The accident took place at about 7.30am on Doi Saket Chiang Rai Road. Police said the transport truck was running downhill and overtook another vehicle but couldn’t get back to its original lane in time before colliding with the oncoming 10 wheel truck.

Police found four male bodies – including the driver of the 10wheel truck – and four female bodies at the scene and took the three injured men, including the other truck driver Nattapong Kaewsukham, 21, to Doi Saket Hospital. Their injuries were so critical that they were later transferred to the better equipped Nakhon Ping and Lanna hospitals.

The deceased were transported to Maharaj Nakhon Chiang Mai Hospital’s forensic department for identification, as some did not carry identity cards.

Police suspected poor visibility from heavy rainfall at the time contributed to the accident, combined with the transport truck driver’s poor judgement.

Their own efforts, as evidenced by big discounts of more than 50%, do not help and hotel occupancy rates continue to decline, said Kanok Suwansutr, an adviser of the Thai Hotels Association’s Northern Chapter.

“The hotel situation in Chiang Mai is worsening. The average occupancy rate is estimated to be lower than 40% in this low season, down 10% from 46-50% in the same period last year,” he said.

Earlier, hoteliers expected the situation to recover this year after local political problems eased. But the European financial crisis led to a decrease of international tourist arrivals to Thailand. Moreover, local people are putting on hold their travel plans in the face of the July 3 general election.

The tourism slump in Chiang Mai began in 2006.

Currently, Chiang Mai hoteliers are cutting their average room rates by 40-50% or more than half to attract tourists during the low season. However, the feedback is not good as they do not have enough money to effectively promote their hotels.

Dusit International reported an occupancy rate of the Dusit D2 Chiang Mai at 40% in the first quarter of this year while the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket posted 60%. Dusit plans to increase room rates in Phuket by about 10% this year but will maintain the rates in Chiang Mai.

“We have nothing new in Chiang Mai. We sell old products and activities. This drives many Thai tourists to neighbouring countries instead since the cost is not much different,” said Chanin Donavanik, CEO of Dusit.

Tourism operators in the northern province view that marketing and promotion campaigns by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) for northern provinces are not effective. While private operators are trying hard to jointly promote Chiang Mai and other provinces among tourists in Bangkok and abroad, the impact is minimal due to limited budgets.

They hope the government will help them survive the hard time and organise marketing activities in both local and international markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, China and India.

Thawatchai Arunyik, TAT’s deputy governor for domestic marketing, said it would hold talks with the THA to help solve this issue. He admitted that Chiang Mai is a laggard when compared to other regions. In the first quarter, it grew only 5%. “We realise the Chiang Mai problem as the hotel oversupply has pressured room rates,” he said.

The event, which will take place at a popular Burmese restaurant in Chiang Mai, is part of an eight-month campaign by Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) to highlight the plight of Burmese reporters behind bars.

Ngwe Soe Lin is one of 17 jailed DVB video journalists, or VJs, serving sentences in Burma’s notorious prisons. He is currently serving a 13-year sentence for filming the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May 2008, leaving 140,000 people dead and countless children orphaned.

His video records were turned into a documentary by Britain’s Channel 4, and in 2009 he received the prestigious Rory Peck Award, which honors cameramen working in dangerous environments. In June 2010, he also received the one World Media Award in London.

Geraldine May, the campaign coordinator for DVB, said the aim of today’s event and the campaign launched at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on May 3, is to raise awareness of the lack of press freedom in Burma.

“Ngwe Soe Lin’s detention symbolizes the Burmese government’s persecution of independent journalists. We also want to express our support for him and tell him that we haven’t forgotten him and that we’re fighting for his release,” said May.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), there are  26 media workers in Burma’s prisons, which the groups says hold a total of 2,061 political prisoners.

“Z,” a colleague of Ngwe Soe Lwin who is still working as a VJ inside Burma, said that he welcomed the campaign and wished he could attend the gathering in Chiang Mai.

“We are not terrorists or politicians, we are journalists just doing our job of informing the public of what is happening in society,” said Z. “And yet, many of our colleagues are serving long sentences in prison. We need to safeguard journalists, both outside and inside prison.”

