Speeding Pickup Driver Killed after Crashing into Roadside Restaurant

A speeding pickup driver has been killed and the passenger injured after crashing into a roadside restaurant south of Bangkok on Sunday morning. Local police believe the driver of the truck had been racing another vehicle.

Bangkok Police said the accident occurred at about 5.30am in Samut Prakan, south of Bangkok. The driver of the Bangkok-registered black Isuzu lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a roadside restaurant.

Mr Pathumpop Krobboriboon, the shop owner, told police that while he was preparing food he heard the noise of screeching brakes, and thought it might come from two pickups racing on the road.

Suddenly one of the pickups ran off the road and hit a power post before crashing into the shop. The pickup ending up lying on one side. Mr Pathumpop said he managed to jump sideways and narrowly escaped being killed.

The pickup driver, who was later identified as Thammanoon Nathadthong, 26, was killed. The other man in the pickup, who was not identified, was injured.

Bangkok Police were investigating and examining security cameras in the area to establish the cause of the accident.

7-foot python bites woman on toilet in Bangkok

Meanwhile, a 54 year-old woman has sworn to “check the toilet every time” after she was attacked by a six and a half meter long python on Sunday when she was sitting on the toilet.

Boonsong Plaikaew, 54, felt a searing pain on her buttocks and saw blood running down her legs while sitting on the toilet in her house in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok.

As she looked with her hand to see what had caused the pain, the snake that had been hiding in the toilet bowl bit her finger. Plaikaew ran out of the bathroom and screamed for help before her husband locked the door behind her.

He called animal rescuers, accompanied by paramedics, to the couple’s house, who gave Plaikaew first aid before taking her to the hospital. She was released later that day.

Pythons are not poisonous, but the doctors administered antibiotics to the woman because of the possible risk of infection from the bites she had suffered.

In a conversation from the hospital, Plaikaew said: “I did not see the snake hiding in the bowl, so I was just doing my stuff when I was attacked,” Thai media reported.

After the incident, animal rescuers caught the snake responsible for the attack and removed it from the house in a sack. The animal will later be released back into the wild.

“From now on, I will check the toilet every time before I sit down,” Boonsong said.

It is not clear what kind of snake Plaikaew was bitten by. But Thailand is the home of three python species: the reticulated python, the Burmese python and the Brongersma python.