Siem Reap province

A FAMILY of six Cambodians who lived in France died yesterday when the car they were travelling in collided with a petroleum truck 20 kilometres outside Siem Reap town.

Pos Chantha, the deputy police chief in charge of traffic in Prasat Bakong district, said the accident occurred along National Road 6 in Rorkar

Kambot village, and that all six appeared to have died instantly.

“We have not yet come to a conclusion on the cause of this accident,” he said. “Preliminary sources indicate that the car had sped up to overtake another car and then crashed into the truck coming from the opposite direction.”

The driver of the truck, he added, fled the scene before police arrived.

He said the victims had been on their way to visit their plot of land in Lor Lei village, located in Prasat Bakong district’s Bakong commune.

He said the family consisted of three men and three women, and he identified two them as Chou Saokhun, 48, and his wife, 49-year-old Keo Tymonik. The rest, he said, were their children, Chou Khunnarith, 28, Chou Keo Reaksmey, 27, Chou Puthearith, 25, and Chou Monika, 20.

Their bodies were being held at Siem Reap Referral Hospital, he said.

Siem Reap province saw 1,558 road casualties last year, including 84 fatalities and 845 serious injuries, according to the annual report from the Cambodia Road Crash and Victim Information System.

Nationwide, there were 21,519 casualties in 12,538 crashes, including 1,717 deaths, according to the report.