Since the September 2007 Saffron Revolution, the Burmese authorities have cracked down on anyone who sends photos or videos exposing government abuses to exiled news media or opposition groups. Many ordinary citizens have also been imprisoned for their role in disseminating images that reveal brutality on the part of the Burmese authorities.

Of the 17 DVB reporters in detention, only five have been identified as belonging to the Norway-based exiled media group: 21- year-old Sithu Zeya, who is serving an eight-year sentence in Rangoon’s Insein Prison; Maung Maung Zeya, who is serving a 13-year sentence in Hsipaw Prison in northern Shan State; Hla Hla Win, who is serving a 27-year sentence in Katha Prison in Sagaing Division; and Win Maw, who is serving a 17-year sentence in Kyaukphyu  Prison in Arakan State.

“For security reasons, we decided to name only five of our VJs,” said May. “We kept the identity of the other 12 secret. We’re not putting the five named VJs in danger, as the Burmese authorities already know about their links to DVB.”

May said that the five named VJs have been tortured to make them reveal their connections, but “We deeply believe that the more people know about them and their condition, the more difficult it will be for the authorities to make them disappear.”

Toe Zaw Latt, DVB’s Thailand bureau chief, said that they were honoring Ngwe Soe Linn on his birthday because the detained VJ wouldn’t be able to celebrate behind bars.

According to May, the campaign that started on May 3 will include one big event per month for the next eight months.

“Burma VJ,” a documentary by Danish director Anders Østergaard, highlighted the role of DVB‘s video journalists during the Buddhist monk-led Saffron Revolution. The film provided graphic evidence of the brutality used to suppress the peaceful demonstrations, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010

“Basically, WHO experts are of the opinion that Thai authorities are proceeding in accordance with principles and standard procedures,” Dr Surasing Wisarutrat, deputy chief of Chiang Mai’s public health office, said yesterday.

He added that WHO experts had also suggested that the investigation focus on three likely causes: infection, chemicals and environment.

“We were planning to do that anyway,” he added.

Sarah Carter, 23, a tourist from New Zealand, died mysteriously in her room at the Downtown Inn Hotel in Chiang Mai in February.

Later, in an episode of the “60 Minutes” television programme broadcast in New Zealand, it was suggested that chlorpyrifos chemical spray, usually used to kill bedbugs, might have been responsible for the mysterious death of seven tourists at the hotel.

On Thursday, Chiang Mai Governor Panadda Diskul and officials from health agencies had invited foreign envoys to listen to clarifications and updates on the case.

Surasing said yesterday: “We have been handling the case transparently. We have recruited the help of several agencies. We will try to determine the cause of her [Carter's] death as soon as possible.”

He said a news conference would be held as soon as there was substantial progress.

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The Night Safari has become the source of best wildlife atmosphere in Chiang Mai. This can be seen from small and large animals in the country as well as animals from other parts of the world being born from natural breeding such as giraffe, zebra, deer, hippopotamus or even tapir which is considered to be an animal with pregnancy difficulty and delivery complex.

Recently, the mother of Bengal Tiger Wan Yen delivered 4 tiger cubs on 6 May, gender remained unidentified as the mother tiger had been very protective, snuggling with its babies all the time, growling at zookeeper not to get near.

According to Chiang Mai Night Safari executive Dr Sarawut Srisakul large numbers of newborns in the zoo are influenced by perfect condition of rich nature in the forest for breeding to be naturally occurred regardless of animal’s origin. This enhanced the development of their relationships; consequently numerous large and small animals are being born which have broken the statistics of more numbers in newborns compared to deaths. The campaign has also been established with the aim to return the animals to their habitat in the North of Thailand, such as barking deers and the animals that can live naturally in the forest.

Currently Chiang Mai Night Safari has 15 bengal tigers, with 4 males, 7 females and 4 cubs of unidentified gender. The Chiangmai Night Safari will open to public to visit these tiger cubs after they are strong enough to be separated from their mother.

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That was until six other tourists died in the city, including three in the same hotel.

Most had very similar symptoms, including myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart.

Thai authorities have maintained the deaths were coincidence, but tonight, 60 Minutes has credible evidence that Sarah Carter died due to insecticide poisoning.

60 Minutes travelled to Chiang Mai and took samples from the bedroom Sarah stayed in at the Downtown Inn, while posing as a hotel guest interested in renting a room.

