Drunken driver crashes BMW at PM’s home

Two bodyguards were seriously injured early Wednesday after an allegedly drunken driver swerved her $140,000 BMW SUV into them outside of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s home.

Yin Chantho, one of Hun Sen’s chief bodyguards, suffered a broken leg, while Seung Socheath, another guard, received a head wound and was bleeding from his left ear after Ung Kol Sanik, 26, lost control of her vehicle and rammed into the two men at about 2:10am. She and her two friends in the vehicle allegedly tried to flee the scene of the accident afterward, though were eventually forced to stop after crashing into a group of motorbikes.

“After hitting the bodyguards, the [driver] did not stop,” said Dea Res, the deputy director of the capital’s traffic police. “But [the car] was damaged, because it hit a tree and four motorbikes before coming to a stop.”

Before the accident, Res said, he saw the BMW speeding and swerving along Sothearos Boulevard.

The two victims were sent to the emergency room at Calmette Hospital following the crash.

Ung, an employee with BMW Cambodia, was arrested for drunken driving. She and her two friends are set to be sent to court on Thursday.

Phnom Penh traffic police director Chev Hak said Ung had almost twice the legal amount of alcohol in her system.

“The law stipulates that a driver is penalised when they test above 0.46 millilitres [ABV],” he said. “But the driver tested 0.86 millilitres.”