News Forum - 7 year old girl suffocates to death in school van in eastern Thailand

[Thaiger]

A 7 year old Grade 2 student suffocated to death in a school van yesterday at Ploenchit Wittaya school in Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand, after she was left in the van all day. At 5pm yesterday, officers from Phan Thong Police Station received a report that a child had died inside a van at the “famous” school in Pan Thong district. Police, rescue workers, and doctors from Phan Thong hospital rushed to the school where they found the body of 7 year old Khemnit, or “Nong Ji Hoon,” lying on the floor in the back of the van. The […]

The story 7 year old girl suffocates to death in school van in eastern Thailand as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Nivram]

How can the driver forget to check the van to see if all the children left the van.

He didn't hear or see the child? 

Something is not right.

[Saltire]

Tragic story and shameful teachers instantly go into cover-up mode!

 

 

"Metika said that at first, the teachers wouldn’t tell Metika what happened and just asked her, “Does your child have any underlying diseases?”

 

 

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

59 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

the school was trying to cover something up

Now way a 7 year old can be forgotten in a van like that. There'll be more coming.
I would never trust a van taking my kids to school, that's for sure.

[HolyCowCm]

Been in many of vans like that but for other things. If the back area especially the floor is not checked then easy to overlook it as all kids carry their backpacks and no one would put anything back there. