A 40-ton crane traveling to Phnom Penh careened off a highway on the city’s outskirts Monday night, demolishing a house and killing a family sleeping inside, police said.
Keng Sophal, 40, his wife Houn Sokhoeun, 30, and their daughter, Keng Rany, 2, were crushed to death when one of the vehicle’s front tires blew out, causing it to slide off the highway and plow through a cluster of homes, officials said.
Five others were also injured. The driver of the crane escaped unharmed and ran from the scene of the accident, police said.
The accident happened around 11 pm in a crowded neighborhood of small shanties along Route 5 in Chrang Chamres commune, Russei Keo district, on the northern outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Nheim Sarun, chief of municipal public works, blamed the tragedy on lax enforcement of rules governing where people are permitted to build.
The houses stood close to the edge of a very narrow stretch of Route 5, and residents ignored repeated warnings to move their homes back from the road and out of the way of oncoming traffic, he said.
The three victims were taken to a pagoda Tuesday morning for cremation, but their relatives do not have the money to pay for funeral expenses, police said.
“We are trying hard to contact the [construction] company to ask for money to pay for the funeral,” said Khim Sokhun, Chrang Chamres commune police chief.
