“Nong Oey” Kindergarten Girl Forgotten in School Van Dies in Hospital

The young girl was left behind in the vehicle after it arrived at Anongvet Kindergarten School

BANGKOK – Police said additional charges will be filed against two teachers who left a 3-year-old kindergarten student in a van for hours earlier this month.

Bang Pu police told the press that the pair has been charged with criminal negligence causing death on Thursday. Both teachers agreed to report to police to acknowledge the charges.

Manassanan Thongphu, the young girl who was left in a van for several hours outside her kindergarten in Samut Prakan, has died after two weeks in a coma struggling for her life.

On the Facebook page “Nong Oey”, a message was posted to inform over 21,000 followers that the three-year old girl has passed away on April 17 around 8.50am. The message said, simply, “Around 8.50am, April 17, 2013, may my daughter Nong Oey sleep in peace”.

Paveena Hongsakul, centre, consoles Rattana Nakhonsopha, whose three-year-old daughter has become unconscious after she was left in a school van for seven hours.

Her grieving father, Ekachai Thongphu, told Thai Rath that he posted the message to inform her many well-wishers that his daughter had passed away.

Manassanan had been treated at Bangkok Hospital  after falling into a coma with swelling of the brain caused by long exposure to the heat in the closed van that took her and other pupils to the pre-school.

The young girl was left behind in the vehicle after it arrived at Anongvet Kindergarten School in tambon Phreaksa Mai of Samut Prakan’s Muang district in the morning of April 3, 2013.

Two teachers, Daorong Srisumang, 37, and Santiphap Wanchai, 42, who drove the van that day, later reported to police to acknowledge charges of recklessness at Bang Pu station.

Manassanan was among the 13 students in the van, to which Ms Daorong was assigned to care for the children. The girl was picked up from her house about 7.30am on Wednesday, and was found deeply distressed in the same van six hours later.- Read the original story here.

Child left in school van for hours, falls into coma