A court has released on bail the owner of a ten-wheel truck that fell into a hole on Sukhumvit Road earlier this week.

Wutipat Janjarintrakorn has been charged with instructing the truck driver to exceed the legal weight limit. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Regarding the sticker on the truck, which featured the letter “B”,  Wutipat claimed that “B” is, in fact, his nickname and it is an identifier so his trucks can enter construction sites.

Earlier reports speculated that the sticker was an indication that bribes had already been paid, so his overloaded trucks would not be checked by police.

Initial checks by officials found that the truck’s weight was 37.45 tons, or about 12 tons over the legal limit.

Wutipat admitted that he has no weighing machines at his construction sites. “We just estimate roughly,” he said.

Wutipat’s lawyer, Seksan Sreehiranyangkul, said that the investigation into the allegation that his client’s truck had exceeded the gross permitted weight when the accident happened will be handled according to the law and evidence, adding that “Police should, however, also investigate whether the steel sheets covering the hole into which the truck plunged met the required standard”.

Sakmongkon Tasako, the driver of the truck in question, who was charged with reckless driving causing injuries to two people and driving a vehicle with a gross weight exceeding the 25-tonne limit, was also released on bail.

The issues of overweight trucks operating on Bangkok’s roads and bribes being paid for “free pass” stickers came into clear focus again after Wutipat’s truck fell into the covered hole, being used for underground conduit installation work.

A motorcyclist and a motorist were injured and the accident caused the closure of three lanes of the busy road.