Fatal back-to-back crane failures tied to same Thai firm: minister

Car dashcam footage verified by AFP showed the moment the massive crane fell on Thursday, unleashing clouds of dust as well as rubble across the area as several vehicles pulled over or reversed to avoid falling debris.

Motorcycle-taxi driver Booncherd La-orium said he no longer felt safe driving in the suburb outside Bangkok.

"I had goosebumps just thinking about how risky it is to be here. It could have happened to me," the 69-year-old told AFP.

"I still can't get over yesterday's incident, and this morning I heard another one happened again."

Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn linked firm Italian-Thai Development to the country's second deadly crane collapse in two days, according to local media.

The company was contracted to build a section of a China-backed high-speed rail project where another huge crane fell on Wednesday, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, derailing a passenger train below and killing 32 of nearly 200 people on board.

"Yes, it is Italian-Thai. I still do not understand what happened," Phiphat told local media on Thursday.

"We have to find out the facts, whether it was an accident or something else," he said, adding that two people were killed.

The company -- one of Thailand's biggest construction firms -- has seen several deadly accidents at its sites in recent years.

The crane that fell Thursday morning at the under-construction Rama II Expressway in Samut Sakhon province, outside Bangkok, left two people dead, local police chief Sitthiporn Kasi told AFP from the scene.
'That was close'
In other verified footage from the same vehicle as the dashcam, someone is heard saying: "I almost died... Please pull over first".

Another person replies: "That's okay now. It's not falling further. It's a crane collapse again in front of me."

"That was close," the first person says.

Rescue worker Sutthiwat Thanomsat told AFP he arrived at the scene shortly after the crane crashed down, and witnessed the aftermath of a pickup truck driver killed by the impact.

"Injured people were taken to a local hospital," he said.

The Rama II Expressway, a main artery linking the capital to Thailand's south, hosts several major infrastructure projects, including tollway construction.

Construction work has been underway for years to expand the road's capacity and reduce congestion but the project has been beset by delays and fatalities, earning it the nickname "Death Road".

Surachai Wongho, a 61-year-old retiree who drives on Rama II every day, said he is haunted by the thought that one day he could be hurt in an accident.

"It's the same incident happening over and over again in Thailand. It's time for the government to do something," he told AFP.

In March, a concrete beam forming part of an under-construction elevated roadway collapsed on Rama II, killing several people.

A crane collapse in November 2024 killed at least three workers, while local media reported two more deadly accidents in May 2023 and January 2024.
Condolences and compensation
The incident on Thursday followed the crane collapse in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of the capital Bangkok, one day earlier.

One of Thailand's deadliest rail accidents in years, a massive launching gantry crane, used by Italian-Thai in the construction of a high-speed rail project, collapsed Wednesday morning onto a passenger train below.

The health ministry said 32 people were confirmed dead, three were missing and 64 were hospitalised including seven in serious condition.

In Nakhon Ratchasima on Thursday, construction workers milled around the scene, snapping photos of the wreckage, as relatives of victims visited the site to mourn and pray in silence.

The crane was still hanging off giant concrete pillars, built to hold up the future elevated high-speed rail line -- a joint Thailand-China endeavour.

Italian-Thai expressed condolences on Wednesday, and promised to compensate the victims' families and cover medical expenses for the injured.

The nation's rail operator said it ordered Italian-Thai to halt construction until an investigation was completed.

Transport Minister Phiphat said Wednesday that all parties involved would be held accountable, including Italian-Thai and a Chinese consultancy company.

The crane operator was Thai and had fallen and died in Wednesday's accident, an Italian-Thai worker who declined to give her name told AFP.