A man was electrocuted while trying to save a crane operator after the crane struck a power line while lifting his flooded car in Samut Prakan early today, September 27. Both men died.
Several days of heavy rain had left parts of Bang Phli Yai under more than 1.2 metres of water. Police received a report of the accident at around 1.20am at the Java Bay housing estate, where a homeowner had hired a crane to move his flooded sedan to higher ground.
Officers from Bang Kaeo Police Station attended the scene alongside a doctor from Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital and rescue workers from the Ruamkatanyu Foundation.
The flooding was so severe that emergency workers had to use a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach the house.
They found the homeowner, 40 year old Thanakrit Chimpalee, lying dead outside his property after neighbours pulled him from the floodwater.
The crane operator, 31 year old Sitthiphop Meesamrit, had also suffered a severe electric shock. Emergency workers performed CPR before taking him to a hospital, where he later died.
Thanakrit’s wife, 42 year old Nathaphon Chimpalee, said her husband had hired a six-wheel crane truck to lift their sedan, which was submerged in floodwater outside the house, and move it somewhere safer.
While the operator was lifting the car, the tip of the crane’s boom caught an overhead power line in front of the property. An electric current struck the operator, causing him to collapse into the floodwater.
Thanakrit, who was standing nearby, rushed to help but was also electrocuted and fell into the water.
His wife immediately contacted the electricity provider and asked for the power to be disconnected. However, it was too late to save her husband, and the crane operator had already suffered critical injuries.
Both bodies were sent to Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital for post-mortem examinations as part of the legal investigation.
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