Songkran flaming bus deaths blamed on ‘bad brakes,’ driver freed on bail

A bus driver was freed on bail yesterday, two days after five Songkran travelers died and several injured in a fatal incident the authorities are blaming on faulty brakes.

Patsadee Kamkhon, 48, was released on a THB150,000 (US$4,800) bond after the double-decker bus he was driving burst into flames on Mittraphap Highway in Khon Kaen province early Tuesday morning, killing three adults and two children.

The Land Transport Department reported that, after the investigation by an expertised Investigators from the Land Transport Department concluded that the natural gas-powered vehicle’s brake system overheated, causing a tire to blow out, pieces of which landed on a valve leading to a gas tank, resulting in a leak and fire.

The bus had set out from the northeastern province of Udon Thani in the first hours of the Songkran holiday with a destination of Bangkok. Just…