Court orders Praewa's parents to pay 30 mln baht compensation for fatal car incident in 2010

[dhream]

Yeah now force them to pay it, foolishness, the girl should spend life in prison.

she'll carry this forever, no one will let her forget. She's not a premeditated killer, so jail is a bit redundant. Locking people up needs to make some practical sense, not just make the mob feel better. She should be banned for life from driving, as should all manslaughter drivers everywhere. The payout should be higher. But like many have said. Good to see the rich here finally learning they are not above the law.

[dageurreotype]

Yeah now force them to pay it, foolishness, the girl should spend life in prison.

she'll carry this forever, no one will let her forget. She's not a premeditated killer, so jail is a bit redundant. Locking people up needs to make some practical sense, not just make the mob feel better. She should be banned for life from driving, as should all manslaughter drivers everywhere. The payout should be higher. But like many have said. Good to see the rich here finally learning they are not above the law.

You're new here, aren't you

Edited November 26, 2015 by metisdead
2. Please do not modify someone else's post in your quoted reply, either with font or color changes or wording.

[happysanook]

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

It's not strange at all. Most civilized countries allow civil suits for damages in addition to whatever criminal sentence handed down.

re "It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose"....It's called involuntary manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter.

I'm not even sure she got any time. It sounds something like it was commuted, what we call a suspended sentence. I'm not sure, just basing it off of this in the OP: "The juvenile court granted three-year probation for her prison term, and mandated her to three year behaviour control, 48 hours of working to caring road accident patients, and report authorities every three months.".... Unless it's supposed to read "granted three-year probation *after* her prison term"... Not sure

[Jonmarleesco]

I still wonder whether the van driver was non-culpable.

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed as well as a reply.

[Thai at Heart]

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

Wrong wrong wrong, it wasn't an accident- it was lack of control on the part of the parents and stupidity of the girl.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accident

: a sudden event (such as a crash) that is not planned or intended and that causes damage or injury

: an event that is not planned or intended : an event that occurs by chance

This might help you with that definition for accident

She caused the accident through carelessness/negligence, but she wasn't trying to cause an accident.

How does one plan something that is unintended?

[Emster23]

If I did my math right, she is now 22, so her driving ban will be a whopping 3 years. "The accident happened when she was an underage or 17 years old."

"Locking people up needs to make some practical sense, not just make the mob feel better." Perhaps serve as a warning to others who engage in same behaviors? Maybe could do weekly update on her time in Monkey House on TV just to remind the youngsters.

[mankondang]

I have a friend in the US who was driving down the road when, according to him, a bee flew in his open window and distracted him. He hit a cop on the side of the road who was writing a ticket and killed him. He got 12 years in jail and a huge financial fine. Millions of dollars. This was during the day and he doesn't drink nor use drugs. Bible thumper.

Jail time should have been mandatory for this accident here.

You said here that you advocate only punishment for the offender of crime, no mention of rehabilitation and certainly no mention of victim compensation in your thread. This is in the US you add.

The policeman lost his life and his family lost their major bread winner and a lifetime form of financial income.

Whilst we all agree that no amount of money would bring this person back to life, surely we must also agree that his family shouldn't suffer further by loss of financial income.

In Thailand irrespective of the punishment and rehabilitation the offender receives, the Thai court sentance makes sure the victims family is also compensated for by the offender, or the offenders family, and not as in some other countries by the taxpayer.

I know which of these societies I deem the more advanced.

Edited November 26, 2015 by mankondang

[Baerboxer]

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

She didn't do it on purpose but:

She knowingly drove whilst underage, without a licence, and presumably uninsured. Condoned by her parents.

She apparently chose to speed and there seems a possibility she was texting or on the phone at the time of the accident.

She chose to act in ways which put others in danger.

She, and no one else is responsible for this accident, the deaths of nine people, and others injured and bereaved.

What price do you put on human lives vs the we wanna do as we like young hiso brats?

[billd766]

Seems fair to me...

Though I am sure how they define reckless... did she deliberately ram the bus off the road or was it down to driver inexperience?

