A tragic incident occurred on Monday evening in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district, on Luang Phaeng Road, when a section of an elevated road under construction collapsed, resulting in two fatalities and injuring over ten people.
Around 6pm, an elevated road segment situated above the Wat Polmanee intersection came crashing down onto the lower roadway.
This 500-meter stretch is a component of the 2.2-kilometer Onnut-Lat Krabang elevated road initiative, commissioned by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
The debris from the fallen structure extended from the Lotus’s Lat Krabang branch to the Jorakay Noi police station.
Initial Investigations discovered that a crane lifting the four-lane concrete road piece tipped over, causing the segment to tumble to the ground.
The falling piece wreaked havoc on the vehicles below, and numerous steel structures struck adjacent commercial properties.
The Luang Phaeng Road section was subsequently closed off to vehicles, and the catastrophe also resulted in a local power outage.
Chatchaya Kamjan, an officer at the Krabang district office, reported that the first victim perished immediately upon the road piece’s collapse.
He informed that the search and rescue crew located the second victim during the site inspection, but unfortunately, the victim later passed away at the hospital.
“The injured were rushed to nearest hospitals for treatment,” Mr Chatchaya stated.
Early indications imply that the crane might have been overburdened or that a fault existed with the lifting device.
The cause of the collapse, which transpired on the western part of Bangkok, is currently under investigation by authorities. The construction of the elevated road had been ongoing since 2020.
Thailand’s construction safety performance is far from satisfactory, with mishaps frequently happening.
In 2016, a construction disaster involving a building’s collapse claimed at least 13 lives.
This incident has rekindled labour groups’ protests, who have consistently warned about inadequate safety measures and meager wages at Thai construction locations.
