Crash Victims Still Seek Compensation from Socialite “Praewa”

BANGKOK – Nearly nine years after Orachorn ‘Praewa’ Thephasadin Na Ayudhya from a rich Thai Social Elite family, killed nine people in a car crash, victims say they have yet to receive an “apology or compensation.”

The high society” teen, now 25 who killed nine people and injured four others in a 2010 tollway crash has become the subject of renewed criticism after details of a subsequent nine-year court ordeal emerged.

Since the accident, “Praewa” has become a symbol of Thailand’s wealthy and powerful avoiding jail after committing serious crimes.

Instead of time in prison, socialite “Praewa” was ordered to serve 138 hours of community service, which was only completed in 2016.

In a televised interview with several relatives of the dead crash victims that aired on a news talk program on Thairath TV on Monday has sparked huge public outrage.

In a clip which has gone viral, the relatives told Thairath TV they had not received a single baht in compensation over the past nine years from Praewa or her social elite family.

On May 8th the Supreme Court ordered Praewa to pay 26 million baht to the surviving victims and the families of the dead victims in amounts ranging from 4,000 baht to 1.8 million baht.

Praewa’s’s Crash Victims Still Not Compensated

Compensation was supposed to be paid within 30 days, but none of the victims have received any more than two months after the resolution of the case, the Khaosod reports.

“I conceded to everything, did everything the court wanted. I was quiet for nine years, but I can’t take it anymore,” Warunyoo Ketchoo, a survivor of the crash, wrote on Twitter.

“I know it was an accident, but it’s about what people have to do for each other after it occurred.”

In a series of tweets posted today, Warunyoo said that Praewa’s legal representatives kept slashing down the agreed-upon compensation after the crash, which left Warunyoo with multiple broken bones.

He was confined to a hospital bed for two months.

Warunyoo, who was 20 at the time of the accident, said the only time he ever spoke to Praewa was when she came to visit him in hospital.

“She came in a wheelchair and her mom did all the talking. Her mom told her to apologize, and she said ‘I’m sorry.’ Then she gave me some Baan Ayakan desserts and took a photo … the nurse told me that Praewa was walking but asked for a wheelchair at the ward,” he wrote.

Since the accident, “Praewa appears to have changed her name from Orachorn to Buabuchaa, according to court documents.

Then after her marriage in 2014 to former National Legislative Assembly member Sorawee Ratpitakteerada, she changed her name again to Rawinpirom Arunwong.

Meanwhile, Thawatchai Thaikheo, deputy permanent-secretary of the ministry of justice, said the ministry is ready to offer legal counseling to plaintiffs in the case.

Source: Khaosod, Bangkok Post