Dementia patient's licence cancelled after crash
The cancellation of the driver's licence of a 69-year-old woman, who crashed her pickup truck into a security officer at Chiang Mai International Airport on Monday and who was later confirmed by the Dementia Association of Thailand to have suffered from the condition, is being processed, according to Chiang Mai Land Transport Office director Chanchai Kilopaeng.
The Chiang Mai office filed the licence revocation request to the Lampang office, which had issued Phattra Boonchaliew's driving licence. She was unfit to drive due to the memory-affecting ailment that also reportedly caused her to be forgetful, depressed and sometimes aggressive from a lack of emotional control, he said.
The Lampang office later approved the revocation.
Phattra, who saw her friend off at the airport on Monday afternoon, violated the one-hour parking limit in front of the passenger terminal which led to her pickup being clamped.
After paying the Bt400 fine, she got in her pickup and hit 27-year-old security officer Watchara Chaiwong and four vehicles. She then got out of her pickup and seemed to remember nothing of what she had done.
Police initially charged her for reckless driving, causing injury. Her family, claiming that she suffered from a degenerative brain condition, told the police they take responsibility for all the damage caused, as well as the medical expenses of Watchara, who suffered a broken leg.
The Dementia Association said Phattra has been receiving treatment for dementia since last year at the Northern Neuroscience Centre and Chiang Mai Neurological Hospital, Chiang Mai City News reported.