A female farmer was crushed to death when a seven-tonne steamroller fell off a truck and landed on her in northeastern Thailand.

Choei Phonarong, 53, was tending to her cattle near a field when a trailer truck veered towards her in Buriram on June 14.

The vehicle reportedly swerved along the curved road to avoid the livestock, causing the steamroller to slide off the trailer. The construction equipment, which is used to level pavements, was said to have mowed down Choei, leaving her dead under a roadside tree.

Police arrived at the scene and found the woman's mangled corpse beneath the roller. They detained the truck driver Sawat Pimchan, 60, who said he had been hired to take the equipment to a building site at the Buriram Provincial Hall.

Sawat said: ‘Before the incident, I was driving slowly because the road was narrow.

‘When I arrived at the scene, a cow suddenly darted in front of me, so I swerved to avoid it. But one of the two rollers I was carrying fell off. I looked outside to check and found that it had crushed someone.

‘I'm sure that I had tied both pieces of machinery properly. It probably fell because of the momentum.'

Choei's daughter, Laddarat Phonarong, 32, said: ‘My family raises six buffaloes, which my mother usually takes out to graze. Today, when someone told me that my mother was run over by a vehicle, I thought she would be all right.

‘But I arrived at the scene and saw that she had been crushed to death. I can't believe this is how she would die.'

Police Lieutenant Colonel Dejrapee Salee of the Krasang Police Station said: 'We will investigate to find the actual cause of the accident. The driver will undergo a drug test and we will check nearby security cameras to see how fast he was really going.'

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.