Woman commits suicide off Sarasin Bridge
TAKUA TUNG: In an eerie echo of a famous double suicide of the 1960s, a 36-year-old Phuket woman died yesterday evening after jumping into the sea from Sarasin Bridge.
Pol Maj Apidej Chauykua of the Khok Kloy Police Station, Phang Nga, told the Gazette that the woman, Boonsri Anekthammapinit, of Moo 2, Tambon Wichit, drove her Honda motorbike onto the bridge, stopped, climbed over the barrier, and jumped into the sea.
Witnesses pulled her from the water, but she was declared dead on arrival at Takua Tung Hospital.
Maj Apidej said that relatives told investigators that K. Boonsri had attempted suicide on a number of occasions. They added that she had looked depressed when she left home yesterday, saying only that she was going to visit friends.
The case echoes a famous double suicide nearly 50 years ago when a student of Rajabhat Phuket Institute and her lover, a song taew driver, jumped from Sarasin Bridge – with their hands tied together – after their families tried to stop them seeing one another. Both died.
That suicide pact became the basis for a hit song and later for a successful movie. As a result, Sarasin Bridge has become a macabre tourist attraction for Thais.
Many Thais, when crossing the bridge, hold their breath and make a wish.