The people who were reckless were her parents in allowing her to drive in the first place...

Lets hope this will be a warning to other parents...

She was speeding, texting, driving underage, and without a license. She also showed

absolutely zero remorse. While her jail sentence was suspended, she had her parents

appeal the 48 hours community service which she thought was grossly unfair. The

award should have been for the full 100 million the claimants were asking for.

Plus interest at 5% from the day of the accident.

[elgordo38]

30 million Baht ............ better add a couple more zeros to that sum.

Yes your right for 9 people definitely a couple more zero's. If her parents had a little more "Juice" here she might have walked away scot free.

[billd766]

Yeah now force them to pay it, foolishness, the girl should spend life in prison.

she'll carry this forever, no one will let her forget. She's not a premeditated killer, so jail is a bit redundant. Locking people up needs to make some practical sense, not just make the mob feel better. She should be banned for life from driving, as should all manslaughter drivers everywhere. The payout should be higher. But like many have said. Good to see the rich here finally learning they are not above the law.

While as you say she will carry this forever so will the innocent victims families and they had nothing to do with this. 9 people were killed by a stupid child, (she cannot be called a woman) who thought that using her mobile while driving was more important than anything else in her very small spoilt world.

Personally I would be happy if she went to jail for 5 years for every person she killed with NO remission.

If her parents cannot pay the fine (reduced by 70%) then put them in jail also and sell everything they own to pay the bill.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The OP article makes it seem -- wrongly -- that she might have actually served some time in jail from the criminal case, when in fact, AFAIR, her actual sentence was suspended and she was given probation along with misc. other restrictions.

But, as far as the civil case is concerned, asking 100 million and getting a judgment for 30 million -- especially only 5 years after the original incident -- is pretty darned good for Thailand for a case where 9 mostly young people died. Normally, it seems, the big civil cases take decades to reach any final resolutions and the end judgments are pretty paltry. Look at the 2009 Santika nightclub fire case as a comparison

67 people died, scores more badly injured, and the final verdict earlier this year:

The court also ordered Boonchu and his company to pay Bt5.12 million compensation to the victims of the fire and their families.

And then from 2012:

The Central Administrative Court yesterday ordered the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to pay Bt3.4 million in partial compensation to the parents of 12 victims of the New Year's 2009 Santika nightclub fire. [Though BMA planned to appeal, and I can't find a final ruling in that case re BMA.]

At least in the current case, given who the girl's family is, they presumably won't be doing a runner outside Thailand like so many others before them.

Edited November 26, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[tigermonkey]

If you read carefully and do a little research, you will discover that many of the points being debated here are based on false information, Firstly, she was sentenced to three years in prison, which was reduced to two years. This has already gone through all available appeals, and has been upheld in the Supreme Court. Jail sentence of this type are frequently served as "house detention/arrest" in Thailand, particularly if the felon is a juvenile and wealthy. Perhaps this has already been served. She was also banned from driving until age 25.

The Juvenile Court .ordered three years probation with behaviour restrictions, 48 hours annual care of road accident victims and 90 day reports. This does not seem to have been appealed.

The Civil case is entirely separate and is against Praewa alone and not her parents. The court however, in its decision , declared that the parents were jointly responsible for her behaviour and hence must jointly pay the damages to the plaintiffs. To the best of my knowledge the court did not define any percentages for the joint payments. There were 28 plaintiffs in the case, each representing some financial loss in the nine deaths which resulted from the crash. That would mean about 3.3 million baht for each victim's family although it is unlikely to be divided that way - or alternately about 1.1 million baht per plaintiff. However, the judgement in favour of the plaintiffs range from 1.8 million baht all the way down to 4,000 baht. It would be interesting to see how the court valued the future of each victim.

There is enough material in the Civil judgement to keep the appeals going for decades, from whether the parents should pay ( and what percentage) down to each individual award. Even the plaintiffs say that they will appeal because the awards are too small. The lawyers are rubbing their hands with glee !

