High-Speed Mercedes Crash Ignites Uproar In Thailand

[Coss]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/high-speed-mercedes-crash-ignites-uproar-thailand-37869125

 

 

By JOCELYN GECKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS BANGKOK — Mar 23, 2016, 11:48 AM ET

 

The dash cam video is jaw-dropping: On a virtually empty stretch of highway, a midsize car is seen traveling in the slow lane. Suddenly, a black Mercedes-Benz zooms into the frame and rear-ends the car at tremendous speed. Within a split second, a cloud of smoke and debris fill the video screen.

 

What happened next is now well known in Thailand and the focal point of growing outrage. The midsize car burst into flames and the couple inside, both graduate students in their 30s, died at the scene of the accident. The Mercedes driver, the son of a wealthy Thai businessman, survived with minor injuries and refused both alcohol and drug tests — and his wishes were respected. Police say he was driving at an estimated 240 kilometers (150 miles) per hour.

 

Since the video was widely shared on social media last week, the fatal March 15 crash has reignited a debate about the impunity of the rich and well-connected in Thailand who tend to get away with murder. A similar debate raged in the U.S. with the case of the Texas teenager who used an "affluenza" defense in a deadly drunken-driving wreck.

 

The Mercedes driver, Janepob Verraporn, 37, now tops a list of "Bangkok's deadly rich kids," as one Thai newspaper calls the children of privilege who have killed with their fancy cars. TV talk shows, social media forums and editorials have chimed in on a debate that asks whether justice will be served this time or — if history is any guide — if Janepob will walk away from the crime without serving time.

 

Police have rushed to defend themselves against criticism for initially mishandling the case and acting to shield Janepob, whose father owns a luxury car import company.

 

"The law is the law — whether you are rich or poor you have to pay for what you've done," national police spokesman Songpol Wattanachai said Monday, asking skeptics to have faith in the police. "Justice will be served. Just because he is rich doesn't mean he won't go to jail. I'm asking people not to think that way."

 

Police who initially handled the case in Ayutthaya province, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Bangkok, were quickly sidelined after failing to test Janepob for alcohol and drug use — and then defending the blunder. Speaking on TV, a police commander said the suspect had the right to refuse breath and blood tests, adding that both police and rescue workers did not smell any alcohol on Janepob's breath.

 

Amid public uproar, police filed a charge last week against Janepob for driving while unfit or intoxicated, which carries a prison sentence of three to 10 years, said Ayutthaya's deputy police chief, Col. Surin Thappanbupha. Under Thai law, he said, a refusal to be tested is tantamount to driving under the influence.

 

Janepob faces another charge of reckless driving causing death and property damage, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. Janepob was spared provisional detention after posting 200,000 baht ($5,700) bail and is currently at one of Bangkok's private hospitals.

 

The Nation newspaper said in an editorial on Sunday that the case had hit a nerve in Thailand because of "the sense that there is one set of rules for the rich and influential and another for everyone else."

 

"Stop me if you've heard this one before," the editorial begins. "An expensive car crashes. One or more people die. A person with a recognizable name ... emerges from the wreckage and flees the scene. No breath test is administered. Compensation is offered and the family tries to wriggle their way out of any legal consequences. The police fail dismally at their job."

 

One of Thailand's most famous untouchables is an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune. In 2012, Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a grandson of Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya, slammed his Ferrari into a policeman and dragged the officer's dead body along a Bangkok street before driving away. Vorayuth, who was then 27, has yet to be charged. In that case, police initially attempted to cover up his involvement by arresting a bogus suspect.

 

In 2010, Orachorn Devahastin Na Ayudhya was 16 and driving without a license when she crashed her sedan into a van on a Bangkok highway, killing nine people. Orachon, the daughter of a former military officer, was given a two-year suspended sentence.

 

In a country that values deference and patronage, and where police are infamously corrupt, there have been many other similar cases. But Janepob's carried the added shock value of visuals. The video of the crash was taken by a nearby car's dashboard camera, and quickly went viral. A few days later, another video was uploaded and widely shared showing Janepob's Mercedes smashing through an Easy Pass toll gate about an hour before the crash.

 

Bangkok resident Nant Thananan, 35, was among many who expressed their exasperation on Facebook.

