Emergency responders arrived at the scene, in Muang District, to find a silver Ford Ranger with its front crushed and roof caved in, reports the Bangkok Post.
The driver, identified only as ‘Mr Chaloemphon’ from Phuket, was dead at the wheel, trapped in the wreckage.
His wife, a Lao national, was alive but with severe injuries and was rushed to Nakhon Phanom Hospital.
The pickup had collided with a power pole, which was leaning dangerously over it.
Rescue crews used hydraulic cutters to release the trapped driver’s body after power was cut off to the area. It took them nearly two hours.
Police said the couple had earlier dropped their child off at school in the city and were on their way to Tha Uthen district to buy fresh and dried food at the Thai-Lao wholesale market for resale.
It was raining heavily as the vehicle approached a sharp bend in Ban Kham Thao and the road surface was slippery. The driver apparently lost control, the vehicle ran off the road and crashed head-on into the pole.
Police said the investigation into the accident was continuing.