BANGKOK (AFP) – A high-profile Thai pop singer knelt on a road and bowed in apology, video showed yesterday, after a car accident in which police said he killed a woman and critically injured her brother.
Manasawin Nantasen’s actions are in marked contrast to some previous incidents in the Southeast Asian country, where the rich and powerful sometimes enjoy impunity for their alleged actions.
He faces a reckless driving charge, with a maximum penalty on conviction of 10 years’ jail. Police said they expect him to cooperate with investigations.
Known as Tik Shiro, he rose to fame in the 1980s and his decades-long music career, fedora hats and moonwalk-inspired dance moves earned him the nickname “Thailand’s Michael Jackson”.
He was driving his Hyundai people-carrier across a bridge in Bangkok when he hit a stationary motorbike, killing a 28-year-old woman named only as Tianporn, and knocking her brother Chakkraphat, 21, off the structure, leaving him critically injured, police said.