The plaintiffs would be best to negotiate settlements now, if the defendants are willing.

[tomacht8]

The judgment to pay 30 million is one thing.
But if and when the money is actually paid out to the families of the victims, is another matter.
The waiting period for compensation is already painful 5 years!
The families of the victims had certainly a hard time since then.

Edited November 26, 2015 by tomacht8

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If you read carefully and do a little research, you will discover that many of the points being debated here are based on false information, Firstly, she was sentenced to three years in prison, which was reduced to two years. This has already gone through all available appeals, and has been upheld in the Supreme Court. Jail sentence of this type are frequently served as "house detention/arrest" in Thailand, particularly if the felon is a juvenile and wealthy. Perhaps this has already been served. She was also banned from driving until age 25.

As best as I recollect, she never served a single day of detention or house arrest anywhere following her criminal court verdict. Her sentence had jail time, yes, but it was entirely suspended by the court and she was given probation along with the various other restrictions.

[thailanddogerator]

So bad luck to kill 9 ! it would have been cheap to kill only 1 or 2...

[BwindiBoy]

She killed them the second she decided to drive illegally. Hideous that she hasn't spent any time locked up. So wrong. So typical, unfortunately.

[eddie61]

i would say this is probably hits them where it hurts...... in the parents pocket...

a short prison sentence for the girl would also be good:

I am sure that in her mind, money is something Mummy and Daddy just have, and khun nhu is the apple of their eye!

Edited November 26, 2015 by eddie61

[billphillips]

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

Yes she did do it on purpose. She was too young to drive. She did not have a driving licence. She had no driving experience. She should not have been driving the car. All of these are preventable, avoidable and irresponsible things that caused the collision. All choices that were made by her, assisted by her parents.

To cause the death of 9 people and injuries to others is a very serious issue. I don't think the total sum of punishments comes anywhere near being enough. 20 years in jail + 30m would be more like it!

In most of the world civil claims for damage can be filled for financial loss where the cause is by criminal action. That is regardless of the criminal court decision. It would be NZ that is unusual if it can't be done there.

Actually according to information at the time she did have experience and a driving licence.. From the USA. She was still illegal in Thailand though.

As you say .. Still illegal in Thailand. I think that any driving experience from the USA would be of zero value in Thailand, particularly to an immature 17 year old.

[Bangkok Barry]

Seems fair to me...

Though I am sure how they define reckless... did she deliberately ram the bus off the road or was it down to driver inexperience?

The people who were reckless were her parents in allowing her to drive in the first place...

Lets hope this will be a warning to other parents...

She was speeding and underage.

How she avoided a custodial sentence god knows. For thailand 30mn seems a high figure, but I wish the families all the best in getting more. She commited a serious crime.

What makes you think they'll get anything at all? Who is going to enforce the court decision? If the parents don't pay (even assuming they have 30 million to spare) will they go to jail?

[mmh8]

So happy that readers are expats and not invovled in justice system or we would all be well <deleted>.

Let me help balance the discussion here

1. readers are assuming the case criminal or civil has been carried out in a professional manner with no bias. First red light and beep[ beep sound. This is Thailand, you can safely assume that what was presented in court had little to no bearing on the actual accident but more to do with the picture of a girl on a phone that wasz in every paper in the land.

2. Sophisticated forensic team analysing skid marks, vectors, thats correct real evidence to analsye if any vehicles were moving too fast. next beep beep and red light, this is thaialnd people, the only forencsic evidence supplied was that photo of a girl on a phone standing next to a car. No investigation into speed, safe driving methods etc was crried out.

3. the monetary value of the case is based only on publicity, that is families see it made national headlines so try to get more money.

The evidence is even in what readers would consider developed countries the price of a life is low. As any readers that work in oil and gas will know current price of life is calculated based on number of road accident fatalities and last estimate was soemthing like 49 p per life. Total costs of cleaning, and maintainance of road. yes human life has a value, less to the state than to the families, but in terms of risk and insurance your life is worth not much more than a packet of crisps.

