In one photo, a woman’s grimacing face peers into the camera from the corner of the frame. In the next, she is seen reclining on the roof of a large truck beside a wrecked motorcycle.
These images have been amusing and puzzling the internet in recent days, and today Coconuts Bangkok tracked down Jintamas Nacum to explain the horrible circumstances that led to her unique selfie moment.
She was perhaps the most surprised by the viral fame that’s found her one year after an accident sent her flying onto the black Toyota Hilux. Jintamas said her friends began resharing the images in the run-up to a Sept. 5 court date over the accident, and she doesn’t know how they got out into the Twitter wild.
She said they were T-boned by the truck in August 2018 in the western metro Bangkok province of Nakhon Pathom.
“My boyfriend and I were driving home from Nakhon Chai Si to the Salaya district on his big bike when a truck suddenly cut in front of us to make an illegal turn without warning. We couldn’t stop the bike in time, so we collided with it. I was thrown forward onto the roof of the truck’s cab while my boyfriend crashed into the driver’s window, breaking the glass with his helmet before sliding down to the side of the car,” she said Tuesday morning.
Though Jintamas was miraculously uninjured, glass from the truck’s window cut her boyfriend’s neck, narrowing missing his windpipe. He had to get 10 stitches.
Find all episodes of The Coconuts Podcast
“I didn’t mean to take a selfie to show people. It was because the truck didn’t have insurance, so I took them as proof,” Jintamas explained.
A silver lining to the virality may come in the form of justice now that the accident has spread online. For the past year, Jintamas said the truck’s driver hasn’t contacted her to apologize or offer compensation for their medical expenses or damage.
“We spent around THB600,000 (US$20,000) fixing the motorcycle, not to mention the hospital bills, and not once did I ever get a ‘sorry’ from the driver,” she said.
Next month’s hearing will be the first time both parties appear in court since the accident occurred, she said.
