Following yesterday’s extraordinarily timed death of one of the two new witnesses who have recently emerged, after eight years, to the Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya hit-and-run case, which has been thrown out by the prosecutors, Chiang Mai police called in the driver of the second vehicle involved in this late night accident.
Jaruchat Madthong, 40, the previously unknown witness to the Red Bull heir hit-and-run which saw his car drag a policeman 200 metres to his death in 2012, died in a crash at 1am yesterday morning. The accident occurred on Huay Kaew Road by the Sirimankalajarn intersection and was captured on CCTV which saw the deceased drive a motorbike at high speed down the road, hitting another motorbike driving in front of him, before veering off into the partition of the road which he hit at great speed.
Police asked Somchai Yaniwo, 50, who was riding the other motorbike to come in for questioning today, following outrage and speculation on social media that this may not have been an accident.
Somchai told police that he had been drinking with friends and was riding on the left hand lane towards Santitham where he was meeting with more friends when he was hit from behind by the deceased motorbike. He himself was injured and had to be cared for by rescue workers.
He says that he has now recovered and returned home from hospital, but insists that he had never met Jaruchat before.
Police say that they will conduct a full investigation to ensure the public that this was an accident. They said that so far they know that Jaruchat, who is from Chiang Rai, had lived abroad for many years and had recently returned to Thailand where he had been living in Chiang Mai for around a year, not having returned home to Chiang Rai. None of his friends or relatives knew of his involvement or witness to the Red Bull heir case.