TAK – Police report a 37-year-old state employee riding home on his motorcycle survived a terrifying late-night ambush along Highway 12 when a sedan driver under the influence of narcotics chased him down, rammed his bike at high speed, and later returned with a baseball bat to beat the wrecked vehicle to pieces.
The attack left the rider injured and his Honda CB650 heavily damaged, spotlighting recurring dangers from methamphetamine-fueled road rage along northern provincial transit corridors.
Key Takeaways
- A sedan reached speeds near 200 km/h to intentionally strike a motorcyclist on Highway 12 before the driver returned to crush the bike with a baseball bat.
- The suspect’s passenger confirmed he suffered severe hallucinations after using illicit drugs in Sam Ngao district before the unprovoked assault.
- Police tracked the suspect home but delayed custody because he was still violent and agitated, leaving the traumatized victim demanding swift justice.
High-Speed Pursuit on Highway 12
The victim, identified only as Sitthi, was finishing his work shift in downtown Tak at around 10:15 p.m. on Nov. 2 and commuting along Highway 12 toward Sukhothai. After rounding the Ban Khlong Sak curve, a black sedan accelerated past him and performed an abrupt U-turn. Sitthi continued along his normal route, unaware that the sedan had turned around near a local military camp to hunt him down.
According to witness statements provided by the suspect’s girlfriend, the man began hallucinating and speaking to himself following heavy narcotic use earlier that evening. Enraged by the passing big bike, he accelerated to nearly 200 kilometers per hour. As Sitthi slowed at a U-turn near Ban Bo Mai Wa School in Nam Ruem subdistrict, the driver aimed straight for the center of the motorcycle.
The girlfriend intervened by grabbing the steering wheel at the final fraction of a second, deflecting a fatal direct blow and leaving Sitthi with leg and knee injuries. The assailant fled, circled back, and repeatedly bashed the fallen motorcycle with a baseball bat, inflicting over 100,000 baht ($2,900) in damages before fleeing again.
Delayed Arrest Sparks Victim Outcry
Following Sitthi’s formal complaint at the Mueang Tak Police Station and his release of security camera footage, Tak Provincial Police commander Pol. Maj. Gen. Songpol Sangkasem ordered investigators to track down the assailant. Officers located the man at his residence in Sam Ngao district, but officers refrained from taking him into immediate custody because he remained in an intense, raving state of drug psychosis. His parents pledged to bring him in once he stabilized.
The delay has alarmed Sitthi, who commutes along that same roadway daily. He urged prosecutors and investigators to pursue maximum charges, warning that allowing an unrepentant, unstable offender to remain free puts every innocent motorist on Highway 12 in grave danger.
Investigating Regional Meth Spikes and Road Safety
The unprovoked ambush underscores a broader crisis confronting law enforcement across northern Thailand. Tak province serves as a major gateway along the East-West Economic Corridor, bordering Myanmar’s lawless borderlands where synthetic drug output has exploded. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has repeatedly flagged Northern Thailand as an epicenter for cheap methamphetamine influxes, which regularly spill over into erratic violent crime and highway collisions.
While Royal Thai Police officials frequently mount narcotics checkpoints along trunk routes, rural sections of Highway 12 offer long stretches of unmonitored asphalt where impaired drivers travel at lethal velocities. For civil servants and late-shift commuters sharing these lanes with commercial freight, erratic drug-induced outbursts represent an unpredictable daily hazard.
