A young woman riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by her police officer boyfriend was killed when she was run over by a truck after he crashed the bike while crossing over one of the bridges prohibited to two-wheel vehicles early on Monday.
The accident occurred at a fork on the Bhumibol Bridge I in Samut Prakan’s Phra Pradaeng district about 5am.
Pol Lt Chaiyan Thongkhamchum, 30, deputy crime suppression division inspector at Lat Phrao police station, was travelling with his 23-year-old girlfriend Kwanruathai Chainakin on a big bike across the Chao Phraya River to Rama III Road with a group of friends following them.
Phra Pradaeng police investigator Pol Capt Prasert Kingkade said Pol Lt Chaiyan was riding fast, scraped against the roadside barrier near the fork and lost control of the vehicle. He and Kwanruathai both fell off but she was then run over by a truck and died on the spot. The truck driver fled the scene. Kwanruathai was a fourth-year student at Rattana Bundit University.
Pol Lt Chaiyan sustained non-life threatening injuries but was left an emotional wreck, according to his friends. He fired five shots into the air with his 9mm pistol and then pointed the gun at himself, but a friend snatched it from him in time. The officer then ran to the guardrail in an apparent attempt to commit suicide, but his friends subdued him.
The Bhumibol Bridge I is one of many bridges declared off-limits to motorcycles by the Metropolitan Police Bureau on March 31. Bikers are prohibited from using 45 flyovers, bridges and underpasses across Bangkok. It is a trial and will last until June 30.
MPB acting chief Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathaworn said Pol Lt Chaiyan would be charged with careless driving causing death. He would also face disciplinary action and a fine for defying the ban.
Pol Lt Gen Sanit asked the public not to use one offence committed by a lone policeman to judge more than 20,000 other city police.
The fatal accident occurred on the same day that Bangkok bikers, angered by the police restrictions, on Monday petitioned the Administrative Court to issue an injunction against the ban.