Following a Monday incident in which a 69-year-old Thai woman rammed her pick-up truck into a security guard at Chiang Mai Airport, transport officials today revoked her driver’s license after a receiving confirmation from a physician that she is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“We’ve looked into the facts and have gotten confirmation from the woman’s doctor that she really has Alzheimer’s” Chanchai Keelapaeng, chief of the Chiang Mai Provincial Land Transport Office, said of canceling the driver’s license Phattra Boonchaliew had possessed for 50 years.
“The symptoms of this disease include short-term memory and easy irritability, all of which are challenges when it comes to driving,” he explained to local outlet Manager.
He went on to explain that Phattra’s paper license, issued in 1968, was essentially good for life.
Assoc. Prof. Siwaporn Jangrajang, chairman of Thailand’s Alzheimer’s Association, told Chiang Mai News yesterday that Phattra has been steadily receiving treatment and medication for about a year now.
Siwaporn said that Alzheimer patients can be dangerous behind the wheel because they feel anger or depression more intensely than the average person.
Meanwhile, doctors are still closely monitoring the condition of the 27-year-old security guard, Watchara Chaiwong, who is now responsive and has spoken to visitors and a few local reporters.
“She didn’t seem mad at me at all,” Watchara told reporters from his hospital bed. “But while I was unlocking her wheels, she seemed startled or something and suddenly stepped on the gas pedal.”
Phattra’s family has agreed to pay all costs associated with after-crash care, including medical bills, and even requested to visit Watchara, though he and his family have yet to agree to that.
In 2016, the Ministry of Public Health announced that the number of Alzheimer’s patients in Thailand is a little over half-million people, however, they predicted that the country will reach a million people afflicted citizens by 2029.
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