More than 80 garment workers were injured when their truck slid off the road and turned over in a rice field in Takeo province’s Bati district yesterday. District governor Phuong Chhim said that a truck carrying garment workers crashed into the rice field at 6am yesterday while travelling on a village road. He said some of the injured workers were sent to Takeo referral hospital and some to the provincial hospital. He said there were no deaths. According to Chhim, the accident was caused by the overloaded truck speeding on a slippery road. After the incident, the driver escaped. Last week, the Ministry of Public Works announced plans to conduct a survey on vehicles carrying garment workers to ensure road safety, as the cases of traffic accidents involving factory transport continue to raise concerns. Ministry of Public Works secretary of state Min Manavy said: “Traffic accidents involving garment worker vehicles are still happening, so the survey will be conducted by contacting garment factories and finding the registration numbers of the vehicles that transport the workers.” She said accidents are due to vehicles violating the traffic law, carrying too many people and having poor technical standards. According to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF)’s report yesterday, the number of traffic accidents with garment workers in 2020 has decreased by 31 percent to 1,900 cases. Injuries totalled 2,140. There were 88 fatalities, 400 serious injuries, and 1,652 minor injuries. Preap Chanvibol, deputy chief of Road Safety Working Group for Workers Support of NSSF said that despite the decrease in the number of traffic accidents with garment workers, the relevant ministries and institutions must continue to cooperate. He said through the preparation of standards, education, dissemination and training for truck drivers and workers on the Law on Road Safety, the ministry can successfully reduce the number of traffic accidents as well as deaths and injuries to workers. “I appeal to all truck drivers and workers to respect traffic rules properly and be tolerant while travelling on the road,” he said. Drivers of trucks should not load too many workers in one truck,” Chanvibol said.