PHUKET: An Australian tourist on holiday in Phuket has been flown to Bangkok to obtain therapy after suffering a severe head harm from falling off the back of a tuk-tuk in Patong last evening.
Tuk-tuk driver Paiboon Hemwara, 30, advised the Phuket Gazette that he picked up Mr Noble and his spouse at the top of Soi Bangla at about 9pm.
“ Banned were heading to their lodge. Both of them received into the again, but then her husband climbed out and stood on the again [of the tuk-tuk] and held on to the handles used for getting out and in of the rear cab,” he said.
Police, led by Patong Police Capt Jakkapong Luang-aon, arrived on the scene to search out Mr Noble unconscious, lying in the midst of the road, bleeding from the face.
The accident occurred in front of OTOP Plaza on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road, not 800 meters to the south of where the couple entered the tuk-tuk.
Kusoldharm Foundation rescue staff rushed Mr Noble to Patong Hospital, but he was later transferred to Bangkok Hospital Phuket in Phuket Town.
Patong Police Deputy Superintendent Kittipong Klaikaew told the Gazette, “We have questioned the wife and the tuk-tuk driver; we are treating the incident as an accident.
“His journey insurance coverage firm was notified and Mr Noble was flown to Bangkok right now to obtain hospital remedy there,” he said.
Col Kittipong mentioned that Mr Noble had but to regain consciousness when he left Bangkok Hospital Phuket at present.
The accident follows current complaints from tuk-tuk drivers that to be legal beneath Ministry of Transport laws, all tuk-tuks will must have entry to the rear cab from the side of the automobile – not the rear of the vehicle.
A consultant of 1 tuk-tuk co-operative complained that it was too costly to switch tuk-tuks that had been in operation before the regulation was introduced, citing prices as excessive as one hundred,000 baht to switch a tuk-tuk to make it authorized.
UPDATE: The Phuket Gazette contacted Lt Col Kittipong to inquire concerning the facts as acknowledged on the police report of this case. He told the Gazette that Mr Nobel’s spouse, the one witness, said that her husband was contained in the cab, not standing at the back. She said he leaned throughout the again of the cab to see if the air on the alternative side of the compartment can be extra comfortable, then by accident fell out of the vehicle. The driver Mr Paiboon informed police he didn’t witness the accident, but initially presumed he must have been hanging from the back to have fallen from the vehicle. [Date of update: August 9, 2012]