CHONBURI — A 68-year-old Belgian cyclist has become the latest foreign victim of Thailand’s dangerous roads following a fatal collision with a pickup truck in Sattahip district, Chonburi province.
Police Colonel Sinsamut Boonthasana of Sattahip Police Station has charged Ms. Thip-apa, 38, with reckless driving causing death and property damage. The incident occurred at 10:20 a.m. on March 9 at the J-Kasempol intersection on Highway 332, opposite a PTT gas station in Bang Saray sub-district.
The victim, identified as Jean Antoine, 68, was wearing cycling gear when the pickup truck with an attached cargo container struck him. The impact threw him into a grassy area beside the road. He sustained serious injuries and later died at the hospital.
According to the investigation, Ms. Thip-apa was driving along the road when she failed to notice the bicycle on her left before colliding with it. Her vehicle subsequently lost control and went off the road. She was also injured and taken to the hospital. Police filed charges against her the following day after her condition improved.
Police officers stated on March 11 that they will arrange a meeting between Ms. Thip-apa and the victim’s family to negotiate compensation.
This tragedy follows a series of similar incidents involving foreign cyclists in Thailand. Recently, a 78-year-old French national, Gulsen, was killed when a ten-wheeler truck hit him at an intersection in Rayong province on February 18. According to his friend, the French man had been cycling to a restaurant in the far-left lane and was slowing down when the turning truck crushed him. He had been planning to return to France soon.
In 2023, Thailand’s dangerous roads made headlines in the British media when a British couple, Peter and Mary, both 34, were killed by a pickup truck while on a round-the-world cycling tour in Phanom Sarakham district, Chachoengsao province on February 13, 2023.
A year earlier, in 2022, a 26-year-old French tourist, Camille, who was cycling with an American friend, died after being hit by a vehicle on Rojana Road near the Khlong Makham Riang intersection in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district at 9:00 PM on May 25.
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