 

"It's so frustrating because there's nothing we can do. We know this case will go away. We've seen it before," said Nant, who owns a popular Bangkok food truck. "We keep asking ourselves, when are the police going to be ashamed enough to do the right thing?"

[dean]

Shame has nothing to do with it. If the Police won't go after someone that hits, and then drags, a Policeman, and then flees the scene, why would they go after someone that kills civilians with their car?

[Coss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbQBZue6190&feature=youtu.be

[Coss]

‘Affluenza’ in Thailand

 

Posted on March 23, 2016 By Our Correspondent Headline, Society, Thailand‘Affluenza’ in Thailand

 

 

Getting away with hit-and-run murder

 

 

Early in the morning of Sept. 3, 2012, a 27-year-old driver named Voravut Yuwitthaya drove his speeding US$1 million Ferrari FF into the motorcycle of a Thai traffic policeman named Wichien Klinprasert, killing him instantly. Voravut dragged the dead policeman for more than 100 feet before he fled for his family’s mansion to hide out.

 

Voravut is the grandson of the late Chaleo Yuwitthaya, the billionaire founder of the Red Bull fortune. The family also owns the Ferrari dealership in Bangkok. Forbes ranks the family fortune at US$5.4 billion.

 

No charges

 

Nearly four years later, Voravut has yet to be tried on reckless driving charges although the family has paid compensation of US$97,000. A speeding charge has been dropped, not because it was invalid, but because the statute of limitations has expired. So far, despite public calls for prosecution, the case has yet to come to court.

 

“The guy was super drunk when he killed the policeman,†said a Thai businessman. “Bad enough, his Ferrari dragged the body almost to the door of his expensive home. There was blood all over. He went in and got a senior gardener to accept the responsibility, lying that he was the one who was driving. Still he walks around Thailand and Singapore like nothing has happened.â€

 

Voravut is hardly alone. While the children of the rich are insulated from prosecution across much of Asia, it seems as if it has become endemic in Thailand, recalling the US case of Ethan Anthony Couch, the Texas youth who sparked a national debate when his lawyers argued that he suffered from “affluenza†– that his wealthy family had raised him without giving him the ability to know right from wrong.

 

In June of 2013, the then-16-year-old youth, driving while drunk, plowed his truck into a group of people, killing four and injuring nine. A Texas judge sentenced Couch to 10 years probation and in-patient therapy. He and his mother promptly left for Mexico, where they were apprehended and returned to the US.

 

As in the US, there is rising anger over Voravut and a crowd of other socialites’ children whose affluenza appears to be just as deep if not more so. Both Couch and his mother have been arrested. There have been few arrests and fewer convictions in Thailand, causing an army of netizens to criticize the police investigations as well as the junta which took power in May of 2014 with a promise to make the justice system fair.

 

“Impunity for the rich and powerful continues to be a major problem in Thailand, where those with means and connections can evade responsibility while the poor face the full brunt of the law. The Red Bull heir is just the most obvious case, but every year there are dozens more,†said a western source with long experience in Thailand. “In fact, the only reason that the Red Bull case is still in the news is that he ran over and killed a policeman rather than an ordinary person.â€

 

Taking orders from above

 

Part of the Thai state of affairs is the nature of its strongly hierarchical society, according to Thai researcher Thongchai Winichakul in a recent scholarly paper for the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

 

What he called “Thainess†is characterized by attentiveness to hierarchical relations among individuals based on their social positions. These latter, he wrote, “reflect seniority, class, rank, wealth, gender and/or power, depending on the particular setting. In key fields such as education, law enforcement, the military, the justice system, business, journalism, and so on, which are apparently professional in nature, relations among people become very ‘personal†or person-based rather than ‘impersonal.’â€

 

That Thainess is part of what has caused society to genuflect to the latest coup. But junta or no junta, the Thai government commitment to the rule of law turns to jelly when it meets scions of well-connected clans running people over with their Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

 

The World Health Organization’s latest figures show Thailand, with 36.2 road deaths per 100,000 of population. it is the second worst in the world, behind only Libya with an astounding 73.6 deaths. By contrast, the average for Europe is nine deaths. Thailand’s death rate is more than twice the global average of 17.4.

