By Panarat Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A crane collapsed onto a road near Thailand's capital on Thursday, crushing two vehicles and killing two people a day after a similar accident in the northeast caused the derailing of a train and the deaths of 32 passengers.
Thailand's transport minister said construction firm Italian-Thai Development PCL, whose crane fell onto the train in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province a day earlier, was also involved in the crane accident near Bangkok.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who faces a general election next month, said on Thursday that his government is moving to cancel two contracts with ITD involving the two accident-hit projects, and vowed legal action against the firm.
"The Ministry of Transport has been instructed to terminate the contracts with the contractors, pursue all legal action available, and place them on a blacklist," he told reporters.
The government has also ordered a pause to around a dozen active ITD construction projects involving the state and put them under review, transport minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said.
Italian-Thai, founded in 1958 by Italian and Thai partners, said in a statement shortly after the prime minister's remarks that it accepts responsibility for providing care, compensation, and remedies for the losses incurred in both incidents.
"The company will review and strengthen its safety measures to ensure stricter and more comprehensive standards going forward," the ITD statement to the Thai stock exchange said.
SERIES OF FATAL CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENTS
Thursday's incident took place in Samut Sakhon province, where the crane, which was being used in building an elevated highway, fell onto the road beneath and crushed two cars, according to local police, who said two people were also injured.
It was the latest in a series of fatal accidents at construction projects in Thailand, several involving Italian-Thai, including the collapse of a partially-built Bangkok tower last year that killed at least 89 people during a 7.7-magnitude earthquake and led to charges of negligence against 23 people.
Images from the scene on Thursday showed a mangled green crane and huge pieces of concrete that had crushed the vehicles below. Video from news outlet Thai Rath showed cars reversing to avoid the wreckage amid a cloud of dust from the collapsed concrete.
Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, has been undergoing significant infrastructure development, from elevated highways and high-speed rail lines to major expansion of its elevated rail network in Bangkok.
HIGH SPEED RAIL
Authorities said an investigation into Wednesday's accident in the northeast was ongoing.
As well as the 32 fatalities, 66 of the 195 passengers on the train were injured after a crane involved in building structures for an elevated high-speed rail project collapsed onto an existing train line below.
The cross-country high-speed rail project will connect to China through Laos. The government said last year that more than a third of construction had been completed in the segment connecting Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, with the whole line to Nong Khai at the border with Laos ready by 2030.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Orathai Sriring; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by David Stanway and Toby Chopra)
