A 55 year old Australian man fleeing police after a minor traffic accident hit and killed a 50 year old woman on a motorcycle in downtown Udon.
Her son and another boy who she had just picked up from school are gravely injured in hospital.
Police found Joel Mackerry (name translated from Thai script) sobbing behind the wheel of his Isuzu pick-up.
He had collided head on with a bike driven by 50 year old Pranee Kusuman from Udon. The Honda Wave was found under the damaged front of the vehicle.
Pranee was twenty metres away with multiple fractures including a broken neck. She was dead at the scene.
In a serious condition nearby, knocked into a fence of a parking lot, was her 11 year old son Thannarak, a P5 student at a local school.
Sprawled in the road was 15 year old Wacharaphon Naononthong a M3 student at the same school.
Both boys were in school uniform and were given emergency CPR at the scene before being rushed to a downtown hospital.
The accident happened at the turning into San Jao Poo-Yaa around 4.15pm and caused a serious traffic jam.
The Australian man said he had a Thai wife from Udon. He had been to a clinic where he is being treated for a mental illness.
He said he sideswiped a car and collided with a taxi but damage was minimal.
He did not stop but a security guard called police who gave chase.
He was on his way to eat at Central Plaza when he collided with the motorcycle.
The victim’s husband Khambai said that his wife had just picked up their son and a relative from school and was on her way to meet him so they could all go home together.
She was just 100 metres away when she was hit by the foreign driver in the pick-up, said the distraught husband and father.
(Source:-Thai Rath)