Asia Highway blocked as trailer truck knocks down pedestrian bridge

The falling bridge crushed the trailer part of the truck but the driver escaped unhurt as truck cabin had already passed under the bridge.

The collapsed flyover on the northbound side blocked all the lanes but southbound traffic on the Asia Highway was not affected.

The accident led to a 10km-long queue of northbound vehicles.

Police had to spend several hours trying to reopen the road for traffic.

The Ang Thong highway office was alerted to deploy heavy equipment to remove the bridge debris.

Officials from the highway office arrived at the scene at 10.30am to start planning on how to deal with the collapsed part of the bridge.

Anek Chansombat, deputy chief of the Ang Thong highway office, said the salvage operation could take several hours.

He said the accident might have been caused by the malfunctioning of the hydraulic system of the truck, prompting the trailer part to rise and hit the bridge.

The driver, Adirek Sinphol, 55, said he had delivered construction material from Nakhon Sawan province to a customer in Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya province and was driving the empty truck back to the office when the accident occurred.

He heard a loud noise and a jolt only to find the trailer crushed under the bridge.