A passenger van carrying Burmese workers ran into the back of a truck loaded with scrap metal in Thailand’s on Wednesday. One passenger was killed and 11 others in the crash, which happened in Pathum Thani, adjacent to Bangkok.

Police and rescue workers sent to the scene said the van was travelling on the Mae Klong-Mahachai-Samut Songkram route. It ran into the rear of the truck and the front end was wrecked. Twelve people were trapped inside the wreckage of the van. One of them was already dead when rescuers arrived.

The dead man was aged between 30 and 35 years old, said police. The 11 other injured were taken to a nearby hospital.

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Truck driver Anont Ratchawat, 47, who waited for police at the scene of the crash, said he was about to turn left into a nearby fuel station when the van hit the rear of his vehicle. Thai police said Yotsawat Ruengsiman, 51, the van driver who was among the injured, told them he was driving Burmese workers to Tak’s Mae Sot district, close to the Thailand-Burma border

Accident investigators suspected the van driver fell asleep. It was expected he would be charged with reckless driving causing death and injury.

This article was originally published in the Bangkok Post on 11 March 2015.