A sleeping truck driver died on Monday in Ratanakkiri province after he was electrocuted by a live cable that fell on his truck, setting it on fire. The incident happened in Village I in Banlung district’s Kachanh commune.

Kachanh commune police chief Teng Savuth identified the victim as 20-year-old Thou Ratana. The truck driver was transporting cassava and was the younger brother of the truck’s owner, Savuth said.

“The accident was nobody’s fault,” he said.

Savuth said prior to the accident, a witness saw the victim driving the truck. The witness told Savuth that Ratana had pulled over and went to sleep inside the truck, but at 9pm on Monday night, there was a loud noise “like a bomb going off or as a car tyre exploding”.

He said the truck’s owner, the victim’s brother, then rushed to see what had happened and saw that an electric cable had fallen on his truck which was parked near his house.

The truck had by then caught fire and he was unable to save his brother. The truck owner immediately reported the incident to the Kachanh commune police chief.

Savuth said that after being informed of the accident, police rushed to the scene to investigate, and Ratanakkiri provincial police called for a fire engine to put out the blaze which had engulfed the truck.

After the fire was brought under control, the victim’s body was found inside the truck and it was determined that he had died due to an electric shock when the cable, which had broken due to a malfunction, fell on his truck.