** She’s Popular on Facebook **
This young girl – she’s 16 – is busy texting on her smartphone. I wonder what message she’s sending? Perhaps “OMG I just killed 8 people! They’re lying dead on the road below. LOL”

Orachorn “Prae-wa” Thephasadin Na Ayudhya was driving at a reckless speed on an elevated expressway. She lost control of her car and crashed into a minivan causing it to hit the barrier. Eight people were thrown out of the minivan and over the barrier, to fall 20 metres to the road below. A four year old girl later died in hospital, and there are likely to be other deaths in the coming days.
Thephasadin Na Ayudhya was under the legal age for driving and (of course) didn’t have a driving licence. Such is the law that she’s too young to be prosecuted for driving without a licence. She’s also legally too young to be held responsible for the deaths. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance she’ll get away scot free. The fact that she’s from a prominent, wealthy family certainly won’t do her any harm. (The “Na Ayudhya” part of her family name is royally granted.)

Many Thai people are outraged at what’s happened. She’s received death threats, and is currently at an unknown hospital, in hiding.

Somebody set up a Facebook page entitled มั่นใจว่าคนไทยเกินล้านคนไม่พอใจ แพรวา(อรชร) เทพหัสดิน ณ อยุธยา (“Confident that more than one million Thai people are not satisfied with Prae-wa (Orachorn) Thephasadin Na Ayudhya”). It’s already attracted more than 210,000 “likes” – a number that’s increasing minute by minute – and an enormous number of comments.

Unfortunately, the children of the wealthy and privileged in Thailand so often have an arrogance thinking they’re above the law, and it’s the little people that pay the price for that.

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