PHUKET: The wife of a German man - who is still in a coma after a beating from tuk-tuk drivers four nights ago - is struggling to accept that her husband's life is on the line because of a dispute over 100 baht.
Jiraporn Choochep, 30, briefly abandoned the bedside of her husband Kurt Trotnow, 53, in a Phuket hospital intensive care unit to give police in Patong more details about Thursday night's incident.
''We'd both had a bit to drink,'' she told Phuketwan tonight at Patong's Kathu Police Station. ''We had been at a party with friends and we decided to hire a tuk-tuk to go to the top of Soi Bangla.''
The couple picked up a tuk-tuk at Sabanngna rank near Soi Paradise, off Patong's better-known Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road.
''My husband made a deal with the driver to take us to Taipan at the top of Soi Bangla,'' Khun Jiraporn said. ''When we got there, I gave 100 baht to the driver's wife, who was sitting alongside him in the front seat.
''But the driver said, 'It's 200 baht. The minimum fare in Patong is 200 baht.' By that time I had gotten out of the tuk-tuk and took a few steps.
''When I looked back, there were people coming from all over. Everything happened so fast.
''I didn't see my husband hit the tuk-tuk driver, nor did I see anything except maybe some shirt-grabbing.
''But other people came from 360 degrees, from left, right and behind. After the attackers left, my husband collapsed on the road. I didn't see the original tuk-tuk driver involved.
''I find it hard to believe that my husband would have struck the driver. He is not that sort of person. ''
Khun Jiraporn said her husband remained in the intensive care unit at Phuket International Hospital in Phuket City and had yet to regain consciousness.
''He seemed a little better today but he needs an operation for a blood clot on his brain. The doctors can't do that until his condition is stable,'' she said.
Police Lieutenant Teerasak Boonsangdrunk, who took the original statement in a police report early on Friday morning and was interviewing Khun Jiraporn in detail tonight, said security cameras in the region had so far failed to provide footage of the incident.
The distance the couple travelled in the tuk-tuk takes about five minutes to walk.
Phuket Police Chief Says 'We Will Pursue Tuk-Tuk Attackers'Jiraporn Choochep, 30, briefly abandoned the bedside of her husband Kurt Trotnow, 53, in a Phuket hospital intensive care unit to give police in Patong more details about Thursday night's incident.
''We'd both had a bit to drink,'' she told Phuketwan tonight at Patong's Kathu Police Station. ''We had been at a party with friends and we decided to hire a tuk-tuk to go to the top of Soi Bangla.''
The couple picked up a tuk-tuk at Sabanngna rank near Soi Paradise, off Patong's better-known Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road.
''My husband made a deal with the driver to take us to Taipan at the top of Soi Bangla,'' Khun Jiraporn said. ''When we got there, I gave 100 baht to the driver's wife, who was sitting alongside him in the front seat.
''But the driver said, 'It's 200 baht. The minimum fare in Patong is 200 baht.' By that time I had gotten out of the tuk-tuk and took a few steps.
''When I looked back, there were people coming from all over. Everything happened so fast.
''I didn't see my husband hit the tuk-tuk driver, nor did I see anything except maybe some shirt-grabbing.
''But other people came from 360 degrees, from left, right and behind. After the attackers left, my husband collapsed on the road. I didn't see the original tuk-tuk driver involved.
''I find it hard to believe that my husband would have struck the driver. He is not that sort of person. ''
Khun Jiraporn said her husband remained in the intensive care unit at Phuket International Hospital in Phuket City and had yet to regain consciousness.
''He seemed a little better today but he needs an operation for a blood clot on his brain. The doctors can't do that until his condition is stable,'' she said.
Police Lieutenant Teerasak Boonsangdrunk, who took the original statement in a police report early on Friday morning and was interviewing Khun Jiraporn in detail tonight, said security cameras in the region had so far failed to provide footage of the incident.
The distance the couple travelled in the tuk-tuk takes about five minutes to walk.
Latest Phuket's police commander says that Phuket police will pursue the attackers - allegedly tuk-tuk drivers - who beat a German senseless, but there were two sides to the incident.
Phuket Police Chief Says 'We Will Pursue Tuk-Tuk Attackers'
Phuket Tuk-Tuk Gang 'Bashed Irate German Senseless,' Says Police Report
Latest A report to Patong police says a drunk German who started a fight with a tuk-tuk driver was bashed senseless by a gang. The German is still in a coma in an intensive care unit.
Phuket Tuk-Tuk Gang 'Bashed Irate German Senseless,' Says Police Report
Metered-tuktuk is the only option to stop all conflicts between drivers and tourists.
The main problem is that local selfish politicians support the free-bargain about fares which make the situation worse and worse.
Posted by Whistle-Blower on August 29, 2011 19:47