 

 

In the wake of a horrific accident on March 13, in which Janepob Veeraporn, 37, smashed his Mercedes into the back of a Ford Fiesta in Ayutthaya, killing two university students when the Ford exploded, the Bangkok Post published a kind of rogues’ gallery of such drivers, with a history of their treatment by the law. Janepob is the son of Jessada Veeraporn, an importer of luxury vehicles. He has since been charged with drunk driving. Police allowed him to refuse a drug and alcohol test at the scene of the accident.

 

 

Photo credit: Bangkok Post

 

One of the most egregious cases was that of Orachorn “Preewa†Thephasadin na Ayudhaya, the daughter of a high-ranking military figure, who rammed her Honda Civic into the back of a passenger van in 2010, blasting it off an elevated roadway and killing nine people, then got out of her wrecked car and started texting. She was charged with reckless driving, property damage, driving without a license and driving while using her cell phone. On appeal, she was given a two year suspended prison sentence and ordered to do 48 hours of community service per year, which she refused to do, claiming it was a violation of her rights.

 

 

Praewa kills 9, tends to her correspondence

 

In another case, Kanpitak Pachimsawat, the 24-year-old son of a property magnate and a former Miss Thailand, drove his Mercedes into a crowd at a bus stop after an argument with a bus driver. He killed a woman and injured two others. He received 15 months in jail.

 

It helps to be rich

 

“Thais have now become cynical about their system of justice, and firmly believe that there is a double standard between the treatment that the rich and well-connected get, and what ordinary people can expect,†the western source said. “They’re right, because money and the right connections can get you out of almost any problem situation. The only thing that has changed is the power of outrage expressed on social media against these blatant injustices – and even then, that anger diminishes over time and eventually the system re-sets and continues in the same way before.â€

 

http://www.asiasentinel.com/society/affluenza-thailand/

[Coss]

Hit-and-text driver demands to complete community service at hospital of her choice

 

By Coconuts Bangkok March 29, 2016 / 14:01 ICT

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Orachorn “Praewa†Thephasadin Na Ayudhya was photographed texting after she crashed her car into a commuter van, killing nine people.

 

 

The driver who killed 9 people in a car crash on Don Mueang tollway in 2010 when she was underage has demanded to complete her community service at a hospital of her choice because she fears for her safety.

 

Orachorn “Praewa†Thephasadin Na Ayudhya, now 22, visited the Probation Department yesterday and demanded to complete the rest of her community service at Phramongkutklao Hospital in Ratchathewi, which is not in her residential area, Probation Department Chief Narat Sawettanan.

 

"Her family chose Phramongkutklao Hospital because they are afraid Praewa would be attacked by the public,†Narat said.

 

Praewa crashed her car into a passenger van when she was 16 years old, causing it to plummet from the elevated tollway, resulting in nine deaths and four injuries.

 

She was sentenced to two years in prison, later suspended, for driving without a licence, reckless driving causing death and injury, property damage and using a mobile phone while driving.

 

The court ordered her to perform 48 hours of community service a year for four years as a condition of her release.

 

Praewa was ordered to work at a facility in Nonthaburi province, where she is a legal resident, but she refused.

 

"The Probation Department has proposed many facilities near her home, but Praewa refused to work there and has always claimed she was busy with her studies," Narat said.

 

Her community service became a topic of public interest when she sent a lawyer to the court in February with documents signed by Phramongkutklao Hospital that showed she had completed 90 hours of community service there without authorization from the Probation Department.

 

She was required to consult with the department but failed to do so.

 

The conflict has been reported to a court, which is set to decide on June 21 if the ninety hours of unauthorized work count towards her community service.

 

Narat said today if Praewa wishes to continue her work at the hospital, she can get a court approval for any future work, Daily News reported.

 

"Phramongkutklao Hospital is not an affiliate of the Probation Department, but if the court will approve, the department can issue a letter and send her to work there under supervision of probation officers,†he said.

[Coss]

Pol Lt-Gen Sanit wonders why drunk driving charge was dropped against Red Bull heir

 

• 
  

The police investigating the fatal car accident implicating the Red Bull energy drink heir have mishandled the case for not charging the suspect with drunk driving, Pol Lt-Gen Sanit Mahathavorn, acting commissioner of metropolitan police, told a press conference today (Monday).

