Two killed as trucks collide in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH: Two people were killed and 24 others injured after a truck transporting garment workers to their factory collided with a cargo truck in Cambodia's Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday.

The accident took place at 5.30 a.m. local time on National Road 4 in Kampong Seila district when the cargo truck was attempting to overtake a car and hit head-on with the garment worker truck coming from the opposite direction, said Seang Solina, acting police chief of Kampong Seila district, Xinhua news agency reported.

"A driver and a garment worker were pronounced dead in the crash, as 24 other workers, including 16 women, sustained injuries," he told Xinhua over telephone.

The injured were shifted to hospitals, he said, adding that police are hunting the negligent cargo truck's driver, who escaped the scene soon after the collision.

Transporting workers in open trucks to and from factories is common in the Southeast Asian country.

In June, some 61 garment workers were injured when their truck flipped onto its side in southwest Cambodia's Kampong Speu province.