At least eight people died and 18 others were injured yesterday when a Capitol tour bus collided with an overloaded police truck on national road 6 in Kampong Thom province, according to police.

Stung district police chief Yang Sam told the Post that the crash occurred at 2:30pm in Bralay commune, adding that the truck driven by border police had been filled with timber and furniture.

“Now we try to serve the injured by taking them to get medical treatment,” he said.

Among the eight dead, four had been travelling in the police vehicle, including two police officers, a soldier and the soldier’s wife, Yang Sam said. The other four dead were passengers on the bus, on which there were no foreign tourists, he said.

Capitol Bus Company could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Accoding to a report released by the Ministry of Interior in January, there were 41 traffic accidents involving buses in 2011, in which 25 people died and more than 100 were injured.

This month alone, the Post has reported on accidents involving tour buses in Battambang, Kampong Cham and Pursat provinces in which nearly 50 passengers, many of them foreign tourists, were injured.

To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at [email protected]