Thawee Kraikupt, father of Palang Pracharath MP Pareena Kraikupt, was involved a car-motorcycle crash in Ratchaburi province that injured a 16-year-old boy on Saturday.
Pol Lt Col Pradab Chueaphohak, the duty officer at the Photharam district station, said he was alerted on Saturday afternoon after a car hit a motorcycle at an intersection near an irrigation canal bridge on the Photharam Hospital-Ban Kong Road.
He was told that the driver had tried to escape so he sent a patrol team to the scene.
They found a Mercedes-Benz e300 with Bangkok licence plates on a road along the canal blocked by the rescuers’ pickup truck, 300 metres from the scene.
The driver of the sedan did not get out of the car. When police talked to him, he repeatedly told them: “I’m Thawee”.
When rescuers, local people and the boy’s mother accused him of trying to escape, he reversed the car and finally got out to see injured boy.
Ek, 16, had lacerations on his right ankle and toe.
An initial investigation found Mr Thawee had ben driving from Photharam while Ek was riding a Honda Wave 110 with Ratchabhuri licence plates. When they reached the intersection, Mr Thawee was turning right while Ek was going ahead to cross the bridge when their vehicles collided.
Mr Thawee agreed to go to the Photharam police station, where he agreed to pay medical bills and repairs to the teenager's bike.
According to the Facebook page of the Sawang Ratchaburi rescue team, which was the first on the scene, Mr Thawee might have been trying to escape before police arrived.
They wrote that while they were applying first aid to the victim and waiting for police, Mr Thawee abruptly tried to drive away until he hit a fence at a nearby house and almost hit the rescuers tending to the victim.
After that, he turned left to the canal road where the rescuers' vehicle was parked, blocking his way. He honked the horn for the vehicle to move but police finally arrived.
Mr Thawee, 80, is a former transport minister and Ratchaburi MP. His daughter Pareena has recently been accused of illegally occupying some 700 rai of reform and forest land. She had to return most of it to the Agricultural Land Reform Office.