One female garment factory worker died and at least seven others were injured when two trucks crashed yesterday in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district.

According to Trapaing Krasaing commune deputy traffic police chief Sim Prim, a truck loaded with ice struck the back of a truck transporting workers as it tried to overtake it on the right-hand side.

“Seven to eight people were injured as the trucks collided,” Prim said.

“The collision shook the workers, and one of them spilled off the truck and then the ice truck ran them over.”

Prim said that the victim was Hem Phalla, 23, a garment worker at the Berry Factory, whose body has been sent to her family.

She and the other workers on the truck hailed from Mkak commune, in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district.

The driver of the ice truck, a Hyundai, fled after the crash, Prim said.

Long the source of concern for labour rights groups, poor travel conditions for garment workers, who are often packed en masse into trucks and minivans, was thrust into the spotlight in May when a horrific crash in Svay Rieng killed 19 people.

The director of the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center, Moeun Tola, urged companies to arrange safe transportation for their workers, saying low salaries meant many sought cheap, and often dangerous, options instead.