A Thai man was killed and five others were injured in a horror truck crash in northern Thailand.

Thai tour guide Sanit Sitthimongkol, 64, was accompanying three Italian tourists when their pickup truck crashed into another vehicle in Nan province on January 11.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Montree Manakit of the Uan Police Station said officers were notified of the accident at 5:40 pm.

Cops and emergency services arrived at the scene, where a mangled red Mazda pickup truck lay on the roadside with Sanit in the front seat.

Officers pronounced him dead at the scene while they identified the injured Italian tourists as driver Ruggero Cacciatori, 38, Elia Corazza, 41, and Martina Bastianglli, 29.

They said the Mazda was travelling along a curved part of the road when it collided with a grey Toyota pickup driven by Nattawat Akkhara, 33, who was travelling with his 60-year-old dad and another unnamed passenger.

Nattawat was unscathed while his father and the passenger suffered minor injuries. The two Thai natives and the three Italian holidaymakers were taken to the Somdet Yupparat Pua Hospital for treatment.

Nattawat claimed he was returning home when the other truck allegedly lost control and spun toward him.

Meanwhile, authorities extracted Sanit's body from the wreckage and transported it to the Somdet Yupparat Pua Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Police said no charges have been filed yet and that the case was under investigation.

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 along with notoriously easy driving tests, police failures to enforce road laws, and chronic under-investment in infrastructure, all appear to hamper the efforts.