Two men were seriously injured after their lorry collided with a train travelling to Sihanoukville in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district in the early hours of Monday.
Chief of the Sen Sok district traffic department Tin Sovan told The Post that the men were taken to hospital to be treated for leg injuries following the crash. Passengers on the train were not hurt.
“According to a witness, the accident was caused by the driver of the lorry driving recklessly,” Sovan said.
The lorry was impounded by traffic police pending an investigation. The train made its way safely to Sihanoukville.
Sovan said the lorry was travelling south on Hanoi Street and failed to slow down as it approached the railway crossing with the train approaching. Despite the train driver sounding his horn numerous times to alert the driver, the lorry continued at high speed before hitting the train.
The truck shot back from the force of the impact and crashed into two cars parked outside houses, badly damaging them.
The driver and his porter were trapped in the lorry’s cab with their legs crushed, before being freed by residents, including the owners of the damaged cars, who took them to the hospital.
There have been four accidents involving trains in Sen Sok so far this year, Sovan said. In two, cars had hit trains. In the others, trains had collided with a car and a PassApp tuk-tuk. None resulted in death.
On Wednesday, Ouk Ourk, the director of the Railway Department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, told The Post that he was unaware of Monday’s collision.
However, he said that when minor incidents occurred, Royal Railways, which operates Cambodia’s rail network, sought to resolve the matter with those involved.
Such minor accidents had not caused problems for either the ministry or his department, he said.
He referred reporters to Royal Railways for a figure on the number of people involved in railway accidents. The railway operator could not be reached for comment.
