The clarification was posted by Phuket Provincial Police after 9pm on Friday night (Apr 7) when the initial video from the scene and confirmation of the incident by Phuket Info Center had already gone viral online. Neither the video, nor the Phuket Info Center report explained what exactly happened in Karon. The corresponding The Phuket News story was posted around 7pm after several attempts to get additional information.
According to Phuket Provincial Police, the brawl between two taxi drivers took place at around 7.40pm on Thursday (Apr 6) in front of Destination Resort Phuket Karon Beach named in the report as ’Distinechn Risort Karon’. The men involved were identified as Chayakorn Chaitisuk, 50, and Noppadol Changlek, 34.
On the night of the ’controversy’, Mr Chayakorn, a registered Phuket taxi driver, received an order via inDriver mobile application which is yet to be recognised by the Department of Land Transport (DLT) and its office in Phuket (PLTO).
Mr Chayakorn drove his ’greet plate’ Toyota sedan to Destination Resort and picked up the passenger. Mr Chayakorn already had his passenger in the vehicle and was about to drive away, when he was approached by Mr Noppadol from Destination Resort’s taxi queue.
Mr Noppadol asked Mr Chayakorn if he had received the order via a mobile application and stressed that it was illegal to do so using inDriver. Mr Chayakorn argued it was not.
According to the Phuket Provincial Police report, the verbal confrontation escalated to the point when Mr Chayakorn grabbed a wheel wrench out of his Toyota and smashed Mr Noppadol on the head. Mr Noppadol fought back with his fists.
The fight was at some point stopped by an unnamed third person. It was not clarified if the passenger remained in the car during the brawl or got out.
After the incident both drivers visited Chalong Hospital for medical examination and made statements at Karon Police. The report says that the men confessed that they “had voluntarily quarreled and physically abused each other”. As a result, both Mr Chayakorn and Mr Noppadol were charged with engaging in a fight and creating nuisance in a public place as well as causing physical or mental harm to another person.
The court verdict is expected on May 17. Adcha Buachan, Chief of the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) has already said that after this his agency will consider suspension or revocation of the driving license of the guilty party as per court decision.
“PLTO asks public taxi drivers to comply with the laws to help promote Phuket tourism image”, Mr Adcha added.