Five people died and eight others were severely injured in a head-on accident along National Road 4 in Preah Sihanouk province this weekend, bringing an abrupt and tragic end to the journey of a truck full of wedding musicians, officials said yesterday.

“[The truck] crushed the tuk-tuk, which could not move to the other side of the road,” said Vann No, Andaung Thma commune chief.

Three people died on the scene after a tuk-tuk, which was carrying three plastic tanks filled with gasoline, and a truck carting more than 10 musicians and their instruments crashed head-on near Prey Nop district’s Andaung Thma commune, Vann No said.

Two others died at the provincial hospital.

“They were seriously injured by burns from the fire in the accident,” he said. Their bodies looked like charcoal, he added.

The tuk-tuk driver and four members of the local band OCT died.

Nine people have died in the same spot on the road over the past five years, Vann No said.