Cambodia News (Siem Reap Province): At 11:30 am on February 25, 2022, a concrete bridge crossing Chy Kreng river in Chy Kreng commune/district, collapsed under the weight of a heavy truck carrying rocks.

According to the local villagers, the bridge is fragile and they have previously attempted to stop heavy trucks from crossing the narrow concrete bridge by putting up road barricades. However, the trucks kept coming.


On this occasion, an overloaded truck broke the concrete bridge, plunged into the river, and was left hanging in the middle of the bridge.
The identity of the truck driver and the company he worked for remain unknown, as well as the current condition of the driver.

jaynewcastle wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 11:08 pm

Grand Barong wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:08 pm Interesting how the many dozens of onlookers still seem confident of the bridges integrity after the accident.

Probably much more interested in seeing if the driver had died & trying to take pictures, than any thought to their own safety

Or the same lack of comprehension of how the bridge's integrity was further compromised in the first place?

It happens the world over, but more so in areas where education is lower.
Have a truck, fill it up. Full of feathers, or full of sand. It's full.
Have a bus, fill it up. fill it with children or fill it with adults. It's full.

There's probably little real consideration that the bridge itself is also the risk to its collapse.
I looked at the photo, and wondered if the repairs to the bridge might not actually be isolated to the section that's so obviously failed, rather than the whole bridge, already acknowledged as fragile.

UPDATE: He lives!
Contrary to the previous report by the KT, the truck driver is (apparently) alive and in hospital.

Heavy truck causes bridge collapse with driver seriously hurt
Kim Sarom | Publication date 27 February 2022 | 21:21 ICT

A driver was seriously injured when a bridge his truck was crossing on collapsed in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kraeng district and commune on February 25.

Authorities are also searching for the owner of the stone transport business that employed the driver to demand compensation for the damages.

District police chief Taing Lyheng identified the injured driver as Lim Reth, a 37-year-old man living in Daun Sok village of the district’s Kok Thloak Krom commune, who was receiving intensive care at the provincial referral hospital.

“In this case, the driver may have been involved in a criminal offence. To determine who is responsible for compensation for damage to the bridge, the authorities will set up a joint commission and the civil party may be the district or provincial authorities. They will negotiate or sue the owner of the stone transport business for the repair costs,” he said.

Lyheng confirmed that his department was now planning to open an investigation into the truck driver to find out why he violated the ban on heavy vehicles that was in place for the bridge.

“It’s a criminal offence if the bridge is clearly labelled as prohibited for heavy trucks and he violated that by trying to drive across anyway,” he said.

Commune police chief Tiv Ponra said on February 27 that the bridge was built in 2007 but it was not very sturdy and only light-weight vehicles were allowed to cross.

According to the villagers, the incident occurred around noon on February 25 when a green heavy truck carrying about 20 tonnes of stone for construction purposes attempted to cross the bridge and it collapsed when the driver was at the mid-point with the truck falling into the creek below.

According to Ponra, the villagers reported the accident to him and he immediately sought intervention from the district police chief as well and their officers to rescue the driver and investigate what took place.

Following the accident, the driver was stuck in the truck’s cabin and it took police more than three hours to extract him safely given the dangerous conditions on the partially collapsed bridge. He was then rushed to the provincial hospital for treatment.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ously-hurt