A Polish female motorcycle driver was killed after being crushed by a trailer truck while undertaking the larger vehicle on a busy motorway in Thailand.

Tourist Monika Maria Posluszny, 32, was driving along the Chaofa West Road in Phuket when she lost her balance and slid under the 18-wheeler she was trying to pass on the outside lane on May 4.

Chalong police officers received a report at 2:30 PM and went to the scene, finding Monika with her helmet and head crushed by the truck's wheels. Her damaged Honda motorbike lay 50 metres from an intersection.

Meanwhile, truck driver Boonnha Phinrach, 49, parked his vehicle after the accident and waited for law enforcement to arrive.

He said: 'I had just finished a delivery and was approaching the traffic lights at the intersection when I noticed the motorcycle rider driving to my left.

'She was trying to overtake, but she hit something on the road shoulder which caused her to lose her balance and fall under the truck.'

Police Major Somkiat Sarasit of the Chalong Police said CCTV footage shows that the Polish rider was driving on the leftmost lane and had tried to overtake before the tragic accident.

He said: 'Officers have checked the CCTV carefully and the accident was caused by the foreigner trying to overtake the truck.'

Thailand has one of the world's worst road safety records. 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.