 

Quoting the result of the initial probe into police handling of the case, he said that the suspect, Mr Woravuth Yuwitthaya, was instead charged with speeding and drunk after the accident.

 

Pol Lt-Gen Sanit admitted that he could not tell whether the dropping of the drunk driving charge by the police concerned amounted to aiding the suspect or not because he didn’t want to implicate any governmental agency concerned.

 

But as far as the police are concerned, he said that the police could not re-investigate the case against the Red Bull heir. “It is the duty of the prosecutor to decide,†he added.

 

The speeding charge was automatically dropped because it was not proceeded with the public prosecution within the period of the statue of limitations.

 

The acting commissioner went on saying that he ordered additional investigation into the issue related to the driver working in the residence of Yuwitthaya family who claimed that he was the driver of the Ferrari which crushed to death a Thonglor traffic policeman on the night of September 3, 2012. The driver later retracted his confession.

 

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/157163

[Coss]

Deadly Driver Jenphop Agrees to Blood Test 15 Days Later

 

Scene of the accident on March 13 in Ayutthaya province.

By Teeranai Charuvastra

Staff Reporter

 

AYUTTHAYA — A wealthy businessman who killed two graduate students in a high-speed car crash has agreed to a blood test 15 days after the accident, a police commander said.

 

Blood was taken today from the 37-year-old suspect, Jenphop Viraporn, who had not been tested sooner because police lacked his consent to do so, according to Maj. Gen. Sutthi Puangpikul, commander of Ayutthaya police.

 

“In the case of blood tests, we have to ask suspects for their consent,†Sutthi said. “This is about the law.â€

 

Asked about the national police commander’s remarks last week that an antidepressant substance had been found in Jenphop’s blood, Sutthi said that was in fact a misunderstanding, as police chief Chakthip Chaijinda was talking about an examination of pills recovered from his wrecked Mercedes-Benz after the crash.

 

Sutthi said the toxicology results would be made public by the end of the week.

 

Jenphop was not charged with any crime until three days after he crashed into another car March 13 in Ayutthaya province. The impact started a fire that killed the two people inside: 32-year-old Krissana Thaworn, and Thantapat Horsaengchai, 34.

 

News of the delayed blood test is likely to compound the widespread criticism that police slow-walked the investigation, especially after they failed to conduct a legally mandated sobriety test in the immediate aftermath of the deadly crash.

 

Despite media reports that Jenphop was traveling in excess of 250kph, police have yet to release their conclusion about his travel speed at the time of the accident. They had earlier indicated the information would be available by Monday. Sutthi said it might be available Tuesday.

 

Jenphop has been charged with fatal reckless driving and driving under influence that leads to deaths of others. Sutthi said he did not know if the suspect would appear at his second custody hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

 

http://www.khaosoden...ate=06&section=

[Coss]

>>Blood was taken today from the 37-year-old suspect, Jenphop Viraporn, who had not been tested sooner because police lacked his consent to do so, according to Maj. Gen. Sutthi Puangpikul, commander of Ayutthaya police.

 

>>“In the case of blood tests, we have to ask suspects for their consent,†Sutthi said. “This is about the law.â€

 

So quote this guy "Maj. Gen. Sutthi Puangpikul", if you are ever stopped for tests of any kind in Soi Cowboy.

[cavanami]

Good luck quoting something to the BiB 555

[Flashermac]

Killer driver 'breaching court order'

 

 

Pol Col Narat Sawetanant, director-general of the Probation Department, revealed yesterday that Orachorn “Praewa†Thephasadin na Ayudhya, now 22, has violated the court order to perform 48 hours of community service each year for four years — a condition of her avoiding jail time.

...

 

"When authorities alerted her family that she had failed to meet her probation conditions, the family petitioned the Office of the Ombudsman, accusing probation authorities of threatening her."

...

 

 

http://www.bangkokpo...ing-court-order

 

 

As soon as I saw her name, I knew nothing would happen to her: Orachorn Thephasadin na Ayudhya

 

Very prominant and influential family.