A Buddhist monk was killed and 20 others injured when a bus overturned on a steep mountain road in Thailand.

The coach carrying Phra Maha Charoen Chakkawano, 36, was travelling from a temple in Yasothon province to Phetchabun when the accident happened on January 14.

Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene after receiving a report of the crash caused on the Nam Om hill on Highway 225.

At the scene, the tour bus was overturned near the road barrier while the driver had already left from the scene.

Officers found that the monks had travelled from Wat Buraparam temple at 8 pm to practice dharma at Wat Phra Thart Pha Sorn Kaew.

There were 52 passengers on the bus, including 50 monks. According to the brief investigation, at least 20 monks were injured in the incident.

They were taken to Bueng Sam Phan Hospital and Wichian Buri Hospital.

The driver Sombat Wangta, 53, later turned himself in and told police that he tried to go past a sugar cane truck but the brake system malfunctioned before the bus crashed into a barrier and toppled over onto its side.

He was arrested on suspicion of driving recklessly causing a person to die, causing people to be injured, and damaging the property belonging to another person.

The inhabitants of Thailand have poor road safety standards. Ministers have set the goal of reducing fatalities from 32.7 deaths per 100,000 people to 12 per 100,000 people by the year 2027.

However, a lack of road safety education in schools, cheap loans for cars, notoriously easy driving tests, police failures to enforce road laws as well as endemic corruption and chronic under-investment in infrastructure hamper the efforts.