A crane collapsed at a highway construction site on the outskirts of Bangkok on Thursday, killing two people, Thai police said, just a day after a separate crane accident crushed a train and left 32 dead elsewhere in the country.
The latest incident occurred early Thursday on the under-construction Rama II Expressway in Samut Sakhon, south-west of the capital. Local police chief Sitthiporn Kasi told AFP that “two [people are] dead and no injuries” were reported.
Local media said the crane collapsed near the Paris Inn Garden Hotel, with video footage showing thick clouds of dust and debris strewn across the site after the heavy machinery toppled onto an elevated concrete structure.
The Rama II Expressway is the focus of several large infrastructure projects, including tollway construction, and has been plagued by repeated fatal accidents in recent years—earning it the grim moniker “Death Road.”
Thursday’s collapse came just one day after a far deadlier incident in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of Bangkok, where a massive launching gantry crane fell onto a passenger train below. That accident, involving a Chinese-backed high-speed rail project, killed at least 32 people.
Authorities are investigating both incidents as renewed scrutiny falls on construction safety standards across Thailand’s major infrastructure projects.
