The body of a 27-year-old man, plunging along with his car into the Chao Phraya River in the Muang district of Thailand’s Nakhon Sawan province on Friday night, has been found today (Monday), as an underwater robot, equipped with a camera, was deployed in the search for a sports utility vehicle and the driver.
Police have since announced that they have found the body of a man, stuck in the riverbank in Ban Wang Cha of Krok Phra district, about 15 kilometres from the bridge in Muang district, where the victim’s car had plunged into the river from the bypass.
Parents of the victim, who were closely following the search by rescue workers, positively identified the body as being that of their son. The remains have been taken to the district hospital for an autopsy, before being returned to his family for a funeral.
Rescue workers have been trying, without success, to locate his SUV. Nakhon Sawan provincial police said the victim’s friend sent a submersible robot to help rescue workers in the search, because the visibility under water is poor.
The victim’s mother, who lives in Suphan Buri province, told the police that she received a phone call from her son at about 10pm on Friday night, saying that his car had plunged into the river and was sinking. Then the phone went dead.
She said she immediately asked her other children to try to find out where her son was at the time of the accident. It was discovered, through GPS tracing, that the last phone signal came from a bridge in Muang district of Nakhon Sawan.
The man reportedly went to Chainat province to meet his girlfriend, so both could travel in his car to Nakhon Sawan to attend her friend’s birthday party on Friday. He was late and his girlfriend drove her car to Nakhon Sawan ahead of him.
Pol Maj-Gen Rapeepong Sukpaibul, commander of Nakhon Sawan provincial police, said he suspects that the driver of the ill-fated car might have been tired and could not see the road ahead clearly due to a curve and no barrier.
