88 year old Thai man killed after tree branch falls on his head

An 88 year old Thai man lost his life yesterday after a tree branch fell onto his head while he was sitting under it at a temple in the Mae On district of the northern province of Chiang Mai.

Officers from Mae On Police Station were alerted to the death of the old man, Boonma Do-kaew, by Mae On Hospital, yesterday, June 24. Officers visited the hospital to investigate the cause of his death and questioned witnesses at the scene of the incident.

According to the police report, Boonma, who used a wheelchair, visited On Klang Temple almost every day. On the day of the incident, Boonma moved his wheelchair under a bodhi tree to seek shelter from the sun.

Unexpectedly, a large branch fell on his head causing him to lose consciousness. The On Klang Rescue Foundation was called to the scene and performed CPR on Boonma before taking him to Mae On Hospital. Unfortunately, Boonma succumbed to his injury at the hospital.

Boonma’s family could not afford the funeral costs, so monks at the temple and residents in the area donated money to the family for a one-day funeral and cremation.

In a similar incident in April, a neem tree fell on a Thai man, killing him while he was riding a motorcycle along a road in the central province of Suphan Buri, while another man was cutting the tree on the roadside.

In another tragic incident in May, a three year old girl lost her life on her birthday when a thunderstorm toppled a tree onto her home in Uthai Thani, a central province of Thailand.

Similarly, a Thai man in the southern province of Satun was fatally injured at a plantation when a dead palm tree fell on him. Unaware of the tree’s condition, he had sat underneath it, possibly leaning against it, which led to the tree collapsing.