BANGKOK, Thailand – Two men died in Bang Phli, Samut Prakan, early on Sunday when a crane lifting a flooded car struck an overhead power line, sending a fatal current through water more than 1.2 metres deep. Crane operator Sittiphop Meesamrit, 31, was electrocuted and fell into the floodwater, and homeowner Thanakrit Chimphalee, 40 — a former Thailand national football team assistant coach known as “Coach Rak” — was killed by a second shock as he tried to rescue him.

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Police were alerted at 1.20am on 27 September to the house in Java Bay Village on King Kaeo 19 Road, Bang Phli Yai Subdistrict, where days of heavy rain had submerged the estate and Thanakrit’s car. He had hired Sittiphop, who arrived in a white Hino six-wheel crane truck, to move the vehicle to higher ground. According to Thanakrit’s wife, Nattaporn Chimphalee, 42, the crane’s tip touched an electrical wire during the lift, shocking Sittiphop into the water. Thanakrit rushed to help and was also electrocuted.

Neighbours pulled Thanakrit from the water, but he was dead by the time emergency crews arrived, while rescuers recovered Sittiphop, performed CPR and rushed him to Chulalongkorn 9 Hospital, where he later died. Nattaporn asked the electricity company to cut power after the incident.

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Pol Lt Sarun Masang of Bang Kaeo Police Station attended with a doctor and Ruam Katanyu Foundation rescuers, with floodwater forcing teams to use a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle. Police are reconstructing the incident and have called witnesses to the station for questioning, while Thanakrit’s body was sent for a post-mortem examination.

-Thailand News (TN)