Two Surin boys were run over by an 18 wheel truck after their motorbike overturned on a road where a pipe is being laid.
The friends – aged just 12 and 11 – were going to sell a fighting cock they had reared to get some pocket money in the school holidays.
They were going along the Ban Cheua Plerng to Ta Pang road in Prasat district of the north eastern Thai province.
The rider of the motorcycle, with sidecar attachment, lost control on a bend in the road. The road has a split level as a water pipe is being laid there.
The boys were thrown from their Suzuki Smash 110 bike directly into the path of a truck.
Theeradon Trongsoondee, 12, and Phansakorn Singtho, 11, were run over suffering multiple injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene.
Truck driver Jakrapong Kunrat, 31, said he had no chance of avoiding them though he tried to brake. He said in a state of shock that he was so sorry for the children.
Relatives arrived and told police that the boys raised farmyard chickens and fighting cocks to make some extra money.
They had put a fighting cock into a fertilizer sack and were on their way to sell it to a customer when the accident happened.
This is a tragic accident that will affect the lives of the boys’ families and that of the truck driver. It would appear there was nothing he could do to prevent the accident and the traumatic experience will hit him hard.
The worrying aspect of this sad story is that an 11 and 12 year old were driving a motorcycle on a main road. You see it time and again here and the only wonder is that there are not more stories like this.
Young children do not have the experience or strength to control motorcyles on busy roads. Why parents allow underage children to drive motorcycles is beyond me. With all this talk of improving road safety, it would be good if the police began to seriously target under-age drivers AND their parents.
(Source:Manager)