Thailand school bus fire: Driver arrested, bus company to be investigated
The police have arrested the driver of the school bus carrying over 40 students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 of them in Bangkok, Thailand.
CNN International reported that the driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered Tuesday evening, Oct. 1, several hours after the fire.
Chanput was charged with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others, and failing to report the accident.
Chayanont Meesati, deputy regional police chief, told reporters that Chanput said he was driving normally until the bus lost balance at its front right tire, hit another car, and scraped a concrete highway barrier. That caused sparks that triggered the fire.
The driver, Chayanont noted, ran to grab a fire extinguisher from another bus that was part of the same trip, but couldn't put out the fire. He ran away out of panic.
The bus company is under investigation as to whether it followed all safety standards.
Its owner Songwit Chinnaboot told public broadcaster Thai PBS that the bus was inspected for safety twice a year as required and that the gas cylinders had passed the safety standards.
Songwit said the victims' families would be compensated.
The bus, which was carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school, was traveling from Uthai Thani province, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of the capital Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces.
Authorities identified 23 bodies, while 16 students and three teachers were sent to the hospital.
On X, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences to the victims' families, noting she's also a mother.
She assured them that the government would take care of the medical expenses and provide compensation to them.