When she got there the entire fifth floor, the floor where Sarah and her friends stayed, was being pulled apart and cleaned.

It is understood health authorities were due to visit the hotel the next day.

Before leaving for Chiang Mai, 60 Minutes spoke to a New Zealand scientist who suspected insecticide poisoning.

Thai police were also thinking along the same lines and according to an inspector in the local force had raided the company in charge of eradicating insects at the hotel.

We managed to glean from an inspector, the police had raided the company in charge of eradicating insects at the hotel.

Chiang Mai’s Head of Public Health Dr Surasing was also investigating this theory.

“I’m not the specialist,” he said. “But it’s possible that they mixed together the wrong chemicals.”

But Dr Surasing was not able to mention the chemicals that were used in the hotel or the company contracted to use them.

The idea that some Thai hotels could be using unsafe chemicals first came to light two years ago when American Jill St Onge and Norwegian Julie Bergheim died at a Thai resort after they began violently vomiting.

American investigators suspected chemical poisoning but the Thai authorities lost all the samples.

However, 60 Minutes’ samples were being looked after carefully and were taken back to New Zealand for testing by an independent laboratory.

The lab found tiny traces of an insecticide, chlorpyrifos, which is banned in some countries for domestic use.

“I think she’s been killed by an overzealous sprayer who has been acting on the instructions of the hotel owner to deal with the bed bugs,” said chemical expert Dr Ron McDowall, who works for the United Nations cleaning up toxic rubbish dumps.

He said the traces brought back were small, but the fact that the chemical was found three months later, in a room that had been scrubbed, points to chlorpyrifos poisoning.

To further check his theory, Dr McDowall sent the results to other experts in New Zealand and Italy.

“Their reaction was that it is clear, it’s CY poisoning – we’ve seen it before, the symptoms are the same, the pathology is the same, and the proxy indicates that the chemical was in the room. Because it was a proxy with a reasonable level it means the amount in the room was high.”

This spray may have been used only in certain rooms where there was a known bed-bug problem which may be why not everyone at the hotel got sick, but Sarah Carter did.

Unfortunately the blood samples taken from Sarah Carter cannot tell us the answer.

“The chemical is absorbed by the body very quickly. It only has a half-life of a day so it can be very hard to detect after the event,” said Dr McDowall.

Despite this Dr McDowall was confident the symtoms Sarah had plus the manner of her death fitted with chlorpyrifos poisoning.

Yesterday we took our findings to Sarah Carter’s parents, Richard and Anna.

“It’s good to get an answer,” said Mr Carter. “But pretty horrific that they have such low standards that that can happen.”

“I didn’t want it to be an individual,” said Ms Carter. “I wanted it to be some faceless, nameless thing. I guess this does bring closure, at least we know so it doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

“Hopefully there will be some action taken now and it won’t be like the other cases where it is swept under the carpet and is just an unexplained death, never substantiated with any follow up.”

The Carters have struggled to get information from the Thai authorities and they question how much effort is being put into the investigation.

“Their short term defence is to bury all these incidences so that the rest of the world doesn’t hear about them to ensure their tourist numbers don’t drop off,” said Mr Carter.

The Govenor of Chiang Mai, who has always maintained the deaths are not linked agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes and answer some of our questions.

60 Mins: You have said that the seven deaths were a coincidence. Do you still believe that?

Governor: I do believe. I do believe coincidence.

60 Mins: I think people find it very hard to believe that seven people dying in similar circumstances is a coincidence.

Governor: It is a very bad occasion and such bad luck for that hotel.

60 Mins: If this had happened in New Zealand the hotel would have been shut down – why hasn’t it been shut?

Governor: There are concerns of certain rules of law in the country. We are very saddened by what happened to Miss Sarah Carter.

60 Minutes also spoke to one of Sarah’s travelling companion, Emma Langlands who also became ill and has not spoken publically about the ordeal until tonight.

She says the three friends had been looking forward to going off on their OE together.

“We were really excited, really looking forward to a well-deserved holiday,” she said.

After holidaying on a Thai island the girls headed for a more cultural experience in Chiang Mai, a northern city renowned for its rivers, markets and temples. There they planned to go elephant trekking and visit the local hill tribes.

