Woman dies, kids hurt in triple pileup

A kindergarten school van and a Pajero car collided, prompting a passing tour bus to swerve out of the way and crash into a roadside concrete fence in Chiang Mai's Mae Rim district yesterday, resulting in one death and 26 injuries.

Following the accident report at 8.30am, police and rescue workers went to the Ban Muang Pha to find the wrecked van from Waidarun Pattana School in the middle of road with 10 children aged 2-5 crying inside. They took the children to hospital. Several slightly injured Korean tourists in the bus were also taken to hospital while the body of an elderly woman, Wandee Mansawaeng, was found in the car's passenger front seat.

Initial police investigations found the van suddenly emerged from a soi and cut in front of the car, heading towards Mae Taeng district, and they collided violently. The passing tour bus swerved to avoid them and crashed into the concrete fence.

The scene is reported to be notoriously accident-prone as the stretch is known among locals as the "100-corpse" curve. They have been calling for the building of a road island to reduce accident risk.