UPDATE: Chon Buri police couldn’t find victim of car crash… on the back seat

UPDATE

The Director of the Inter-City Motorway Division, Highway Department, Thanasak Wongthanakijcharoen, defended his highway officers after they were criticised for their slapstick approach to a car crash investigation which couldn’t find the body of the dead driver in the rear of the vehicle. The director said his team didn’t look for the driver’s corpse because it is a department policy not to get involved in property loss.

Thanasak said the department didn’t ignore the case, he revealed that each investigation into a car accident is operated under the policies launched by the Commission for Management of Road Traffic.

Thanasak explained that the car accident management process is conducted step by step. He said a highway officer would notify a rescue team that takes care of the area where the accident occurred. The other involved departments would be notified too, like police officers and forklifts.

The officers who arrived at the scene first would take pictures, close the area by using traffic tape or cones and put up a traffic light warning to inform other drivers and prevent repeated accidents.

Thanasak emphasised that the officers would investigate outside of the car only and the area around the accident if they didn’t find the victims or drivers. He said the officers don’t go inside the car or touch the victims’ property to avoid any complaints over property loss.

Thanasak said the department would like to express condolences to the family of their loss. He said the department had set up a committee to investigate the case and question the relevant staff in detail, and promised to respond to all questions and inquiries later after the investigation.

SOURCE: Khaosod

ORIGINAL STORY: Chon Buri police couldn’t find a victim of a car crash in the back seat

Chon Buri Highway Police rescue team has been slammed by Thai netizens for their slapstick approach because they couldn’t find the dead body of a man who crashed his car. The dead body of the driver lay in the car’s wreckage for 12 hours after the accident before he was found.

The body of 68 year old Pattarachai Auttaporn was found in the back seat of a white sedan car 12 hours after the accident happened.

The accident happened yesterday at about 7am on Motorway Road No. 7 leading to Pattaya. The white sedan car was seen on CCTV cameras hitting a traffic barrier in the middle of the road after the driver seemingly lost control.

The highway rescue team rushed to the scene but astonishingly reported no deaths or injuries when they got there. They didn’t think of looking in the back and believed someone had beaten them to it and that the driver had already been sent to a hospital.

Even more bizarre was that the forklift driver didn’t look inside the car. The forklift driver just moved the damaged car to a parking lot at Khao Kheow Highway Police Station in Bang Phra Sub-district, Si Racha District, in Chon Buri.

The highway policeman in charge of the case, Rattanapon Wanna, said he waited for the driver, or driver’s relatives to contact the police and pick up the car but no one called.

It was only when Rattanapon went to check the car for documents did he find the dead body.

The local news Facebook page Krua Sahapat – Laem Chabang Road (เครือสหพัฒน์-แหลมฉบัง), posted the story with pictures this morning.

The post sparked fury among many Thai netizens who criticized the highway rescue team’s handling of the case.

“How a car accident could happen without a driver? Such a sloppy job!”

“What if the driver didn’t die at the time and he was only very hurt?”

“It’s a careless job!”

“Officers should work better than this!”

The 29 year old forklift driver informed the media that he was asked to move the damaged car at 7.45am yesterday. He brought the car to the parking area by himself and was shocked to learn that a corpse was still inside. The man said he has been working as a forklift driver for 10 years but had never experienced anything like this incident before.

Teerapong Supya, a 34 year old rescuer from another team, called Peaw Teang Tai Siracha, said his team got a notification about the accident too. However, Teerapong revealed that the Highway Department rescue team got there first and reported that there were no deaths or injuries. So, his team cancelled their investigation.

Police have now contacted the driver’s relatives. They revealed the victim’s relatives didn’t question the police about the incident and didn’t want to file a complaint against the authorities.

SOURCE: Thai News Agency | Thairath | Thai PBS | Khaosod