Cross-continental cyclist killed in Korat crash
NAKHON RATCHASIMA — A Chilean inter-continental cyclist who expected to complete a world record this year was killed when hit by a pickup truck on Mittraphap Road on Saturday afternoon. His Singaporean wife and two-year-old son Lucas sustained minor injuries.
Police said the Chilean was Francisco Villa, aged 48.
Villa and his family had made a rest stop at a police checkpoint in Khon Kaen's Phon district on Saturday morning before heading off to Nakhon Ratchasima with the bicycle pulling a carriage. Before they left the checkpoint, Villa told a policeman he would later travel to Australia.
The accident happened when a speeding pickup truck driven by Tiwarat Ratchaipidet, aged 64, scraped the bicycle on the roadside. The cyclist was thrown from the bicycle and died on the spot. His body was sent to Bua Yai Hospital for autopsy.
The bicycle was totally destroyed, while the pickup truck crashed into a ditch and overturned.
Mr Tiwarat, who escaped unscathed, told police he was travelling from Khon Kaen to Nakhon Ratchasima and did not see the bicycle. Police have charged him with careless driving resulting in death and injury.
According to a sign on the bicycle set-up, Villa planned to set a Guinness World Record by cycling 250,000 kilometres around the world in five years. The unsponsored around-the-world bike trip started in November 2010 and the Chilean had cycled about 140,000 kilometres. The sign also said the Chilean met his wife along the way and had rested while she had a baby.
Pol Col Torsak Thammingmongkol, superintendent of Bua Lai police station in Nakhon Ratchasima, said the cyclist's wife wanted her husband's funeral to be held in Thailand.
In 2013, round-the-world British cyclists Peter Root and Mary Thompson died when they were struck by a pickup truck in Chachoengsao. The pickup truck driver admitted that his vehicle hit the British couple while he was reaching down to pick up a mobile phone.