Crash compensation put off as info sought #KilledInAccidentInThailand

Cambodian and Thai authorities are seeking compensation for the families of five Cambodians killed in a van accident in Thailand’s Songkhla province, but are still trying to determine whether the van was properly insured, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

According to ministry spokesman Koy Kuong, the victims were travelling in a van on Friday when it crashed into a tree and overturned, also killing the van’s Thai driver and injuring five more Cambodians.

“Now our embassy is working with Thai authorities to take the injured people, and we have been trying to seek compensation for the victims, but the problem is that the Thai driver died, and the van did not have proper registration. Now our embassy is working to find whether the van has insurance or not,” Kuong told reporters.

The five dead and five injured were all Cambodian Muslims, he added. “Because they were Khmer Muslims, their traditional ceremony [required] they be buried quickly by the Muslim association in Songkhla province,” Kuong said.

At least three of the dead – a 3-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother – were travelling to Malaysia to visit the girl’s sick father, who is a worker there, according to Kuong. It’s still unclear what the others were doing in Thailand.