A female driver who failed to make way for an ambulance on Phahon Yothin Highway was summonsed for questioning and may face a manslaughter charge.
Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta, deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, said Thursday that police in Kaeng Khoi district of Nakhon Ratchasima summonsed Jiraporn Juisa-ngiam for interrogation at 10am on Monday.
She was identified as the driver of a red Suzuki Swift car in front of an ambulance taking a critically ill man from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima.
Pol Gen Wirachai said the traffic law required drivers to make way for ambulances using emergency lights and sirens.
The offence itself carried a fine of only 500 baht, but if it was proven that the delay caused the patient's death, the woman could be charged with manslaughter, the deputy national police chief said.
"The incident should make people aware that they must make way for ambulances, because every second means life or death," Pol Gen Wirachai said.
Kenzaa Standby, who was in the ambulance, posted a video clip on April 6 showing the incident. The ambulance was carrying Prasit Ramkhonburi, 61, from Lat Krabang Hospital in Bangkok to Khon Buri Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The elderly man's family said he was in a coma caused by brain hypoxia, and family members wanted to return him to his native district to let other relatives to see him one more time.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital the same evening.