More than 70 garment workers in Svay Rieng province were injured on Wednesday evening, four seriously, when two trucks transporting them home from work collided during heavy rain, police said Thursday.
Bavet City police chief Keo Koung said the accident occurred on National Road 1 in the city’s Chrak M’tes commune at about 7 p.m. and involved 75 garment workers from the Tai Seng and Manhattan special economic zones.
“The small truck stopped on the right side of the road after driving from the special economic zones and the big truck hit it from behind and caused 75 workers to be injured,” Mr. Koung said.
“Our forces arrived in time and sent the victims immediately to the Chi Phu referral hospital for treatment,” he said.
Mr. Koung said that both truck drivers fled the scene after the accident.
“We are now searching for the drivers,” he said. “We already know their identities and we are going to bring them in.”
Prak Sambath, director of the Chi Phu hospital in Bavet City, said that 71 of the workers involved in the crash suffered only minor injuries and were treated at his hospital, while four women were more seriously hurt and were transferred to the provincial referral hospital.
“We sent the four victims to the provincial hospital yesterday night because they had head injuries,” he said.
Provincial referral hospital director Chan Dara said that in addition to the head injuries, one of the women had all the fingers on her right hand completely severed, while another had a broken leg and a third had a broken rib.
“The four victims are now receiving medical treatment at our hospital. I think that they are all right because the injuries are not so serious,” Mr. Dara said.
“The National Social Security Fund will pay for the medical bills for the workers because they got in an accident while they were working,” he added.
