BANGKOK: A chartered bus overturned in eastern Thailand early Wednesday morning, killing 18 people and injuring 31, officials said.
The accident occurred in Prachinburi province during an overnight journey from northern Thailand to coastal Rayong province for a municipal study tour.
The Department of Land Transport said it would coordinate with police in investigating the latest road accident and would intensify inspections of all public transport vehicles to ensure they meet safety standards.
Road safety is a major problem in Thailand, which according to the World Health Organization ranks ninth out of 175 member countries for road traffic deaths.
The issue was highlighted in October last year, after 23 young students and teachers died in a horrific bus fire while on a school field trip. Negligent maintenance and inspections were suspected of contributing to the tragedy.
In December 2023, a bus crash in the western province of Prachuap Khiri Khan killed 14 people and injured more than 30 others. The vehicle was carrying 49 people when it ran off the road and hit a tree. Police investigated the possibility that its driver had fallen asleep.
18 dead in a bus crash in eastern Thailand
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18 dead in a bus crash in eastern Thailand
Japan restarts world’s biggest nuclear plant
- Japan wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels
KARIWA: The world’s biggest nuclear power plant was restarted Wednesday for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, its Japanese operator said, despite persistent safety concerns among residents.
The plant was “started at 19:02” (1002 GMT), Tokyo Electric Power Company spokesman Tatsuya Matoba said of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture.
The regional governor approved the resumption last month, although public opinion remains sharply divided.
On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters — mostly elderly — braved freezing temperatures to demonstrate in the snow near the plant’s entrance, whose buildings line the Sea of Japan coast.
“It’s Tokyo’s electricity that is produced in Kashiwazaki, so why should the people here be put at risk? That makes no sense,” Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, told AFP.
Around 60 percent of residents oppose the restart, while 37 percent support it, according to a survey conducted in September.
TEPCO said Wednesday it would “proceed with careful verification of each plant facility’s integrity” and address any issues appropriately and transparently.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s biggest nuclear power plant by potential capacity, although just one reactor of seven was restarted.
The facility was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
However, resource-poor Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has voiced support for the energy source.
Fourteen reactors, mostly in western and southern Japan, have resumed operation since the post-Fukushima shutdown under strict safety rules, with 13 running as of mid-January. The vast Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex has been fitted with a 15-meter-high (50-foot) tsunami wall, elevated emergency power systems and other safety upgrades.
However, residents raised concerns about the risk of a serious accident, citing frequent cover-up scandals, minor accidents and evacuation plans they say are inadequate.
