Red Bull heir arrested in deadly Thai hit-and-run

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

BANGKOK – A grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink has been arrested for driving a Ferrari that struck a police officer and dragged his dead body down a Bangkok street in an early-morning hit-and-run, police said Monday

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/03/red-bull-heir-arrested-in-deadly-thai-hit-and-run/?test=latestnews

Tragic all around of course, but I’m curious about the outcome.
On one hand, the evidence seems overwhelming and the head cop seems determined to have justice no matter the cost, yet we all know what big money can do for a defendant.

The kicker here is the location, and I’d be interested to see how this kind of incident plays in Thailand vs. the U.S.A.

For a better perspective, we go now to our Asian Reporter* [del]Trisha Takanawa[/del] Siam Sam.

Sam, are you there?

*reporter of things Asian, not necessarily Asian himself.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

#2

I read this a while ago. My guess is he makes amends to the family and is given a suspended sentence.

#3

Well I’m not sure how a hit and run case works in their legal system, but according to the linked article they have already suspended a policeman for attempting to cover it up.

#4

I’m predicting much swifter resolution than you’d see in the west, either way.

#5

the cop who died was divorced and no dependents. talk about dodging a bullet for the Red Bull family. Woops. Reading the settlement is around the $32,000 range. Which actually goes a long way in Thailand, and only pennies worth to the Red Bull Empire.

#6

Thailand isn’t exactly known for being soft on crime. I would be very worried if I were the driver.

#7

Unless the family is connected. Then you can literally get away with murder.

#8

[hijack to mention another recent incident]

There was another interesting incident in Thailand two weeks ago which seemed to pass unmentioned in the foreign press. But it is a very big deal where we live; it appeared at first to be an assassination attempt against a very “influential person” – so influential he’s been acquitted of murder twice himself. You can read about it in Google News by using the search terms “Bangkok road rage.” (It would be as easy to search using the person’s name, but – color me paranoid – there are sniffers about.)

As suggested by the search terms above, it seems now to have been a case of strangers firing at strangers in road rage. We all thought it was silly of the police to suggest that at first but Thais – especially influential ones – do not like high headlights beamed at them. (I don’t see well at night and often click the highs making Mrs. Septimus in the “shotgun seat” fear for her life. She doesn’t actually have a shotgun, so I’ll be even more careful than usual after the incident.)

Despite being in North Central region, victim of road rage was Muslim, so buried quickly. As you’ll see from Google News, latest development is that police want to exhume body and examine bullets – at least three guns were involved in the road rage.

#9

That’s what Amy Senser and her lawyer thought, too. She ended up paying a settlement and going to prison. She wasn’t as rich as the Red Bull kid, but she thought she was rich enough to get away with killing somebody and then scramming.

Every once in a while, something goes right.

#10

It makes me sick when Assholes get thier hands on Ferraris. :mad:

#11

And you got it in one. Not much else to say.

A 16-year-old girl from a wealthy family but without a driver’s license recently caused an accident in which nine (9) people were killed, and all she got was a slap on the wrist. No way this kid will see jail. (I say “kid” even though he’s late 20s, but he’s basically just your basic rich spoiled brat. The father was just named by Forbes magazine as the fourth-richest person in Thailand.)

A few years ago, another wealthy brat got cut off by a bus on the street, followed it and rammed his car into the passengers as they disembarked. I think a couple of them were killed. He was actually sentenced to jail but the last anyone looked never showed up to serve the sentence, and the police aren’t doing anything.

#12

Amy Senser is not a member of a wealthy Thai family who killed someone in Thailand. Believe me when I say that makes a big difference.

#13

No she’s not, but she thought she was and she acted like she was. Like I said, once in a while things turn out the way they should.

#14

Non-Fox link:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/03/world/asia/thailand-red-bull-heir/index.html

#15

She thought she was a member of a wealthy Thai family and that she killed someone in Thailand? You’ve completely lost me. :confused:

Anyway, a couple of updates here and here. The kid’s blood-alcohol test finally came back after three days. It was 0.63%. The legal limit in Thailand is 0.5%. The kid’s lawyer is a prominent senator who is claiming he was so remorseful about running over the cop that he drove straight home and hit the bottle, and that’s why he was over the limit when the police showed up to test him. Forensics evidence shows he was doing 100kph (about 62mph) on that stretch of road – which believe me when I say you do not want to be going that fast on that street – and plowed into the motorcycle cop from behind.

Still, I insist he’ll do no jail time, but the family may start to take notice of the backlash against Red Bull that is already starting. (Some taxi drivers have reportedly sworn off the stuff.) I predict a large amount of money will be paid out, the kid will get a suspended sentence, and then, at the private insistence of the family, he’ll enter the monkhood for a few months or maybe a year to show the public he is atoning fior his sins. Followed by a bodacious party when he leaves the monkhood.

The family is picking up the tab for the cop’s funeral, which does contrast nicely with the family of the girl I mentioned who killed nine people, who said paying a single baht to anyone for anything could be misconstrued as an admission of guilt. The little bitch.

#16

I see that I have. I didn’t realize that you required absolutely literal descriptions in order to grasp a concept. A thousand pardons! What I should have said was that Amy Senser thought that because she was a wealthy woman and the spouse of a former NFL football player (which is sort of a cheesy Midwestern equivalent to being a member of a wealthy Thai family) she could run over a person of lesser means with her automobile in her native country of the United States of America (which is sort of a cheesy American version of Thailand) and leave him lying dead in the street while she ran home and hid behind her lawyers and tried to finagle and bribe and blame her way out of taking responsibility for his death.

#17

I think you’re off a decimal point there (0.063% and 0.05%, respectively). At 0.63% BAC the guy would very likely be pushing up lotuses due to acute alcohol poisoning.

#18

Yes, you’re right of course. The correct numbers are 0.063% and 0.05%. Thanks.

Apples and oranges. I don’t think you have a clue as to how things work in Thailand.

#19

And the story has dropped right out of the news.

At least the kid (probably) didn’t mean to kill the cop. Remember, as I’ve detailed in other threads, this is the place where 11 years ago next month, the son of a powerful politician who is today a deputy prime minister put a gun right up against the head of a cop and blew his fucking brains out, right smack dab in the middle of a crowded pub full of witnesses. Apart from having to resign his army commission, he was never punished and was in fact himself made a police officer a month or so ago.

#20

Why would I have a clue how things work in Thailand? Why would I care? Thailand itself has nothing to do with the comments I made about the Senser case.

If it makes you feel more important, I’m willing to accept your word for it that Thailand is a highly superior plane of existence where the rich are a more magnificent type of rich than everywhere else, the evil are more monstrously evil, and the corruption more gloriously and profoundly powerful than anywhere else in the whole of the universe, but that doesn’t have anything to do with my initial point, which was that every once in a while somebody screws up and there is justice for the little guy.