Six people, including a local leade

Six people, including a local leader, were killed and 42 others injured when their tour bus veered off the road and smashed into a power pole in Phitsanulok’s Wang Thong district early Tuesday morning.

The bus carrying 48 members of the Takook Tambon Administration Organisation (TAO) in Surin’s Khewa Si Narin was on a field trip to Tak. The driver lost control of the vehicle and it ran off the road before hitting the power pole and overturning at kilometre marker 6-7 in Wang Thong district about 4.40am, said police.

Six people were killed and their bodies trapped in the wreckage of the overturned bus. Forty-two others sustained injuries and were rushed to four hospitals and 33 of them remained in the hospitals.

Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of the six victims, one of them was identified as Pramual Chaona, chairman of Takook TAO. The driver of the bus, who had yet to be identified, was also killed.

Pol Col Thorawat Jaem-udomchot, Wang Thong police chief, said the driver might have fallen asleep.

Prayong Khao-ngarm, 43, who was slightly injured, said the bus was swaying before hitting the roadside power pole. He was thrown out from the bus during the crash.

Police were investigating the cause of the crash.