A drunken policeman collided with a motorcycle in Kanchanaburi, killing the rider on the spot. The officer, who was driving his own pick-up, was found to have 300 milligrammes per decilitre (mg/dL) of alcohol in his blood, which far exceeds the legal alcohol limit of 50 mg/dL.
The accident took place on Sunday at about 4pm according to the report received by Tha Muang police, who rushed to investigate a flood of calls from concerned bystanders at the scene on Ban Tham-Muang Chum road in tambon Muang Chum of Tha Muang district.
Police later identified the dead motorcycle rider as Daorung Klinhom, 48, who was killed when her blue motorcycle spun out control and crashed, leaving her belongings scattered on the ground.
Five metres away from the scene was a Toyota pickup truck whose driver was reported to be Pol Sub Lt Somya Bantaotuk, 35, a deputy superintendent of Kanchanaburi Provincial Police.
Pol Sub Lt Somya had refused to get out of the car for fear of being lynched by the crowd that had gathered.
The officer was subsequently sent to Tha Muang police station for questioning.
Footage captured by security cameras along the stretch revealed that Daorung was riding her motorcycle in the leftmost lane before Pol Sub Lt Somya suddenly veered into her from the fast lane.
Daorung's body was sent to Ratchaburi Hospital for a postmortem.
Thidarat Klinhom, a daughter of the victim, urged the officers responsible for the investigation not to give Pol Sub Lt Somya any help because he is a colleague.
Pol Col Surayut Mekmungkorn, Kanchanaburi Provincial Police's superintendent and the supervisor of Pol Sub Lt Somya, said that he had set up a committee to probe the case and guaranteed a fair and transparent investigation.