The culpability does not lay entirely with the girl EVEN if what is reported were the truth ( as true as most court cases or civil cases in thaialnd) white van drivers are bad drivers. an experienced driver ought be able to avoid any of this bar getting rammed from behind. So at least 50% of costs belong to white van driver. if employed by a company much of that blame rests with the company for not training the driver properly.

lack of road safety, no one even having a quiet word in ears for poor driving , let alone penalising. There are many more failures on the way. Ok underage driver, but based on experience any readers with a daughter trust taxi drivers driving let alone the number of rape cases and attempted rapes brought against taxi drivers.

[GOLDBUGGY]

30 million Baht ............ better add a couple more zeros to that sum.

The victims have received probably a lot more than other victims in similar situations... remember life is still cheap in Thailand...

She should of been banned for driving for life and sentenced to 5 years of community work including speaking to schools about what a <deleted> she was and how she ruined so many lives.

She was only doing what many others of her age do... and nobody gives a dam, if stopped maybe the odd cop gets a bribe, that's all...

As I have already said I feel the punishment fair, remember she was only 17 at the time, Thailand needs to change where such things become socially unacceptable not the norm.

There are some states in the US where she would of be tried as an adult and received 20-30yrs (if found negligent,speeding, distracted driving etc.). Justice should not be how high you're placed in society but by the impact your actions had on others. Also, there are many 17 yr old murderers, drug dealers, rapists etc that are doing time befitting of their crimes. How would you feel if you lost your brother, sister, or father due to someone driving while texting or surfing.

I doubt that!

I knew of an accident where the guy was 18 years old and cross-eyed drunk, and he ran over a bunch of people who were riding bicycles, killing about 6 of them and injuring a whole bunch more. He got 10 years for that and everyone thought this was harsh. So in the States, 20-30 years? No chance!

[pomchop]

What ever happened to the Red Bull heir that killed the cop? Still hanging in Singapore or back in Thailand at Hi So parties bragging about how he got away with it?

[arthurwait]

To get a better understanding of just how "hi-so" she and her family are - Google - Thailand royal names - According to Family Name Act, B.E.2465, Rama VI ordered that royal descendants who do not hold any title should append the words "Na Ayudhya" (ณ อยุธยา) to their surname, to signify they are descended from a royal blood line.

You have no idea about who her family are.

[Bakseeda]

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

Sorry mate, I don't know if you were here in Thailand when this event happened, but witness statements at the time said that this girl and the bus driver seemed to have some sort of dispute while on the road and she intentionally rammed the bus... So , seems it was no accident.. And it came out that her mother had bought her this car while she was only 16 yrs old. Her parents should be stripped of their assets and this girl jailed for life... She killed 9 innocent people all going home from their work. With intent.

[KamalaRider]

Seems fair to me...

Though I am sure how they define reckless... did she deliberately ram the bus off the road or was it down to driver inexperience?

The people who were reckless were her parents in allowing her to drive in the first place...

Lets hope this will be a warning to other parents...

I think she was texting someone when hitting the van.

[kiwikeith]

Seems fair to me...

Though I am sure how they define reckless... did she deliberately ram the bus off the road or was it down to driver inexperience?

The people who were reckless were her parents in allowing her to drive in the first place...

Lets hope this will be a warning to other parents...

Where is she going to get the money?

the barrier's on those high freeways are quite low and scary, I remember this accident but don't remember how it happened though speed was involved.

Insurance would not pay out if she was underage driving???

[billd766]

So happy that readers are expats and not invovled in justice system or we would all be well <deleted>.

Let me help balance the discussion here

1. readers are assuming the case criminal or civil has been carried out in a professional manner with no bias. First red light and beep[ beep sound. This is Thailand, you can safely assume that what was presented in court had little to no bearing on the actual accident but more to do with the picture of a girl on a phone that wasz in every paper in the land.

2. Sophisticated forensic team analysing skid marks, vectors, thats correct real evidence to analsye if any vehicles were moving too fast. next beep beep and red light, this is thaialnd people, the only forencsic evidence supplied was that photo of a girl on a phone standing next to a car. No investigation into speed, safe driving methods etc was crried out.

