Five Phuket Boat Drivers Test Positive for Illegal Drugs

Phuket –

Five boat drivers tested positive for illegal drugs recently at a pier in Thalang after a random check.

Our previous stories:

A five-year-old Russian girl was pronounced dead and a boat captain fell unconscious and was injured after a Phuket boat crash. Additionally, six foreign tourists and a boat crew member sustained various injuries after their speedboat in the same accident crashed with rocks near the Maithon Island in Chalong.

The drug test found amphetamine which is an illegal drug in the bloodstream of the boat captain. The boat crew is being tested for drugs also although the results were not immediately available.

Now for the update:

The Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat has ordered to conduct drug testing for boat drivers at piers in Phuket following a fatal boat accident that took the life of a young Russian girl in which the captain later tested positive for amphetamines. On Wednesday (January 3^rd) a team of relevant authorities conducted random drug testing for boat drivers at the Ao Po Pier in Pa Klok.

In total, 65 boat drivers were tested. Of those, 5 of them tested positive for illegal drugs. They are being taken for drug treatment and rehab but it was not immediately clear if they would lose their ability to have a boat license or face any legal fines or penalties.

The names of the five individuals who tested positive were not released by Phuket authorities, nor were the exact drugs they tested positive for disclosed.