Split lanes
A local road splits apart in Nong Khae district of Saraburi, authorities reported on July 5. A deep crack has forced the road closure. Fast receding water in the adjacent Khlong Rapipat battered by drought is blamed for causing the soil underneath the road to subside.
Safer travels
Passengers get insurance
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) plans to provide passengers and staff on board its trains with accident insurance for the first time, SRT governor Wuthichart Kalyanamitra said on July 5.
Currently, the SRT pays compensation to victims of accidents on its trains. Under the insurance scheme proposed, a private company will pay the victims. Costs related to the scheme will be shouldered by the rail agency, and not incorporated into train fares. The insurance coverage should start in November, Wuthichart said.
Welcome rain
Drought eases across Thailand
The number of drought-hit provinces has more than halved after rain made an appearance in the upper North and Northeast, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said on July 5.
Department chief Chatchai Promlert said 40 provinces were reported as drought-hit until the beginning of July, when welcome rain eased the situation in 27 provinces. A monsoon trough lies across Myanmar, Laos and upper Vietnam, declining to a low pressure cell in the Gulf of Tonkin, which is causing the rainfall, Chatchai said.
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Dog dinner
Animal parts found in truck
Two men were arrested. It happened in Sakon Nakhon’s Muang district on July 1. They were arrested for transporting and trading animal carcasses. Many plastic bags packed with dog meat were found on their pickup truck, police said.
Vocabulary
- drought (n): a long period of time when there is little or no rain
subside (v): to sink to a lower level
shoulder (v): to accept the responsibility for something
carcass (n): the dead body of an animal, especially of a large one or of one that is ready for cutting up as meat
