A crane collapsed on an accident-prone expressway on the outskirts of Bangkok on Thursday, killing at least two people, the authorities said. It was the second fatal episode involving cranes in the country in as many days.
The government was moving to halt all aboveground construction in the wake of the episodes, Thailand’s transport minister, Phipat Ratchakitprakarn, told reporters.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crane to collapse in Samut Sakhon Province, southwest of Bangkok, on Thursday. Crews are building an elevated section of the motorway, which is not yet open to traffic.
Parts of the elevated structure caved in to the ground level after the crane fell. The collapse crushed two vehicles, a rescue worker said, and it was not immediately clear if there were any survivors.
The incident occurred around 9:15 a.m. on Thursday in front of a hotel on the outbound lanes of the Rama 2 Road. Siwanart Jaiseukul, a security guard at the hotel, said he was about two hours into his shift when he saw the elevated motorway “snap in half.”
Mr. Siwanart rushed out and saw a pile of debris, concrete, metal and a car trapped underneath the rubble, but quickly went back to the hotel because he was afraid that other parts of the structure might fall on him. He said it was lucky that it was not rush hour at that time.
“It was like a movie,” Mr. Siwanart said. “I was and am still in shock.”
On Thursday afternoon, several ambulances lined the road leading to the accident site. Dozens of rescue workers milled around because they said they could not access the area, which was deemed unsafe by the authorities until they obtained clearance from engineers
“It’s a difficult operation because we don’t know how much the structure is damaged,” Suchart Tongseng, the rescue worker, said. “We have the tools to remove the wreckage, but the whole thing can slide down any minute.”
The contractor of the expressway, Italian-Thai Development, was also the firm in charge of a construction site where a crane fell on a moving passenger train on Wednesday, according to Mr. Phipat. At least 32 people died in that accident.
The firm also faced scrutiny last year, when more than 90 people died after a building under construction collapsed in Bangkok after an earthquake. It was the only building that fell in Bangkok during the disaster.
Last August, the Thai authorities charged 23 individuals in that collapse. It was a rare investigation for a workplace incident, but it has yet to conclude.
Italian-Thai Development did not answer phone calls to its office and disabled all comments on its Facebook page on Thursday.
Rama 2 Road — designed to be the main artery connecting Bangkok to Thailand’s southern provinces — is often referred to by Thais as the “Road of Never-Ending Construction.” It is notorious for its frequent and often fatal accidents. The authorities have recorded at least 140 deaths from over 2,200 construction-related accidents between 2018 and 2025, and more than 1,300 injuries in the same period, according to a tally of data provided by Thailand’s Department of Highways.
Like many laws in Thailand, safety guidelines are loosely enforced, experts say. Workers often clock more than 50 hours per week, increasing the risks of workplace injuries. Contractors often hire subcontractors who are not equipped with the knowledge and experience to work on complex, large-scale infrastructure projects. When accidents occur, the subcontractors are often the scapegoats.
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region.
The post Thailand Has 2nd Deadly Incident Involving a Crane in 2 Days appeared first on New York Times.
