Car damaged as 3-metre metal bracket falls from truck at Rama II construction site
No injuries were reported as a 3-metre-long metal bracket fell from a truck onto Rama II Road in Bangkok’s Bang Khun Tian district, damaging a passing car on Tuesday afternoon.
The Department of Highways (DOH) said the accident took place at 3.30pm at the construction site of an overpass bridge of the Bang Khun Thian-Ekachai highway on Rama II Road km13+263, heading to Samut Sakhon province.
“As construction workers were loading metal brackets used to cast concrete onto a truck, one of the brackets slid from the vehicle and slipped through the traffic barricade and onto the road,” said Itthiwat Krisanawanich, head of the DOH’s bridge construction division.
“The bracket damaged a passing Honda Civic that was travelling in the rightmost lane of Rama II Road. Luckily no one was injured.”
The damaged car was immediately removed from the area and traffic flow was restored shortly after.
Itthiwat said the construction company agreed to take full responsibility for the car’s repair costs as well as compensate the owner for not being able to use the vehicle during the repairs.
“We apologise for the accident and will employ stricter safety measures at construction sites,” he promised.
Rama II Road, which connects Bangkok to Samut Sakhon, is notorious for road accidents and unexpected objects falling onto traffic.
On the night of July 31, two people were killed and five injured when a five-tonne, 10-metre-long concrete beam fell off the U-turn bridge onto a car, while also damaging a pickup truck. The bridge, which is under maintenance, is located in front of Vibharam Hospital in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district.
On August 3, highway police blocked a section of the Rama II highway from kilometre marker 22+500 in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district to remove four loose, partly damaged slabs of a flyover. The DOH said a vehicle higher than the legal limit had hit four of the flyover’s slabs and caused them to become loose and partly damaged, which has had no effect on the bridge structure. The slabs were removed the next day with no reports of injuries.
