Child's death in truck spurs probe

Child's death in truck spurs probe

SI SA KET - The grieving parents of a three-year-old boy who died after being left behind for seven hours in a converted pickup truck used as a kindergarten minivan are demanding the school take full responsibility for his death.

Boonma Nuansai, the owner of the kindergarten, said the school has agreed to initially pay the family 30,000 baht for the funeral of Suriyakarn "Nong Potter" Phakan, who died on Tuesday.

The kindergarten is also deciding on the course of action it should take against Ampika Phechnam, 32, the teacher who drove the pickup and was in charge of the students that day.

Mr Boonma said he will take responsibility for the boy's death.

Thanyathorn Boonma rushed to Uthumporn Phisai Hospital on Tuesday afternoon to find a medical team struggling to resuscitate her son. They struggled for two hours to save her son's life, but he didn't respond at all.

Thinakorn Dechalert, a police investigator in charge of the probe into the death, said he was alerted by Ms Ampika, a teacher of Uthumporn Witthaya School, about the incident at 3.30pm on Tuesday.

Suriyakarn's parents said their son left home about 7.30am and should have arrived at school about 30 minutes later.

The teacher told the officer she owned and drove the truck. She had converted the truck to be used as a kindergarten minivan, Pol Lt Col Thinakorn said.

Ms Ampika told him she found the body of the boy in the back seat of her truck about 3pm and rushed him to the hospital, only to learn the boy had already died, the officer said.

The hospital transferred the boy's body to Si Sa Ket Hospital for a formal autopsy, he said. Ms Ampika told him she was willing to take full responsibility for the death of the boy, he said. The teacher has been initially charged with committing a reckless act resulting in a death.

The parents yesterday filed a complaint with police seeking action against Ms Ampika. Ms Thanyathorn said she was wondering why the teacher failed to check if all 13 students had left her vehicle.

Ms Ampika was hired to take students between their homes and the school.

The kindergarten has raised questions about whether the boy was an enrolled student at the school.

Mr Boonma said the parents of the boy sent him to the school the previous year, when he was nearly three years old. At that time he was too young to be enrolled, but the kindergarten agreed to provide him with free education and told his parents to have him re-apply as a student after he turned three.

In Bangkok, Office of the Private Education Commission secretary-general Bundit Sriputtangul yesterday set up a committee to visit the school and investigate the boy's status at the kindergarten.

The committee will also examine whether the school followed Education Ministry's regulations regarding school vans and buses, he said.

The toddler's death is the second such tragedy in less than a month. Two teachers at Anongvet Kindergarten School in Samut Prakan are facing charges following the death of Manassanan Thongphu, a three-year-old girl who was left forgotten in a closed, hot van for several hours outside her kindergarten on April 3. She died on April 17.

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