Drunk crashes into PAD rally site

Sarotkrit Phromaksorn, a 56-year-old resident of Bangkok's Phasi Charoen district and former member of the Chart Thai Party, was apparently under the influence of alcohol when he was asked to step out of his Land Rover, according to PAD security staff. The incident took place shortly before 3am yesterday.

The man was found wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying two pistols on his person. More weapons, including three pistols, one shotgun, knives and several bullets, were found hidden in his car.

Police later took Sarotkrit in for questioning and charged him with carrying firearms in a public place without permission as well as careless and drunk driving.

Colonel Viboonyuth Santadvej, superintendent of the Nang Loeng police station who was present during questioning, said the man had said he was carrying guns because was a firearms enthusiast. The driver also told police that he crashed into the PAD fence because he wanted to get to the King Rama V Monument to pay his respects, but that there was no other way to get there.

The policeman said a test found that alcohol levels in the driver's blood was 120 milligrams per decilitre. The legal limit is 50mg/dl.

The Metropolitan Police commissioner, LtGeneral Aswin Kwanmuang, said yesterday that he believed the man was just plain drunk and not really a serious threat to the PAD rally.

"It is common sense: people who want to cause trouble are unlikely to go there alone. Anyone daring to do that would be killed. Nobody in their right mind will want to go alone with the intention of harming lots of people. It's impossible," Aswin said.

Meanwhile, Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD leader, said yesterday that he had asked for the Military Police to send in officers and boost security measures at the protest site in the wake of the incident, which he described as "the severest" in the recent troublemaking attempts.

In a related development, Chart Thai Party director Nikorn Jamnong yesterday said that Sarotkrit had resigned from the party in August last year, adding that the man had nothing to do with the party even though his membership card was found in his possession.