A worker installing electrical conduit was unable to escape as water levels in a drainage pipe rose rapidly, resulting in drowning near a BTS station.
At 07:10 on 18 Sep, Police Lieutenant Thirawut Boonrod, deputy investigator of Phra Khanong Police Station, received a report of a worker drowning in a drainage pipe near BTS Punnawithi station on Sukhumvit Road, Bangchak subdistrict, Phra Khanong district, Bangkok. He promptly responded with forensic officers, a forensic medicine doctor from Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine, and volunteers from the Poh Teck Tung Foundation.
At the scene beneath the BTS station, on the sidewalk beside the road, a drainage pipe opening measuring 50 cm wide and 100 cm long with a depth of 3 meters was found. Volunteers equipped with search gear entered the pipe and retrieved the body. The deceased was later identified as Mr. Pato, 32, a stateless person wearing only black underwear.
Investigation revealed that Mr. Pato was a worker for an electrical conduit company. Before the incident, he and other workers were on site. Mr. Pato entered the drainage pipe to work when the water level was low, but it quickly rose to fill the pipe, preventing him from climbing out and resulting in drowning.
Initially, authorities had the foundation send the body to Chulalongkorn Hospital for autopsy to determine the precise cause of death.