Four Chinese nationals and a Cambodian man were seriously injured when the car in which they were traveling crashed head-on into Phnom Penh’s Independence Monument in the early hours of yesterday morning, police said. Traffic police said it was the fourth time so far this year that cars had hit the iconic monument.
“After the crash, all of them were unconscious and were all seriously injured,” said Pen Khun, deputy chief of the municipal traffic police department. A report on the crash has been sent to municipal officials so that they can evaluate damage to the water fountains and barriers surrounding the monument, Mr. Khun said, adding that police were unable to test the driver of the car for alcohol consumption as all were seriously injured and were transferred to Calmette Hospital. All the victims were in their 20s, and were traveling in a Toyota sedan, he added.
In Koh Kong province yesterday, four men were killed and 11 people injured, six seriously, when the truck in which they were traveling lost control and veered off the road and crashed in Botum Sakor district’s Andoung Toek commune. The driver of the truck fled on foot from the scene of the accident, said Ouk Sokha, chief of Koh Kong’s provincial traffic police.
District police said the truck was traveling at high speed when it careened off the road, and two of the six seriously injured are now hospitalized in critical condition.
