Twenty-four students were injured, nine of them seriously, when a modified school bus in which they were travelling skidded out of the slippery road into a roadside ditch and flipped over on the Nampong-Kranuan highway in Nampong district of Khon Kaen province on Friday.
The driver, 50-year old Mr Suwat Natenee, later told Nampong district police that it was raining while he was driving the school bus modified from a six-wheel truck with about 40 students he picked up from various villages to be sent to Nong Kung community school, Nampong and Nampong Sueksa schools in the Muang district.
Suwat claimed he was driving the bus at a speed of about 60 kph and, out of a sudden, he felt he was unable to control the vehicle because of the slippery road and applied the brake.
He said that the bus suddenly turned, skidded out of the road into the roadside ditch and flipped over, throwing several students out of the vehicle.
When informed about the accident, rescue workers were rushed to the scene and took the injured students to Nampong district hospital. Nine students were found to be seriously injured and were admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment while 15 others were given first aid and discharged.
