Three women were killed in the early hours of Monday when a van carrying 14 Laotians rammed into a ten-wheel truck that had stopped at a red light in the Klaeng district of Rayong province.
When police and volunteers arrived at the scene of the accident, the van was on fire with passengers trapped inside.
The rescuers used cutting equipment to bring out those trapped in the van and found that three Laotian women had been killed in the crash. The injured were given first aid and rushed to hospital.
The surviving passengers told police that they had been picked them up in Bangkok and were on the way to get their passports extended. The driver had appeared to be drowsy before the van slammed into the parked truck.
The investigation will resume when the injured passengers and driver recover.
<img alt="'Drowsy' driver crashes van, killing 3 Laotian workers