(RepublicanDaily.org) – Five people sustained critical injuries with 40 others suffering from less life-threatening wounds after a train crashed into the side of a bus in the northwestern region of Cambodia.
According to local officials, the incident occurred when the bus driver attempted to beat the train to the crossing despite hearing the horn of the incoming locomotive. The impact hit the middle part of the bus, pushing the passenger vehicle several meters before coming to a complete stop. A video circulating on the internet shows the harrowing scene where the bus attempts to cross the rails before being hit by the speeding train. Photos of the aftermath also show the bus almost split in half due to the impact.
The crossing previously had a barrier but it was broken at the time of the incident. The police chief for Cambodia’s Pursat province, where the incident occurred, General Sar Theng, said that the driver also intentionally ignored a large sign that alerting motorists to the railroad crossing ahead and cautioning them to drive more carefully. However, it is a common occurrence in Cambodia for rail crossing to have malfunctioning, broken, or no safety barriers.
Officials have placed the blame squarely on the driver, whom Sar Theng said failed to drive in a responsible manner. The police chief said that train engineers always sound the horn when approaching crossings in populated and high-traffic areas. The driver has not been found or apprehended as of press time.
The driver of the bus fled the scene of the incident, leaving the fate of his passengers to the kindness of the area’s residents and local police, who were the ones who helped the injured and transported them to the nearest hospital.
Sar Theng also told news outlets that all the passengers of the bus were Cambodian, and had hired the bus to transport them to a nature resort in the mountains.
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