The fight was caught on video by a vehicle passing by and quickly gained traction on local social media channels, spurring more outrage over the violent behaviour of what officials call Phuket’s “public transport drivers”.
One of the men involved in the fight, Ritthidet ‘Tin’ Kingkaew, 35, originally from Kapong District, Phang Nga, filed a formal complaint at Phuket City Police Station late Sunday. The complaint was received by Pol Lt Col Charat Lemphan.
Ritthidet explained that he drives a passenger van registered in Phuket and is allowed to pick up passengers in front of Rasada Pier.
A passenger contacted him via the Grab app, and he arrived at the taxi queue near the exit of Ratsada Pier.
See: New deal struck for taxis at Ratsada Pier
Ritthidet said he had parked his van on the roadside in front of Ratsada Pier and exited the van to pick up passengers when a man about 40 years old came up to to him and scolded him, and said that he couldn’t park the van there because other vehicles use that area to make U-turns.
Ritthidet said he would not be there long, a response that started an argument.
“He walked up to me to punch me, so I made a fist and hit him,” Ritthidet said, adding that he put the man into a headlock.
“About three to four people came and attacked, and injured me,” he said, noting that was the reason for him filing a formal complaint with police, in order to press charges.
Pol Lt Col Charat Lempan called the “other man”, identified so far only as “Jack”, to Phuket City Police Station to explain his version of events.
Jack denied any threatening behaviour towards Ritthidet, which according to repeated reports of the behaviour of taxi drivers at the queue at Ratsada Pier in recent years would be an anomaly.
“Jack” said he only told Ritthidet to move his van, but that Ritthidet refused to move.
“I told him carefully to move the van a little so that other cars could travel easily. He didn’t do anything. He said that he didn’t see anyone making a U-turn.
“I said that someone would make a U-turn soon. Please help me move the car and then he asked me what the matter was.
“When he heard that it wasn’t time yet to move the van, he didn’t do anything, so I walked away from him. After that, he turned around and punched me,” Jack said.
After that, the fight started, he added.
“There was definitely no ganging up, but there were people nearby who came to stop us and separate us from each other… You can see by the video that they didn’t gang up,” he repeated, though the video does show several people intervening in the fight, but not providing assistance to the man on the ground.
“It was really just a misunderstanding,” said “Jack”. “He didn’t cooperate, that is he parked his van at the U-turn point, I just told him to move the van, but he turned and punched me,” Jack said.
One of the people who admitted to “intervening” was Samai Prasertkarn, 48. “We did not know what they were fighting about. We just went to separate them,” said Mr Samai, who was not confirmed whether or not he was one of the drivers working for the co-operative that controls the taxi queue.
“As [Jack] said, the van stopped at the U-turn and he was told to move because at that time there were already customers coming out, but he didn’t move,“ Mr Samai added.
A DIFFERENT VERSION
A 30-year-old woman who witnessed the incident said that the van driver, Ritthidet, had parked his van in front of the queue, but not as part of the queue.
Ritthidet was told to move his van so another driver at the queue could take the lead position to serve customers next, but Ritthidet had refused, saying that he was not interested in “jumping the queue” as he already had passengers who he was waiting for.
“After that, there was an argument, but the guy in the queue spoke angrily and said harsh words, which made the van driver hot-headed and he turned and punched the older man in the queue first,” the woman confirmed.