2 bus accidents in Thailand kill 7

Seven people were killed and around 90 others injured in two separate bus accidents in Thailand on Thursday, the last day of the accident-ridden Songkran holiday, local media reported. A double-decker bus overturned on a main road in western Kanchanaburi province at around 9:30 a.m. local time, leaving three passengers dead and another 39 injured, Bangkok Post reported. The accident happened while the bus was carrying dozens of passengers, mostly elderly people, from the capital Bangkok to attend Buddhist rites at a temple in Kanchanaburi. The driver might have fallen asleep or been driving too fast when the bus crashed, local police were quoted as saying. In a separate incident, a bus crashed into a motorcycle and then hit a roadside tree in northern Chiang Mai province, killing four people and injuring about 50 others. Initial investigation showed that the driver lost control of the vehicle on a road that had several curves. The one-week Songkran holiday (April 11 to 17) is known as the "seven dangerous days" featuring frequent road accidents and high death toll. In the first six days of the holiday, 2,754 road accidents happened, killing a total of 277 people and injuring 2,926 others, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said Thursday.