Five schoolgirls aged 12 to 14 drowned on Tuesday morning in Cambodia when the bus taking them to school swerved to avoid a motorcycle and plunged into a deep pond in Kandal province, police said. Twenty-one other students were injured, three of them critically, and the driver — who police say had no valid driving licence — was arrested.
The crash happened at about 7:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, November 10, on National Road 8 between kilometre markers 28 and 29, in Anlong village, Prek Tameak commune, Khsach Kandal district, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital, Phnom Penh, according to a statement from the Kandal provincial police carried by the Associated Press.
The 25-seat Mitsubishi bus was carrying 26 students — 12 boys and 14 girls, aged 12 to 14 — from Pea Reang district in Prey Veng province to the Prek Tameak campus of BELTEI International School. The vehicle was privately owned and had been hired by the students' parents to take them to school; it was not a school bus, the school and police confirmed.
Villagers pulled children from the water
Witnesses told police a motorcycle suddenly crossed in front of the fast-moving bus. The driver slammed on the brakes, the vehicle skidded off the road and sank into a pond beside it. Video posted on social media showed the bus sinking just a few feet from the shore, but deep enough to make escape very difficult, the Associated Press reported.
Villagers rushed into the water to pull children out of the submerged bus, and some performed CPR on the children they freed, said Sun Kunthy, one of those who rushed to help. Nov Sokhon, chief traffic police of Khsach Kandal district, said all five girls died by drowning and added that the death toll could have been even higher if local residents had not rescued the children in time.
The five girls who died were all from Pea Reang district, the Pea Reang District Police Inspectorate told the Phnom Penh Post: Seang Sophavotey, 14; Leng Youly, 13; Ly Nita, 13; Seiha Suosdey, 14; and Kheang Chingching, 12. Relatives gathered at the pond afterwards to perform the ritual of summoning the souls of the dead, an AP photograph showed.
Driver admitted speeding; police say he had no licence
Police detained the 31-year-old driver, Meun Thearith, a resident of Roka commune in Pea Reang district, for questioning. He told investigators he was speeding on National Road 8 when a motorcycle crossed the road, and he lost control, the Khmer Times reported. The Kandal provincial police said their preliminary assessment pointed to speeding and careless driving as possible causes, the Phnom Penh Post reported.
Drug and alcohol tests on the driver came back negative, and he helped rescuers try to free the trapped students before he was arrested, the Khmer Times reported. On Thursday, November 12, the Kandal Provincial Police Department confirmed that Thearith did not have a valid driver's licence, and rejected accusations circulating on social media that he had been beaten when he was arrested. The police response followed a post by a well-known social media commentator, "AH JingJing", criticising the driver's treatment and handcuffing.
Ly Chheng, director-general of BELTEI Group, said the accident occurred when the vehicle swerved to avoid a motorcycle, and expressed shock and sorrow over the deaths. A BELTEI assistant, Ly Bunchhay, wrote on Facebook that all 26 pupils were accounted for — five dead, two injured and 19 unhurt — a slightly different injury count from the police figures of three students in critical condition and 18 with minor injuries.
A pattern Cambodia has not stopped
The crash is part of a road-safety crisis that kills Cambodians every day. According to a report by the National Police released in early November, traffic accidents across Cambodia killed more than 1,300 people in the first 10 months of this year. A separate report from the Transport Ministry said 1,467 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2025, making it by far the leading cause of accidental deaths in the country, the Associated Press reported.
In May this year, two accidents in a single day killed at least 14 garment factory workers and injured 79 others, mostly women. They were travelling on flatbed trucks, the usual transport for workers, which often lack seats or benches and force passengers to stand, greatly increasing the risk of injury in a crash.
Kandal provincial authorities are investigating the accident, and the driver faces legal proceedings. There was no update on Thursday on the condition of the three students in critical condition.
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Sources: Associated Press, November 11, 2026; Phnom Penh Post, November 10, 2026; Phnom Penh Post, November 10, 2026; Khmer Times, November 11, 2026; Khmer Times, November 12, 2026; Xinhua, November 10, 2026. Cover photo: a truck used as a school bus in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, August 2006, by spotter_nl, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Archive photo, not the bus involved in the crash.