Two drunks drown in separate Phuket incidents
PHUKET: Two drunk men drowned within hours yesterday afternoon (February 11) in separate incidents after deciding they wanted to swim in tin ponds. One body was recovered yesterday, the other around 11am today (February 12).
Nattha Thepbamrung
Tuesday 12 February 2013, 06:35PM
The first case happened at a nine-meter-deep pond behind Chalong temple. Kamdee Kammoon was drinking with a new friend, having arrived in Phuket three days earlier from Mukdaharn Province to look for a job.
“He told his friend that he felt hot, then got into the pond,” said Virat Rodpan, a scuba diver with the Kusoldharm Foundation. “He stepped into a hole just next to the edge of the pond. It was not too deep for survival, but he was too drunk to help himself.”
After a nearby vendor saw the incident, he called the foundation to rush to the place.
“We received the report around midday but only found his body around 3pm. His friend was still drunk and could not talk coherently,” he said.
Mr Kamdee’s body was sent to Vachira hospital.
In the second case Somyot Salawong, 45, from Khon Kaen province, was drinking with relatives next to a pond in the Mai Khao area and drowned after taking on a challenge from them.
“The relatives said they dared him to swim across the pond and he apparently started doing it for real. The relatives tried to stop him but could not,” Mr Virat said.
After he disappeared below the surface, the rescue foundation were alerted around 4pm. Divers searched unsuccessfully for two hours by which time their air tanks were empty and it was too dark to keep looking for him.
They returned this morning. “We have just found him lying on the bottom of pond, about six or seven metres down,” he said.
Mr Somyot’s body was sent to Thalang hospital to await collection by his family.
