Authorities say they did not find any signs of bribery that allowed an overloaded truck to pass through a busy road and cause it to collapse last week.
Metro police said they did not find any evidence that a windshield sticker pasted on the windshield of the large ten-wheeler truck, a star-shaped design with the letter “B”, indicated that the truck operator had bribed officials to operate without load limits.
The truck, which fell into a roadworks cover last Wednesday, weighed 37.5 tonnes, past the legal limit of 25.
Both the truck owner Wuthipat Jantharinthrakorn and driver Sakmongkol Thasako were charged with driving recklessly causing property damage, but have refuted the bribery allegations. It’s worth noting that Wutthipat was unable to give statements to police until two days after the incident, claiming he had felt startled and unprepared from the incident.
Wutthipat claims that the “B” in the sticker stands for his nickname “Big” and was pasted for superstitious reasons – to become a star in the cutthroat truck business.
He also told reporters that he did not order the driver to load the truck past the legal limit.
Last Wednesday, a large ten-wheeler truck fell into a hole on Soi Sukhumvit 64/1. The heavy truck was passing through the soi when the roadworks cover underneath it collapsed. The vehicle’s rear of the truck fell into the hole, severely impacting traffic that extends toward Bangna intersection.
Two people sustained minor injuries during the incident, namely a cab driver and a delivery man who fell on his head.
It took seven hours for city workers to lift the truck away from the road.
Before this incident, there have been allegations that trucks get away with carrying over the load limit if they had special stickers purportedly indicating they had bribed the authorities.
At any rate, the transport ministry has ordered the police and all relevant agencies to crack down on overloaded trucks and enforce stricter measures to prevent major roads from caving in.
Related
And another one: Sukhumvit 64/1 road collapses under load of heavy truck
