Traffic tragedy

Four people, including a 31-year-old woman and her newborn baby boy, died in a traffic accident yesterday after the motorbike-drawn cart they were in collided headfirst with a truck in Kampong Cham’s Tbong Khmum district.

The baby was delivered by medical personnel moments after the crash while the mother was still on the wrecked cart.

Deputy district police chief Sok Savang said the woman, Ann Hom, was headed to Kampong Cham hospital early yesterday morning to deliver her baby with her mother, Seang Sorn, 63.

Savang said Hom had been screaming from labour pains during the journey. When the driver,  Noun Chhon, 51, turned around to check on her, he “lost control and ran into a lorry loaded with rice”.

He added that when medical staff arrived, they helped Hom deliver her baby before rushing her to hospital – where mother and child succumbed to their injuries. Both Sorn and Chhon died at the scene of the accident. The truck driver stopped and fled the scene of the accident. Police are still searching for him.