A government official and a military general were killed in separate traffic accidents on Wednesday.

In Prey Veng, 32-year-old So Sothea, deputy director of the Ministry of Labour’s National Social Security Fund, was found in his car with his decapitated head flung to the rear of the vehicle after a head-on collision with a truck in Svay Anthor commune.

“The terrible accident was caused by the victim driving carelessly,” said district deputy police chief Khout Channy, adding that the car had veered into the truck’s lane. “The victim’s head was cut off . . . I have never seen such a case before.”

In the capital’s Meanchey district, 60-year-old Pok Pol, a two-star major general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’s Region 5, was also killed after being run over by a container truck approaching from the opposite direction.

“According to witnesses and site inspection, the victim had tried to overtake another motorbike and fell under the truck himself,” said municipal traffic police officer Tin Vansy.

The truck drivers in both accidents fled the scene.