The Metropolitan Police Bureau has set up a panel to investigate the gross weight of the 10-wheel truck which fell into a hole on Sukhumvit Road, at the entrance of Soi 64/1, on Wednesday, after a suspicious sticker was found attached to the front windshield.
The sticker features a star with the letter “B” and is possibly an indicator that the owner of the truck had paid a bribe to police so it could exceed its load weight limit without being stopped for checks.
Apichart Prairungruang, president of the Land Transport Association, noted that the sticker could be a symbol to send the message that the owner of the truck had already paid a bribe to the police.
The place where the truck fell into the hole was covered with iron sheets, excavated by a contractor for electrical conduit installation by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA). Two people were injured and three in-bound lanes of the busy Sukhumvit Road were blocked.
During an inspection of the hole yesterday, Bangkok’s Deputy Governor Wissanu Subsompon told Governor Chadchart Sittipunt that it had been estimated that the truck might have been carrying about 30 tonnes of soil, roughly five tonnes over legal its limit.
The governor said that the hole is about 20 metres deep and the MEA had to dig it in the middle of the road to avoid disturbing the foundations of nearby buildings. The MEA is in the process of relocating overhead cables into subterranean ducting.
Move Forward party-list MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn also questioned whether the truck was overweight, pointing out that, after the accident, some soil was removed from the truck and taken away.
The truck was pulled out of the hole by a huge crane last evening.
