When coming down these hills in such a heavy locomotive, you really want to have good breaks.
At 10:30pm on 23 May 1989, the no. 38 (Chiang Mai-Bangkok) collided into the face of a mountain and derailed… right around here. All 8 carriages fell into the valley below.
The accident caused 8 deaths, 32 serious injuries and 107 minor injuries.
Of course, it was due to a braking system failure. The trains breaks had been fixed a little way up the line at Nakhon Lampang station, but they failed again near Mae Mo station, 7km uphill from here. At the site of the accident, it was reported the speed was at 75 km/h when the speed limit was 45 km/h.
