Three men behind the construction of a condominium which collapsed and killed at least 10 workers Monday have are on the run from police.
Boonyakorn Heebthong, an executive with developer U Place Co.; Chanaichol Kerdthes, owner of the Plook Plang construction firm; and supervising engineer Jira Khanman are being sought by police one day after warrants for their arrest were issued by a Thanyaburi district court. Chanichol has reportedly fled to Cambodia.
Pensri Kittipaisarnnon, who sought approval for the project; engineer Saksith Intarathong and contractor Diew Plabchone have turned themselves in to police.
All six have been charged with negligence resulting in the injuries and deaths of the workers and face up to 10 years in jail.
Some of them have already begun pointing fingers and deflecting blame. After turning himself in, Saksith yesterday blamed Diew for pouring concrete at the site without his approval. He said he’d not visited the site as it was a national holiday. Diew said he wasn’t at the site, where employees were working that day, due to personal reasons and didn’t order the cement poured. He blamed one of the workers, but said he only knew his nickname, Khaosod reported.
U Plae’s Pensri said she was very sorry and wishes she could have died instead of the workers. But she’ll only discuss the specifics of what happened in court, she said.
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