3. the monetary value of the case is based only on publicity, that is families see it made national headlines so try to get more money.

The evidence is even in what readers would consider developed countries the price of a life is low. As any readers that work in oil and gas will know current price of life is calculated based on number of road accident fatalities and last estimate was soemthing like 49 p per life. Total costs of cleaning, and maintainance of road. yes human life has a value, less to the state than to the families, but in terms of risk and insurance your life is worth not much more than a packet of crisps.

The culpability does not lay entirely with the girl EVEN if what is reported were the truth ( as true as most court cases or civil cases in thaialnd) white van drivers are bad drivers. an experienced driver ought be able to avoid any of this bar getting rammed from behind. So at least 50% of costs belong to white van driver. if employed by a company much of that blame rests with the company for not training the driver properly.

lack of road safety, no one even having a quiet word in ears for poor driving , let alone penalising. There are many more failures on the way. Ok underage driver, but based on experience any readers with a daughter trust taxi drivers driving let alone the number of rape cases and attempted rapes brought against taxi drivers.

Firstly the blame lies 50/50 between the girl and her parents and nobody else. Her parents KNEW how old she was, they KNEW that she was driving a car, they KNEW she had no Thai driving license yet they did NOTHING to stop her.

That makes them as guilty as she is.

Secondly, how did she get a license in the USA? She must only have been 15 or 16 at the time.

I stand corrected by Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_license_in_the_United_States

It seems that in some states in the USA you can get a provisional license at the age of 14 and be grated a full license at 16 depending on where you live.

However in Thailand the minimum age is 18.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Thailand

Your words

quote "The culpability does not lay entirely with the girl EVEN if what is reported were the truth ( as true as most court cases or civil cases in thaialnd) white van drivers are bad drivers. an experienced driver ought be able to avoid any of this bar getting rammed from behind."

AFAIK the van WAS rammed from behind so why are you trying to blame the van driver, who also died in the totally avoidable crash, when if the girl and her parents has had any common sense she would not have been on the road in the first place, let alone ramming a bus, killing 9 people and injuring more.

[Artisi]

So happy that readers are expats and not invovled in justice system or we would all be well <deleted>.

Let me help balance the discussion here

1. readers are assuming the case criminal or civil has been carried out in a professional manner with no bias. First red light and beep[ beep sound. This is Thailand, you can safely assume that what was presented in court had little to no bearing on the actual accident but more to do with the picture of a girl on a phone that wasz in every paper in the land.

2. Sophisticated forensic team analysing skid marks, vectors, thats correct real evidence to analsye if any vehicles were moving too fast. next beep beep and red light, this is thaialnd people, the only forencsic evidence supplied was that photo of a girl on a phone standing next to a car. No investigation into speed, safe driving methods etc was crried out.

3. the monetary value of the case is based only on publicity, that is families see it made national headlines so try to get more money.

The evidence is even in what readers would consider developed countries the price of a life is low. As any readers that work in oil and gas will know current price of life is calculated based on number of road accident fatalities and last estimate was soemthing like 49 p per life. Total costs of cleaning, and maintainance of road. yes human life has a value, less to the state than to the families, but in terms of risk and insurance your life is worth not much more than a packet of crisps.

The culpability does not lay entirely with the girl EVEN if what is reported were the truth ( as true as most court cases or civil cases in thaialnd) white van drivers are bad drivers. an experienced driver ought be able to avoid any of this bar getting rammed from behind. So at least 50% of costs belong to white van driver. if employed by a company much of that blame rests with the company for not training the driver properly.

lack of road safety, no one even having a quiet word in ears for poor driving , let alone penalising. There are many more failures on the way. Ok underage driver, but based on experience any readers with a daughter trust taxi drivers driving let alone the number of rape cases and attempted rapes brought against taxi drivers.

Would you like to explain this gibberish- what has it to do with oil and gas industry, 50% the van drivers fault and the very important ending about rape cases and van drivers.