An extremely overloaded pickup truck was seen driving along a road carrying thousands of empty plastic bottles.

Footage shows the vehicle with containers secured in a net and stacked high on the roof and rear bed in Kalasin province, Thailand.

The cargo was almost four times the truck's size which had to be fitted with metal frames on its sides to help with the weight.

The driver occupied the right most lane, cruising slowly with the balloon of recyclables on April 7.

Driver Sasitorn Boonnarangsri, who was in another car, said: 'I was travelling home to Mukdahan province.

'Around 12:38 pm along the highway, I came across a truck filled with water bottles.

'It was such a strange sight on a road. I have never seen one like that before.'

Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in Asia, Thailand suffers from chronic underinvestment in its highways and education, contributing to its poor road safety levels. Only a handful of African countries are worse.

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.