11-Year-Old Driver Involved in Fatal Crash with Pilgrimage Monks in Thailand

An 11-year-old boy was driving a pickup truck that collided with a procession of monks walking on a pilgrimage route in Mukdahan province, northeastern Thailand, on Thursday. The crash resulted in eight deaths – five monks died at the scene and three later succumbed to injuries in hospital – and left fourteen others hospitalized, four of them in critical condition. The monks, a group of 35 from Mukdahan, had begun a 260-kilometer walk toward Ubon Ratchathani province about half an hour before the incident. Security-camera footage released by the local Ruam Jai Mukdahan Rescue Association showed the monks walking in a single line along the roadside before the vehicle swerved and struck them. Local police said the boy is in custody and will be questioned when child-protection officials arrive. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the crash, but monks reported seeing the truck veer before it left the road and hit the group.