Crash victim wants replacement car from Bentley driver

The owner of a brand-new vehicle wrecked by a speeding Bentley while taking her family to see her parents wants full compensation from the errant driver, including a replacement new car.

Nichawee Chartsuriyapat and five other members of her family, one a 4-year-old, were leaving Bangkok in her Mitsubishi Pajero to see her parents in the northeastern province of Bung Kan, she wrote on her Facebook page.

The Pajero was brand new, she said. She had bought the vehicle and took delivery just 21 days before the terrible crash. It was wrecked, and she wanted a brand-new replacement.

Expressway police said the crash happened on the Chaloem Maha Nakhon expressway about 1am on Sunday.

Dashboard video from another vehicle (see below) showed the speeding Bentley in the left lane passing a pickup truck, swerving into the middle lane and then hitting the rear of Ms Nichawee's Pajero, sending it out of control into the path of a fire truck in the right lane with its lights flashing as it headed to a fire.

The wrecked Pajero finished upside down on the road.

Ms Nichawee said the people in her car were injured, but fortunately survived the crash because they were all wearing seatbelts. The Bentley driver had not been breathalysed for alcohol use at the scene of the crash, she said.

Pol Maj Gen Achayon Kraithong, the police spokesman, said on Monday that police had pressed charges against the driver of the Bentley and expected results from alcohol and drug tests on Tuesday.

Police would speed up investigation and ensure justice in the case, he said.