BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): A driver lost control of his SUV in a car park at a mall in Pathum Thani province, smashing through its glass wall before falling two floors to an Amazon coffee shop on the ground floor, police said on Wednesday (March 22).
The crash occurred late on Monday night but police did not release a statement about it till it became the subject of a video uploaded on social media.
The driver of the Toyota Fortuner was slightly injured but no one else was harmed, Lt-Colonel Prasit Somboonjit, deputy chief of the Kukot police station, said.
The crash occurred at about 11pm on Monday, Prasit said. He declined to release the name of the driver but did say the man was 45 years old. He declined, as well, to name the mall where the incident occurred.
He confirmed the crash after a TikTok user posted a clip showing the wrecked vehicle inside the mall.
The clip showed a black Fortuner with a badly damaged rear end atop tables at an Amazon coffee shop.
Prasit said its driver had been visiting a friend in the mall before the crash. The driver said the SUV’s steering system malfunctioned as he was leaving the car park, and subsequently lost control of the vehicle and was unable to brake, Prasit said.
The SUV smashed through the glass wall separating the car park from the mall, hit a rail and then tumbled from the second floor to the ground floor through an open space.
Police said they had some doubts about the driver’s statements and asked for a blood test to determine if he was drinking at the hospital they took him to for treatment.
They are still waiting for the result of the test.
The mall has yet to file a complaint with the police station saying how much damage was caused, Prasit said.
The SUV was seized as evidence pending a hearing, he added.
