PHUKET: The driver of an ice truck involved in a crash at a Phuket intersection in which a 16-year-old was killed on Tuesday has surrendered to police.
Suwit Prachoomchai, 45, from Ranong, surrendered to officers at the Phuket City Police Station about four hours after the fatal crash at the major intersection near Saphan Hin public park.
He ran from the scene and later went to his employer's office. It is believed the advice was that he should go to see police.
Schoolgirl Wiparat Ketkaew, 16, was killed instantly when a truck wheel struck her head. Her pillion passenger, Pantha Panumas, also 16, remains in Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City with four broken limbs and serious head injuries.
The pair were turning right towards the park, witnesses told police, when the ice truck ran a red light and hit them. The students were not wearing safety helmets.
While Phuket still has too many crashes involving motorcycles, the number of fatalities has been substantially reduced over two years by improved signage, road surfaces and the ''100 percent helmet'' campaign.
The domestic science students were from the Phuket Vocational College near the intersection, one of several Phuket schools and colleges that have an agreement to coax students to wear helmets by imposing classroom penalties if they are caught repeatedly without head protection.
Although road fatalities have been reduced, the number of serious crippling injuries remains unacceptably high on Phuket, largely because buses are not used often enough or services do not exist.
Police allowed the ice truck driver to go free on bail of 15,000 baht while their investigation continues.
Although several classmates witnessed the fatal crash, officers said the busy intersection still does not have security cameras that would provide indisputable evidence of what took place.
Suwit Prachoomchai, 45, from Ranong, surrendered to officers at the Phuket City Police Station about four hours after the fatal crash at the major intersection near Saphan Hin public park.
He ran from the scene and later went to his employer's office. It is believed the advice was that he should go to see police.
Schoolgirl Wiparat Ketkaew, 16, was killed instantly when a truck wheel struck her head. Her pillion passenger, Pantha Panumas, also 16, remains in Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City with four broken limbs and serious head injuries.
The pair were turning right towards the park, witnesses told police, when the ice truck ran a red light and hit them. The students were not wearing safety helmets.
While Phuket still has too many crashes involving motorcycles, the number of fatalities has been substantially reduced over two years by improved signage, road surfaces and the ''100 percent helmet'' campaign.
The domestic science students were from the Phuket Vocational College near the intersection, one of several Phuket schools and colleges that have an agreement to coax students to wear helmets by imposing classroom penalties if they are caught repeatedly without head protection.
Although road fatalities have been reduced, the number of serious crippling injuries remains unacceptably high on Phuket, largely because buses are not used often enough or services do not exist.
Police allowed the ice truck driver to go free on bail of 15,000 baht while their investigation continues.
Although several classmates witnessed the fatal crash, officers said the busy intersection still does not have security cameras that would provide indisputable evidence of what took place.
Helmets, cameras... all this doesn't help at all as long as basic traffic rules are violated all the time and a bail of THB 15 k is just a bad joke. The bigger the vehicle they drive the more careless they become.
Posted by Resident on November 17, 2011 13:34