Doctor hit with fresh car crash charge
Yorn ‘knew he drove over security guard’
A senior public health official who rammed his car into a security guard at the ministry on Friday night, now faces a new charge of failing to help the victim after the crash caused by his alleged reckless driving.
The fresh charge was added yesterday after an eyewitness insisted the driver was aware he had run over Somchai Yamdee, the 22-year-old guard who was left seriously injured, because he got out of the car and attempted to drag the victim from underneath the car.
This is the fifth charge pressed against
Yorn Chiranakhon, a senior doctor attached to Health Centre Region 12 overseeing the South, according to Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta, deputy national police chief.
“The suspect has every right to say what he wants ... but investigators are verifying whether the driver got out of the car. If it is proved he did, that will definitely contradict his claim that he didn’t see the injured guard,” said Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta, who took part in questioning the witness and a re-enactment of Friday’s crash at the scene.
Police said the eyewitness, who asked not to be named, gave police investigators a detailed account of the incident.
The eyewitness told police he was at the ministry to pick up his sister that night and spotted the driver, who was later identified as Dr Yorn, backing away from Soi Tiwanon 14/1 as if he had just got into the wrong soi.
The eyewitness slowed down his car to allow Dr Yorn’s car to go first, then continued to drive immediately behind the doctor’s car.
After a while, the witness said he saw the doctor’s car ram into a closed gate, causing the guard who was about to open the gate to fall.
The eyewitness said he saw the doctor then reverse his car and run the guard over, after which he continued to drag the guards body which was stuck under the car for about 30 metres.
The witness told police he attempted to get the driver’s attention by flashing his headlights, hoping the doctor would stop his car and he would be able to go and tell him someone was stuck under his car.
That was around the time he began filming the incident on his smartphone, said the witness, he then saw the doctor stop his car, get out and try to drag the guard out from under his car, but he was unsuccessful.
The incident prompted him to call the police for help.
The injured victim was later rushed to a nearby hospital, said the eyewitness, adding that when police, rescue workers and a team of medics were at the scene, the doctor appeared intoxicated given the way he spoke.
After he had learned from the media that the driver in question was Dr Yorn, he decided to come forward and hand over the video clip of the incident to police investigators.
After another re-enactment of the crash carried out on Tuesday night, police concluded the scene of the accident was sufficiently well-lit at night for anyone to see clearly up to a range of at least 100m, said Pol Gen Wirachai, adding the injured security guard was wearing a white shirt.
Speaking after the re-enactment conducted yesterday, he said Dr Yorn’s claim that he did not see the victim wasn’t convincing as the re-enactment showed that the driver would have been able to see the guard from over the wheel of the car.
And if the driver had gotten out of the car to see what he had just run over, he must have seen about half of the victim’s body sticking out from underneath the car, he said.
The four charges previously pressed against Dr Yorn include committing a reckless act resulting in injury of someone else, driving under the influence resulting in grave danger, attempted murder and defying state officials’ orders, said Pol Gen Wirachai.