Sarah Carter, Amanda and a third friend Emma, arrived in Chiang Mai late in the afternoon.

They went to the Downtown Inn, dipped their toes in the pool, booked themselves on a tour and then went to Chiang Mai’s night markets.

The girls were pretty worried about what they could safely eat and chose a well-known food court to eat at.

“We were very cautious about where we chose to eat and if we didn’t like the look of a place then, you know, we wouldn’t eat there,” said Amanda.

“Sarah and I chose pork curry, and Amanda chose to have a chicken pita kebab.”

So given the three girls ate different meals and none of them ate any toxic seaweed, as early reports suggested, it seems a food poisoning diagnosis is unlikely.

Amanda said the trio’s first impression of the Downtown Inn was good.

“I mean nothing really stood out. The room seemed really clean and there was no, you know, strange smells or anything like that. We did see a sign that indicated that the hotel was sprayed with insecticides but we don’t know when that occurred.”

When the girls woke the next morning all three had sore stomachs and they began vomiting.

They got so bad that night they were rushed to Chiang Mai Ram Hospital with suspected food poisoning.

Two girls recovered, sadly Sarah Carter suffered heart and kidney failure and died the next morning.

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UAC will reportedly purify biogas from dung and wastewater from Mongkol and Sons pig farm in Chiang Mai. Plant construction is expected to commence in May, at a cost of THB 100 million (USD 3.34 million). Once commissioned the plant is expected to produce 6-8 tonnes per day, or 3,000 tonnes per year, reported to be enough to fill 500 compact cars or 40 transportation trucks. The biomethane could replace diesel imports of 2.2 million litres per year or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports of 1,600 tonnes, which would save the country Bt21 million (approx USD 700k) .

Kitti Jivacate, president and CEO of UAC, said talks were underway with two companies to cooperate in a similar new project in the South.

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Amanda Eliason, Emma Langlands and Sarah Carter.

It’s taken the lives of seven tourists, all of whom fell ill from a mystery illness in Chiang Mai, Thailand this year.

Now two young New Zealanders have spoken out for the first time about their harrowing story of falling sick at Chiang Mai’s Downtown Inn hotel with the illness that killed their friend Sarah Carter.

Emma Langlands and Amanda Eliason, both 23, shared their story on the website thailandtraveltragedies.com, set up by Miss Carter’s father Richard, who believed Thai authorities “covered up” details relating to his daughter’s death.

Miss Langlands and Miss Eliason wrote that they arrived in Chiang Mai early in the evening of February 2 and took a taxi to the Downtown Inn, which seemed “clean and comfortable”.

They visited the night bazaar, eating at an indoor food court.

“Amanda ate a chicken pita kebab, and Emma and Sarah ate red pork curry. Both Amanda and Sarah drank a passionfruit shake. Later at the hotel, we drank the bottled drinking water provided for us.

“We woke up early on 3 February, and within half an hour of each other, all fell ill. We called a doctor to our room mid-morning.”

They improved in the afternoon and ate some food the hotel provided, but took a turn for the worse that evening and were admitted to hospital about midnight.

Hotel manager Thanthep Bunkaew has previously told of seeing the girls vomiting in their room, and arranging a doctor to visit and hook up an intravenous drip.

“The manager of the hotel was very attentive when he found out we were ill, and he later visited us in hospital.

“During the day we spent in the hotel room, we were aware that people were concerned about a guest in the room next to ours, and were attempting to enter that room. On one of his visits to hospital, the manager told us that the person had passed away.”

Miss Carter, 23, died in Chiang Mai Ram Hospital as Miss Eliason lay in the bed next to her, recovering from emergency heart surgery.

Early reports suggested Miss Carter’s death was caused by toxic seaweed she had eaten, but food-poisoning tests were inconclusive.

A report in March by Thailand’s Department of Disease Control found Miss Carter was one of three people to die from myocarditis – heart inflammation – between January 9 and February 4.

Three more travellers staying at the Downtown Inn died in similar circumstances. Chiang Mai governor Pannada Disakul said their deaths were a coincidence.

Miss Langlands and Miss Eliason said they had provided information and samples for the continuing investigation, and hoped that process could give answers.

