Phuket—
Authorities have recovered the bodies of a man and a woman from a pickup truck that plunged into the sea after crashing through a barrier on the Sarasin Bridge early Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred around 3:20 a.m. on November 18th, when a black Toyota Vigo pickup truck reportedly broke through a concrete barrier on the Phang Nga side of the bridge, near Ban Tha Nun in the Khok Kloi subdistrict. The vehicle then plummeted into the sea and sank to the bottom.
Initial reports identified the driver as Mr. Treephat Rattanapong, 49, a native of Ban Na Doem district in Surat Thani province. His body was found strapped into the driver’s seat, clutching a carved wooden statue of the Chinese goddess Guan Yin. Rescue divers from the Kusoldharm Foundation and Phang Nga’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office (DPMO) located the vehicle submerged at the crash site.
While early eyewitness accounts suggested the driver was alone, further investigation revealed a second victim. Divers later discovered the body of a woman inside the vehicle, confirming suspicions raised by the victim’s family that he had left home with his girlfriend earlier that night.
According to relatives, the couple departed together shortly after midnight. The woman reportedly sent a farewell message via Messenger before contact was lost. Family members had not anticipated the situation would escalate to a fatal incident at the Sarasin Bridge, a location historically associated with tragic love stories.
Local fisherman Nattawut Wongnui, who witnessed the event, said he saw a man dressed in black pacing repeatedly near the crash site. Moments later, he saw the same man driving a black pickup at high speed toward the barrier. “I had to leap out of the way,” he recalled. “The truck smashed through the railing and disappeared into the sea.”
CCTV footage confirmed the theory that the crash was intentional. It showed the driver using his vehicle to move a concrete barrier blocking access to the bridge before accelerating toward the edge.
Rescue operations were delayed due to strong sea currents, but the vehicle was eventually located and retrieved. Authorities are continuing their investigation to determine the full circumstances surrounding the incident, including the motive and timeline leading up to the tragedy.
