Police mechanical specialists on Tuesday will examine a car that plunged from the fifth floor of a Chatuchak office building car park, killing the driver, on Friday night.
Investigators and photographers surround a badly damaged white Chevrolet Cruze after it fell from the fifth floor of the Rasa Tower car park in Chatuchak district on Friday night, killing 40-year-old driver Kobkarn Witcharat. WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM
Royal Thai Police experts will inspect the vehicle at the Phahon Yothin police station to determine if a mechanical malfunction was responsible for the incident, said Pol Capt Thanakrit Wannachote, an investigator at the station.
The incident took place at Rasa Tower on Phahon Yothin Road on Friday evening, when the white Cheverolet Cruze plummeted from the car parking area to the ground, killing Kobkarn Witcharat.
Ms Kobkarn, 40, was a supply chain division manager with Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Co Ltd, which had offices on the 21st floor of the building.
Officers said she had been driving her vehicle down from the sixth floor of the car park when she lost control of it, with her car eventually plunging from the fifth floor.
Police arrived at the scene to find the woman dead inside the car wreckage.
Police could not confirm whether the fall had been an accident, as they found the automatic gear shift lever of the wrecked car locked in the "Park" position and its handbrake was still functional.
Police so far have not concluded whether the case involved driver error or mechanical failures, said Pol Capt Thanakrit.
Ms Kobkarn had only learned how to drive recently and bought the vehicle two months before the accident took place he said.
Pol Capt Thanakrit brushed aside any link to foul play, saying that the driver was seen on closed-circuit TV walking to her car and driving it alone.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will also be contacted to inspect the building's car park layout and determine why the car collided with the concrete barrier and fell.
Anekbhand Thambovornpong, a senior public relations manager of Chevrolet Sales Thailand, said company staff were providing full information to the police.
He said the Cruze model in question had been sold worldwide and there had been no reports of mechanical problems that would have caused such an accident.
The company was making every effort to look after Ms Kobkarn's family and would also host a funeral ceremony for the woman in Kanchanaburi, he added.