The police said yesterday they will charge the son of a high-ranking national police figure with fatal reckless driving amid public doubts justice will be done for the refugee man he killed with his sports car.
Driver Pornmet Songmetta will be charged once he is discharged from the hospital, police spokesperson Jiransan Kaewsangek said, adding that evidence was being gathered against the son of former deputy national police chief Wirachai Songmetta.
“Investigators at Samre Police Station are now awaiting the results of alcohol and drug tests of both parties,” Jirasan Kaewsangek said in a statement. “We are reviewing CCTV footage to use in a case against Mr. Pornmet on the charge of reckless driving causing death.”
If convicted of fatal reckless driving, he faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to THB200,000.
But even Pornmet’s admission that he was driving recklessly when he hit and killed Wasseem Ahmad early Saturday morning has done little to assuage concerns that he will be shielded from consequences by his wealthy and powerful dad.
“You die, they pay, the end,” Pong Pidbanchee wrote. “No need to run away because, to this day, it’s that easy.”
Others have chimed in across various reports with rod (will survive) – a jab at their certainty Pornmet will be just fine.
“If you have money = you’re safe. We’ve seen that in the past 555,” Asamakorn Worathirasirikul wrote.
Early Saturday, Pornmet crashed his Porsche Taycan Turbo S into Wasseem Ahmad, who was riding a Yamaha Fino motorcycle near the Taksin Bridge. The collision reportedly sent Wasseem flying 150 meters, and the subsequent impact caused severe head injuries.
The 42-year-old Pakistani refugee was rushed to Taksin Hospital where he died Sunday.
Pornmet sustained non-life-threatening injuries hitting his on the steering wheel. The 29-year-old admitted to police that his reckless, last-minute lane change resulted in Ahmad’s death.
Pornmet is an executive at a renewable energy company owned largely by his family. His father, Wirachai, was the 36th richest person in Thailand last year, according to Forbes, with a fortune of nearly US$1 billion.
The incident came as the nation was already seething over the perceived impunity afforded to the privileged in the case of late actress Nida “Tangmo” Patchaveeraveerapong.
Some compared Pornmet to Red Bull heir Vorayudh “Boss” Yoovidhya, who got away with killing senior police officer Wichian Klanprasert and has evaded justice ever since.
Reckless drivers getting away with killing people due to their social status is a persistent and pernicious issue, from Orachorn “Praewa” Thephasadin Na Ayudhya to Norawich Buadok, the cop who hit and killed Waraluck Supawatjariyakul in late January – though his case has yet to be resolved.
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