on Wednesday (Oct 2) to help identify their loved ones.
The bus carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school was travelling from Uthai Thani province, about 300km north of Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces on Tuesday.
The fire started while the bus was on a highway north of the capital and spread so quickly that many were unable to escape.
Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensic department, said 23 bodies were recovered from the bus. The recovery work and confirmation of the total dead had been delayed earlier because the burned vehicle, which was fuelled with natural gas, remained too hot to enter for hours.
The families were driven from Uthai Thani in vans to the forensic department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday to provide their DNA samples for the identification process.
Kornchai Klaiklung, assistant to the Royal Thai Police chief, told reporters the forensics team was working as fast as it could to identify the victims.
The driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered on Tuesday evening several hours after the fire. Police said they have charged him with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident.
The driver told investigators he was driving normally until the bus lost balance at its front left tyre, hit another car and scraped a concrete highway barrier, causing the sparks that ignited the blaze, Chayanont Meesati, deputy regional police chief, told reporters.
The driver said he ran to grab a fire extinguisher from another bus that was travelling for the same trip but he could not put out the fire and ran away because he panicked, Chayanont said.
According to the Bangkok Post, the 48-year-old driver also told police that the bus was travelling at a speed of between 70kmh and 80kmh.
The English-language daily quoted the police forensic science commander as saying that the bus had been converted from a diesel engine to run on natural gas. Citing television news, it added that the bus was first registered in 1970.
Investigators were awaiting forensic results and a report on the condition of the bus, including the gas tank conversion, before deciding whether charges would be brought against the bus operator.
In an interview with public broadcaster Thai PBS, bus company owner Songwit Chinnaboot said the bus was inspected for safety twice a year as required and that the gas cylinders had passed the safety standards. He also said he would compensate the victims’ families as best as he could.
Three students were hospitalised, and the hospital said two of them were in serious condition. A seven-year-old girl suffered burns on her face, and a surgeon said doctors were doing their best to try to save her eyesight.
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