A garment worker was killed and three others seriously injured on Tuesday when a truck carrying them home from work was hit by an overloaded dump truck in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district, police said Wednesday.
Kantork commune police chief Aun Teng said the victims were all between the ages of 20 and 30 and traveling home from the Evergreen Industrial factory in the back of one of the notoriously dangerous open-roofed trucks that ferry most of the country’s hundreds of thousands of garment workers to and from their jobs.
“It happened at 6:20 p.m. yesterday evening, when a dump truck collided with the left side of the workers’ truck on National Road 4,” he said. “One worker died and another three were seriously injured.”
Mr. Teng said the vehicles were sent to the municipal traffic police headquarters, along with both drivers, who remain in detention for questioning.
Municipal traffic police officer Taing An, who responded to the accident, said the driver of the dump truck likely lost control of his vehicle because it was overloaded with rocks.
“After taking measurements at the scene, it looks like the dump truck entered the lane of the workers’ truck,” he said. “The dump truck driver could not control his steering and collided with the workers’ truck.”
He said he could not recall the name of driver or the company he worked for.
“We accused the dump truck driver of causing the death and injuries,” he said. “Maybe he will be sent to the municipal court tomorrow to be charged.”
Mr. An said one of the injured workers lost an arm in the accident and was being cared for at Calmette Hospital, while the other two were being treated for head injuries at Preah Kossamak Hospital.
Cheav Bunrith, spokesman for the Labor Ministry’s National Social Security Fund, said the fund had paid $1,000 to the family of the dead worker to cover funeral costs and an additional undisclosed amount for living expenses.
He said the fund would also pay for the treatment of the injured workers.
