Motorbike Taxi Driver Dies In Phuket Police Cell

[webfact]

Motorbike taxi driver dies in Phuket police cell

Mr Chalee’s body was returned to Patong Hospital, where he was treated a day earlier for a head injury sustained in a motorcycle accident.

PHUKET: After a collision with a pedestrian, a Phuket motorcycle taxi driver was found dead in his cell at Patong Police Station early Thursday morning.

Chalee Jampa-ngam, 53, was driving along Phra Barami Road in Patong, looking for costumers, around noon on Wednesday. As he drove past the Government Savings Bank he collided with a pedestrian and fell off the motorbike.

Mr Chalee received three stitches for a head wound at Patong Hospital, where staff asked him to stay overnight.

However, Mr Chalee instead reported to Patong Police Station, where he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in injury to another person.

He was put in a holding cell, where he was discovered dead at about 8am the following morning.

Patong Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakao confirmed Mr Chalee’s death this morning and said his family have told police they do not want to pursue an investigation into his death, which they presume to be related to a preexisting medical condition.

Mr Chalee’s body was taken to Patong Hospital for examination.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-02-26

[notime]

Very very fishy. Why wouldn't hospital keep him overnight if he was known to have a life threatening "pre-existing condition"? What "condition" was that? Why did he head off to police station after knowing he was driving drunk and just caused an accident? Guilty conscious perhaps? Colliding with a pedstrian and falling off the bike also doesn't seem to happen a lot to professional bike riders "looking for customers".

This sorry like so many others reported here doesn't gel and smells of a cover up nonsense. Motorbike drivers are notorious for being drug dealers. Crooks in the Police are known to supply them. Put these two facts together and one can easily start guessing what could have really taken place. A quarrel with a (drug) customer, maybe over the money owned, resulting with a fight and injury treated at the hospital. Then the man reports back at his Police boss who for some reason gets enraged and finishes him off. Locks him up later to cover up. The family knows what is going on but is too scared to "pursue an investigation". And of course the police will not investigate themselves either. Case closed. Sorry for the life lost. RIP. Welcome to Thailand, the land of smiling crooks.