The unlicensed teen driver who killed 9 people in a car crash on Don Mueang Tollway in 2010 has been accused of breaching her community service order — her sole punishment instead of a prison term.
Orachorn “Praewa” Thephasadin Na Ayudhya, now 22, who was spared from spending a single day in jail and was ordered to do 48 hours of community service per year for four years, has not performed any legit community service in the past three years due to the excuse that she was “busy with her studies,” according to Nonthaburi Probation Office.
Pol. Col. Narat Sawetanant, director-general of the Probation Department, said that Praewa was supposed to consult with the Probation Department officials as to where she’d be sent to perform community service, but she has failed to do so.
Instead, she sent a lawyer to the court in February with documents signed by Phramongkutklao Hospital that she had completed 90 hours of community service there. The hospital is not even in Nonthaburi province, where she is a legal resident and required to complete her community service.
“The Probation Office previously issued a letter to Praewa and required her to perform community services that she had postponed for so long,” Narat told Thairath.
“Later in Feb. 2016, Praewa allegedly did 90 hours at Phramongkutklao Hospital, but she did not follow the procedure set by the office. She is required to perform her community services in the province where she is a legal resident. She cannot just work anywhere,” he said.
Her family also filed a complaint to Office of the Ombudsman Thailand accusing probation officers of “threatening her,” but Narat rejected the accusation, saying the officers are only doing their jobs.
The office has reported the conflict to a court, which is set to make a judgment on the case on June 21, Bangkok Post reported.
In December 2010, Praewa, who was too young to drive, crashed into a commuter van and sent it plummeting from Don Mueang elevated tollway, resulting in nine deaths and four injuries.
She became an object of public scorn after she was photographed resting against a barrier and chatting on her phone while the bodies of van passengers, some of them Thammasat University students, littered the road below.
The criminal proceedings ended in May 2015 when the Supreme Court rejected her appeal and upheld the punishment given by the Appeals Court in 2014, which marked the end of this infamous case with hours of community service.
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