Prince Rannaridh injured in head-on road crash. His wife died

[geovalin]

Xinhua news agency reported that Ouk Phalla, the prince's wife, was seriously wounded in the crash, and they have been taken to a hospital.

 

A Cambodian prince and former prime minister was injured in a head-on collision on a highway in the country's southwest on Sunday, officials said. Prince Norodom Ranariddh and his wife Ouk Phalla were rushed to hospital after a taxi travelling in the other direction slammed into his motorcade.

 

    "A taxi with many passengers crashed into the convoy and hit the prince's car," an official from Ranarridh's political party who was accompanying him told AFP.

 

    A report on the national police website showed badly damaged cars and victims on the roadside.  Seven people were reported injured.

 

 

    Chuon Narin, police chief of Preah Sihanouk province where the accident happened, confirmed the crash but said he did not know how severe the injuries were. 

 

    Ranariddh, 74, was travelling from the riverside town of Kampot to Preah Sihanouk as part of campaigning for controversial national elections set for July 29.

 

    His party Funcinpec is taking part despite widespread complaints that the poll will be neither free nor fair after the main opposition group the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was banned late last year.

 

    Hun Sen, the prime minister who has been in power for 33 years, has crushed dissent leading up to the election, ensuring a resounding victory for his ruling Cambodian People's Party.

 

    Ranariddh, the half-brother of Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, has had a historically fraught relationship with Hun Sen, who pushed him out of power in 1997. 

 

    But he has cosied up to the former foe as part of a political comeback, and was granted one of the CNRP's parliamentary seats after they were redistributed.

 

    Traffic accidents are a leading cause of death in Cambodia, where road rules are weakly enforced. Highways also lack dividers while speed limits are often ignored.

 

    In 2015 Ranariddh was slightly injured when his car was hit by a truck.//AFP

 

source http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30347942#.WyYN4Mkx--s.twitter

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 17/06

[geovalin]

Ranariddh 'seriously injured', his wife dies in accident in Preah Sihanouk

THE wife of former first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh has died. Ouk Phalla succumbed to injuries sustained in a traffic accident on National Road 4 in Preah Sihanouk’s Prey Nub district this morning.

 

She and the prince were immediately rushed to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Hospital. Phalla remained in an unconscious state and was confirmed to have died just after 12:00pm.

 

Ranariddh was later airlifted from the provincial hospital to the Phnom Penh Hospital in critical condition.

 

read more https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ranariddh-seriously-injured-his-wife-dies-accident-preah-sihanouk

 

 

-- © Copyright Phenom Pen Post 18/06

[geovalin]

Cambodia's political prince hurt in car crash that kills wife

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Ranariddh was seriously injured, and his wife killed, in a car crash on Sunday in the southwestern coastal city of Sihanoukville, police said.

 

Ranariddh’s sports utility vehicle was hit head on by a taxi driving in the opposite direction, said Chuon Narin, police chief of the province of Preah Sihanouk.

 

“The prince was taken in a helicopter for an emergency rescue in Phnom Penh,” Chuon Narin told Reuters. “He is seriously injured but he will be fine.”

 

Ranariddh’s wife, Ouk Phalla, 39, an exponent of traditional dance, died in a hospital in Preah Sihanouk, Chuon Narin said, adding that both SUVs involved in the crash had been speeding.

 

The son of the influential late monarch Norodom Sihanouk and half-brother of the current King Norodom Sihamoni, Ranariddh, 73, has had a turbulent political career.

 

He returned to politics in 2015 to lead the royalist Funcinpec party that ditched him years ago.

 

In 1997, he was overthrown as co-prime minister in a bloody coup and since his return to politics, had vowed to work with former rival and long-serving prime minister Hun Sen.

 

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) last year, leaving the way clear for Hun Sen to extend more than three decades of rule in an election on July 29.

 

Ranariddh’s Funcinpec was allocated most of the CNRP’s parliamentary seats after its dissolution, and its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested over accusations of plotting to take power with the help of the United States.

 

The CNRP and Washington have both denied the charges.

 

Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-prince/cambodias-political-prince-hurt-in-car-crash-that-kills-wife-idUSKBN1JD06Q 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 1706

[Srikcir]

On 6/17/2018 at 2:36 PM, geovalin said:

A taxi with many passengers crashed into the convoy and hit the prince's car,

Not much point to traveling in a convoy then.

[kannot]

i  hope  they  arent  trying to  steal thailands road  deaths  crown

[tifino]

taxi full of paparazzi?  just feels too suspicious... too clinical with the precision on the target

 

 

no one gets near a political style convoy