Since his daughter’s death, Mr Carter created thailandtraveltragedies.com to raise awareness of the dangers tourists can face in the country.

Easter had been a difficult time for the Carters, as it would have been Miss Carter’s first visit home to Auckland since the Thai trip. The Victoria University graduate was working at BDO Spicer in Wellington.

“Fortunately we’ve had a lot of family around, which has been comforting, but it has been very hard,” Mr Carter said.

He was pleased his daughter’s companions had allowed him to share their story. Thailand was being wrongly touted as a haven for young tourists, “but it’s not – it’s a Third World country”.

“If we’d known then what we know now, we would have discouraged Sarah from going.”

He still believed it was a toxin or a poison, rather than a virus, that made the women ill. The family was awaiting test results from Japan and the United States and hoped they would provide conclusive evidence.

A report by Thailand’s Department of Disease Control in mid-March identified a Frenchwoman aged between 23 and 33 as the third person to die of myocarditis between January 9 and February 4 in Chiang Mai.

A Californian, Mariam Soraya Vorster, 33, who was working as a guide in Chiang Mai, died on January 11, just over three weeks before Miss Carter’s death.

Ms Vorster’s husband said his wife was in excellent health before she came down with symptoms of food poisoning and died.

Canadian Bill Mah, 59, died on January 26. He had used the facilities of the Downtown Inn.

Thai officials put three other deaths in similar circumstances down to coincidence.

Thai local Waraporn Pungmahisiranon died two days before Miss Carter, and British couple George and Eileen Everitt died less than two weeks later.

All were staying at the Downtown Inn, the same hotel as Miss Carter.

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IBM has awarded US$50 million worth of technology and services to help 100 municipalities across the globe over the next three years. The scheme is a competitive grant programme to help drive business growth, improve municipal services, encourage citizen engagement and increase efficiency in selected cities.

Each Smarter Cities Challenge grant is worth about $400,000.

Chiang Mai was chosen because of its strategic location in the Greater Mekong Subregion. It has successfully implemented various tangible programmes to improve quality of life and enhance competitiveness, said Parnsiree Amatayakul, the country general manager of IBM Thailand.

IBM will assign five experts from the United States, the Netherlands and France to work with the Chiang Mai Creative City steering committee and Chiangmai University to develop concrete plans.

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Zoo director Tanapattara Pongpamorn said yesterday the project was worth the investment and strictly adheres to international animal welfare guidelines.

Under the project, the zoo will import a pair of polar bears and some king penguins from foreign zoos. The polar animals will be kept in a 71 million baht enclosure, which is now 30% complete. Work will continue on the 2,909-square metre enclosure over the next two years.

The zoo anticipates that the enclosure will boost visitor numbers by half.

Mr Tanapattara dismissed environmentalists’ concerns that conditions at the zoo will harm the polar animals.

“We have done everything to follow the Association of Zoo and Aquarium’s guidelines, especially on natural habitats,” said Mr Tanapattara.

“We have a life support system in case of emergencies, together with plans to reduce the animals’ stress in a new environment.”

The zoo has been negotiating with zoos in Russia and Canada as well as Safari World in Bangkok, where four polar bears are kept.

Mr Tanapattara said he would make sure the polar animals chosen for the zoo were born in captivity, as they would adapt to the new environment easily.

Environmentalists are also worried about the amount of electricity required to run the air-conditioned enclosure.

Mr Tanapattara said the electricity bill would be around 200,000 baht a month.

Veterinarian Kannikar Nimtragul, who will look after the polar bears, said the project is part of an attempt to save the species from extinction, as their natural habitat is threatened by climate change.

Meanwhile, a group of wildlife activists and members of the public gathered at Chiang Mai Zoo yesterday to protest the project.

They handed a petition to the zoo director, urging him to scrap the project, which they said violates animal rights.

Nikom Phutta, secretary-general of the Thai Wildlife Protection Network, said polar bears living in confined spaces are prone to suffer from depression.

The temperature of 18-22 degrees inside the enclosure would be too hot for the animals, which normally live in freezing conditions.

“Polar bears in a Singaporean zoo have reportedly developed heat stress,” he said.

Mr Nikom urged the zoo to abolish the polar animal project and invest the money in wildlife conservation.

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