BURI RAM: The caretaker chief of Prakhon Chai police station has been transferred after a police captain attached to his station refused to take an alcohol blood test following a fatal crash.
The police captain drove a pickup truck and rammed into a hospital ambulance, killing a nurse and injuring five others in Prakhon Chai district late Monday night.
Pol Col Veeraphol Charoensiri, acting chief of Buri Ram police, signed the order on Wednesday to transfer Pol Lt Col Suthin Wangklap, caretaker superintendent of Prakhon Chai police station, to an inactive post following the crash involving his subordinate.
Pol Capt Decha Priabsom, deputy crime suppression chief at Prakhon Chai police station, came under fire after he refused to undergo an alcohol blood test on the night he drove his pickup truck which collided head-on with the ambulance. His vehicle had no licence plates.
The crash occurred on Buri Ram-Prakhon Chai Road in tambon Ban Sai, Prakhon Chai district, late Monday night.
The force of the crash killed Sudarat Chuemak, 25, a nurse at Khao Khok community health promotion hospital, and injured five other people, including a pregnant woman, two relatives, the driver and another nurse.
The injured nurse, identified as Charuayporn Paprakhon, 40, of Prakhon Chai Hospital, was badly hurt and being treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit.
The nurse sustained brain haemorrhage and spleen injuries and had to undergo surgery. The other injured people were safe.
Deputy permanent secretary for public health Praphon Tansrikiartikul on Thursday visited the family of the dead nurse to give them moral support. Dr Prapon later visited nurse Charuyaporn.
Police have pressed three charges -- reckless driving causing death and injuries and damaging property, driving a vehicle with no licence plates and driving under the influence of alcohol -- against Pol Capt Decha. The investigators were questioning the officer further.
Deputy permanent secretary for public health Praphon Tansrikiartikul leads ministry officials to visit injured nurse Charuayporn Paprakhon at Prakhon Chai Hospital on Thursday. (Photo by Surachai Piragsa)
Nurses and hospital staff bid farewell to Sudarat Chuemak, 25, a nurse at Khao Khok community health promotion hospital killed in the Monday crash, during a cremation rite at a temple in Buri Ram. (Photo by Surachai Piragsa)