Wedding bells create a traffic cacophony

The long procession of guests attending the celebrations virtually brought traffic to a standstill on Mitaparb Road.

The turmoil caused by the celebrations went viral, prompting the groom –Lt-Colonel Pitakpon Chusri, a provincial commander – to apologise. The Army officer, who wedded Jutarat Patjindakul, owner of a beauty business, took all the blame on himself.
The bride’s family is well known in the province and in the northeastern region, as her mother Jidapapat Jindakul is the owner of a major seafood and frozen products business.
The traffic nightmare caught public attention when a doctor; Warisa Sathirathanakorn, among numerous motorists who got stuck on the road, unleashed her anger in a Facebook post.

“I was late for work today after being stuck in an unusual traffic congestion for half an hour on Mitaparb Road. At first, I thought it was an accident but when the jam continued, I telephoned Thapra Police Station. An officer said the jam was caused by the wedding of an Army officer,” Dr Warisa wrote on her Facebook.
Traffic police had visited the place but could do nothing because it was the wedding of an Army officer, a policeman told her, according to the doctor. 
When she drove near the house where the wedding was taking place, she wrote that she found the left lane blocked for wedding guests. She then parked the car and walked to the house out of curiosity to know whose wedding was responsible for causing the traffic congestion. 
“I walked to the venue and asked soldiers there the names of the bride and groom, but they refused to reveal. I then took photos of the wedding party but found no names of the hosts. After that I was invited by Army officers in uniform and some not in uniform to go outside for a talk,” she wrote.
They claimed they did not intend to block the road for the wedding. “I asked them who you are and what made you think you can block the road for a wedding procession and cause such heavy traffic congestion?” she wrote.
After a brief argument, when the officers took photos of the doctor, she challenged them by giving her name. She said she even told them that they could dare do this because the country was under a military government.
Her angry Facebook post went viral with more than 12,000 people sharing it as of press time.
The issue became the talk of the town so much so that the mother of the bride had to come out to apologise for the incident.
Jidapapat said that she did not think that the wedding party would cause so much trouble to other motorists. “I want to apologise to all the people affected. I thought since the road has four lanes, reserving a lane for the wedding procession would not create problems for the others. I got permission from the Highways Department,” she told reporters.
She wished people would forgive the hosts for the troubles.
The groom, Lt-Colonel Pitakpon, appeared overcome by emotion as he took all the blame on himself and said the incident had nothing to do with the bride and her family.
The reporters said he had the tears in his eyes during the interview. He explained that his procession started just about 100 metres from the bride’s house and they spent only eight minutes outside the house before continuing the ceremony inside the house.
Before the wedding party, he said he had got permission from the concerned provincial authorities concerned and the police station to close a lane of the road for 100 metres, for the procession and about 50 guests.
While the bride’s mother and the groom conceded that a road lane was closed for the wedding procession, Army spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvari disagreed. “My information is that the road was not closed for the wedding party. The traffic congestion was caused by the great number of many guests attending the function. Some of them double-parked their vehicles on the road to be as near the place of wedding as possible,” he said.