Witnesses Refute Official Account of Crash
BY KHY SOVUTHY | APRIL 20, 2016

Three witnesses to a fatal traffic accident in Kandal Province last week involving a high-ranking Tourism Ministry official have refuted the police account of what happened, insisting there was no mystery third vehicle on which authorities have pinned the blame.

According to police, Nuon Someth, an undersecretary of state at the Tourism Ministry and former deputy governor of Phnom Penh, was at the wheel of his Toyota Land Cruiser on April 12, driving toward the capital on National Road 1, when an oncoming truck straddling the centerline clipped the SUV on the left.


A Toyota SUV belonging to Nuon Someth, an undersecretary of state at the Tourism Ministry, lies on its side after crashing into a motorbike in Kandal province on April 12, killing the motorbike's driver, in a photograph taken by a local reporter.

Mith Sothea, 38, who was driving the motorbike, died at the scene. His wife, Khorn Yeth, remained in Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital on Tuesday with critical injuries.

Also on Monday, Kandal Provincial Court prosecutor Lim Sokuntha said Mr. Someth’s family quickly arranged a $5,500 payout for Mith Sothea’s family. He ordered the undersecretary’s release from police custody that evening on the grounds that the alleged collision with the truck absolved him of guilt.

Mr. Samnang said the police account was based on interviews with two witnesses and that the truck driver who had allegedly set the fatal crash in motion fled the scene in the truck and remained at large.

On Tuesday, however, three witnesses to the accident gave identical accounts of what happened, contradicting the police. All three spoke to a reporter on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

According to the three witnesses, Mr. Someth’s SUV never struck a truck and was driving in the oncoming lane when it crashed into the motorbike.

“I was sitting at a small motorbike repair shop on the day it happened. I saw the vehicle crash very hard with the motorbike carrying the people,” said one witness. “There was no truck that hit the vehicle like the police said.”

“I saw the vehicle crash with the motorbike on the left side of the road, so the vehicle was wrong,” the man said.

“There was no truck that hit the vehicle,” said a second witness. “There was only the vehicle that crashed into the motorbike, because at that time it was very quiet. No other cars or motorbikes were driving there.”

A third witness said the same: “I only saw the vehicle crash into the motorbike. I did not see any other vehicle driving there at the time the accident happened.”

Photographs of the scene taken by a local reporter soon after the accident show the Land Cruiser lying on its left side at the bottom of a small embankment. The front left corner of the SUV is caved in, but the front left tire does not appear to be flat, as police claimed. The tire only appears flat in another photo of the vehicle taken later at the district police station.

Contacted on Tuesday, Mr. Samnang, the deputy district police chief, stuck to his original account of the accident.

“His Excellency’s [Mr. Someth’s] vehicle was hit by the truck, which caused the vehicle to crash into the motorbike, because we saw that the left part of the vehicle was seriously broken. If the vehicle had crashed into the motorbike directly, his vehicle would not have been damaged seriously like that,” he said.

Mr. Samnang said in the morning that he would call a reporter back with the names of the witnesses who he claimed told police about the truck. He did not call back and, when contacted in the afternoon, said he could not recall their names and could not retrieve them because he had already left his office for the day.

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kiwiincambodia wrote:Really it is no different the world over.

The rich get away with it or limited sentences while the poor are locked away for longer periods of time.

epidemiks wrote:"If the vehicle had crashed into the motorcycle directly, his vehicle would not have been damaged seriously like that."

This cunt needs to have a look at the Mini thread and a physics text book.

I wonder if being a vexatious lying pustulous scum bag dog has any impact on reincarnation?

juansweetpotato wrote:I often drive straight at the cunts if they are on the wrong side of the road, only swerving at the last second. If they leave their full beams on, I just stick mine on and drive at them so its in their eyes. I have even been known to stop and keep the full beam aimed at them as they drive past.

They'll get me one day. Who gives a fuck. Fucking gangsters. It almost makes me want to be HIV positive, so I can bleed into their fuckwit mouths.

bolueeleh wrote:

juansweetpotato wrote:I often drive straight at the cunts if they are on the wrong side of the road, only swerving at the last second. If they leave their full beams on, I just stick mine on and drive at them so its in their eyes. I have even been known to stop and keep the full beam aimed at them as they drive past.

They'll get me one day. Who gives a fuck. Fucking gangsters. It almost makes me want to be HIV positive, so I can bleed into their fuckwit mouths.

you need this from the mythbuster, in fact i need it too