A garment worker died and more than 20 others were injured when the truck transporting them home on Tuesday night careened off a road in Takeo province, an official said yesterday.

The driver, 34-year-old Vorl Von, fled the scene immediately and is still on the run, according to Chhorn Troeun, deputy traffic police chief in Bati district.

Soun Vannak, a National Social Security Fund (NSSF) provincial official, said the accident happened in Bati at about 7pm after the truck’s front axle snapped, causing the driver to lose control. He identified the victim as 31-year-old Eit Phat.

“There were more than 120 workers in the truck, and 22 workers sustained light injuries, while two others were seriously injured” and taken to hospital, he said.

According to Troeun, police were still searching for the driver yesterday, “but the problem right now is that the victims told us that they don’t want to file a complaint against him".

Vannak said the NSSF gave Phat’s mother $1,000 in compensation to cover funeral costs.

Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union and an NSSF committee member, suggested the truck may have been overloaded, and said the NSSF was working with employers to disincentivise drivers from overcrowding vehicles to earn more on a single journey.

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