Drug dealer’s crash claims lives of two students in Sa Kaeo

A drug dealer yesterday crashed a pickup into a baht bus, killing two students in the Isaan province of Sa Kaeo.

The fatal accident occurred on No. 3259 road in Sa Kaeo province at about 7am yesterday, May 23. The pickup, a white Mitsubishi Triton, crashed into a baht bus carrying students from Wang Prai Witthayakhom School. The pickup was reportedly driving at a very high speed and hit the baht bus directly.

As a result of the accident, 21 students on the baht bus were injured, two of them seriously. Officers from Wang Nam Yen Police Station and rescuers from Sawang Sa Kaeo Foundation, together with locals living near the scene, rushed to help the injured victims.

Each student was transferred to a different hospital. Unfortunately, two students succumbed to their injuries at the hospital, including a 15 year old boy named Tawan Srichai, and a 13 year old boy named Aomsin Phumala.

During the rescue operation, a 69 year old man, Suthon In-prasert, who lived near the scene jumped into the canal near the accident scene in search of injured students but unexpectedly found packs of methamphetamine, also known as Yaba.

Suthon explained that he saw several school bags in the canal and initially thought some children might have fallen into the water. However, instead of finding children, he discovered packs of drugs. Suthon then retrieved them from the water and handed them over to the police.

The drugs, it was discovered, belonged to the pickup driver, 33 year old Montri Sawatdee. Some 30,000 Yaba tablets were found in his possession. Montri threw the drugs into the canal aiming to hide them.

Montri attempted to escape from the scene but residents managed to catch him. Many residents were angry at his reckless driving, leading to a lynching. The injured suspect was later taken to hospital and police will question him once his condition improves.

Officers conducted a further investigation into the relevant suspects and found that two women had travelled with Montri but they managed to flee the scene before the discovery of the drugs. Some of the women’s documents were left in the car.

Locals in the province later spotted the two women in a rented room, leading to their arrest. The women denied their involvement in the drug trade.

One claimed that her car had been stolen by a thief, which is why her documents were found there. The other woman stated that she had no knowledge of the drug trafficking.