Three people died early Monday morning in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district after an intoxicated driver crashed his BMW into a passenger tuk-tuk carrying two elderly market vendors and their regular driver, according to several news sources. The collision happened around 4 a.m. on a road inside a housing estate in Sano Loi subdistrict, killing the tuk-tuk driver and one passenger at the scene and a second passenger shortly after at a hospital.
Police identified the driver as a 31-year-old man who remained at the scene and cooperated with officers. A breath alcohol test found he had 152 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, more than three times Thailand’s legal driving limit of 50 milligrams.
The victims were named as 82-year-old Lamai, 77-year-old Phat, and 37-year-old Prathumporn, the tuk-tuk driver. Officers from Bang Bua Thong Police Station and rescue workers from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation responded to the scene. Rescuers performed CPR on Phat for more than 30 minutes before she was pronounced dead.
According to several news sources, Lamai and Phat were longtime market vendors who hired the same tuk-tuk every morning to reach Bang Bua Thong Market, where they sold goods and desserts. The tuk-tuk overturned in the crash and sustained heavy front-end damage. The BMW came to rest against a roadside tree after the impact.
Relatives of the victims described the tuk-tuk driver as someone who had shuttled the two women to the market for years and was well known in the neighborhood. Her husband told local media the couple had two children and had been together for more than two decades, and that he learned of her death from a motorcycle taxi driver before it was confirmed by police. A niece of the two vendors said she was at home and awake when she heard the crash.
Investigators said the driver told them he did not see the tuk-tuk while driving home through the housing estate. Some local media reports said he had been drinking while watching the FIFA World Cup final before getting behind the wheel, but police have not confirmed that detail as a factor in the crash. Officers are reviewing CCTV footage from the area and believe speed may also have contributed to the collision.
Police said formal charges against the driver will be determined once the investigation is complete. Under Thai law, drunk driving that results in death typically carries the possibility of reckless driving and vehicular homicide charges, though the final classification will depend on the findings from the ongoing probe.
The crash adds to a string of recent alcohol-related road accidents in the Nonthaburi area, where local police stations have handled multiple drunk driving cases in recent months. Road safety advocates in Thailand have repeatedly pointed to high rates of drunk driving fatalities, particularly during early morning hours when enforcement is lighter and roads are used by commuters and vendors heading to markets before sunrise.
Nonthaburi authorities have not announced any new enforcement measures in response to Monday’s crash. The investigation into the collision remains ongoing.
