In a freak accident in Kampot yesterday, a man drove his moto headlong into a moving train as it was crossing National Road 3 in Banteay Meas district.

According to Touk Meas Kang Lech commune police chief Prak Mony, the accident occurred at 10am when the man, 53-year-old Sek Vy, from Kampot’s Dang Tong district, ploughed into the side of a train carriage.

“According to travellers who witnessed the accident, the victim might have been sleepy, as while he drove his motorbike, the train operator sounded his horn many times starting when [Vy] was about 100 metres away from the accident site,” Mony said, adding that Vy suffered a broken leg and was left unconscious by the crash.

The police chief said Vy was taken to nearby Banteay Meas district referral hospital, where a doctor, concerned with the severity of the head injuries, sent the victim to a hospital in Takeo province better equipped to deal with such accidents.

Contacted yesterday, the patient’s relative, Sek Borey, confirmed that Vy was in the emergency room, but his head injuries were not as bad as first thought.

“The right shin was broken, but the head is not so severe; it means that his skull is not cracked,” he said.

Since reopening to commercial traffic in 2013, Cambodia’s slow-moving train does just a few journeys per day, hauling fuel, coal, cement and container shipments between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, according to Royal Railway.