Monday, December 21, 2015

Chiang Mai bus crash

PETALING JAYA, Dec 22 — Thai police have launched an investigation into the bus company involved in the crash that killed 13 Malaysians on Sunday, after it was learned that it was connected to another fatal accident in 2013.
Malaysian ambassador to Thailand Datuk Nazirah Hussain said they were in contact with the Thai police, and confirmed a probe was being conducted
“We will monitor the investigation closely,” she told Malay Mail yesterday, confirming the bus company was the same one involved in a fatal crash on October 23, 2013.
Twenty-one people were killed and 17 injured when a double decker bus operated by Weerapan Tour and Travel Limited Partnership plunged into a ravine at Wang Nua district of Lampang Province.
The passengers were mostly elderly Thais returning from prayers at Wat Ban Wang Mai Charoen Buddhist Temple. The bus collided into a guardrail before falling into the 30m-deep ravine.
Chiu Travel Sdn Bhd, the Batu Pahat based company that organised the ill-fated Chiang Mai trip, said it was not aware of Weerapan’s record.
Its general manager Terence Yung said while the company had organised the trip, it was their local agents in Thailand who chartered the bus.
“We did not know about the 2013 crash. The agents did not tell us about it,” he told Malay Mail.
Yung said it was standard practice for local agents to contract the services of multiple bus companies for tours.
“This is primarily dependent on bus availability.”
Asked if Chiu Travel would sever ties with Weerapan, Yung said its focus was now on providing assistance and comfort to the grieving family members of the deceased victims.
Thai tour guide, Pattara Promjaijom, 34, was also killed in the crash. Nine others were injured, four of them seriously.
Yung said the group had been insured for RM100,000 each and they were also entitled to hospitalisation benefits.
“We have sent two of our representatives to Chiang Mai. Our concern is to make sure the injured gets the best possible medical care and should we find that the hospital concerned cannot do that, we will look for alternatives,” said Yung.
He said the group which left for Chiang Mai on a five-day trip was supposed to have returned yesterday via Singapore.
The Bangkok Post yesterday quoted Chiang Mai governor Pawin Chamniprasarn as saying the families of the dead will receive 1.6 million baht (RM190,000) each from insurance firms and assistance from the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
Following the crash in 2013, Weerapan’s insurance company Sahamongkol Insurance Co Ltd announced it would pay five million baht as compensation to the families of the victims.
The insurance company paid 200,000 baht per deceased victim and 50,000 baht to cover the medical expenses of each of the injured survivors.
Efforts to contact Weerapan yesterday were unsuccessful, and the company is not known to have any presence outside Thailand.
A spokesman for the Association of Thai Travel Agents told Malay Mail that Weerapan was not its member.
- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/firm-in-chiang-mai-bus-crash-also-in-deadly-2013-wreck#sthash.aVRKLktg.dpuf