A BANGKOK-BOUND chartered bus carrying 44 passengers – including 15 foreigners –from Koh Samui plunged into a canal while crossing a bridge on Jan. 4 Four of the passengers were injured in the accident. A police report said the accident happened along Asia Road 41 in Moo 11, Ban Kwuan subdistrict, Laungsuan district, Chumphon province.

Rescuers helped the passengers get out of the bus, whose front part was submerged in a shallow canal below the Khlong Kok bridge.

A passenger told police that the bus was chartered by a tour agent to take holidaymakers coming from Samui and Koh Phangan since the normal number of bus trips to Bangkok were not enough after the New Year’s holiday. The foreign tourists on the bus were reportedly bound for Suvarnabhumi airport.

The bus driver, Pisarn Phuraya, 65, was reportedly talking constantly over the phone before the accident occurred, and police said it could have led to his loss of concentration while driving.

Police Col. Somchai Ratanaapha, superintendent of Police Region 8 Office, also said that the accident could have been caused, too, by an engine problem.  – Chat Anupan