Fatal back-to-back crane failures from same Thai firm

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — The collapse of a highway construction crane killed two people near Bangkok on Thursday, with a Thai minister saying the building firm was also involved in a crane failure the day before that left 32 dead.

Car dashcam footage verified by Agence France-Presse (AFP) showed the moment the massive crane fell on Thursday, unleashing clouds of dust as well as rubble across the area as several vehicles pulled over or reversed to avoid falling debris.

Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn linked firm Italian-Thai Development to the country’s second deadly crane collapse in two days, according to local media.

The company was contracted to build a section of a China-backed high-speed rail project where another huge crane fell on Wednesday, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, derailing a passenger train below and killing 32 of nearly 200 people on board.

“Yes, it is Italian-Thai. I still do not understand what happened,” Phiphat told local media on Thursday.

“We have to find out the facts, whether it was an accident or something else,” he said, adding that two people were killed.

The company — one of Thailand’s biggest construction firms — has seen several deadly accidents at its sites in recent years.

The crane that fell Thursday morning at the under-construction Rama II Expressway in Samut.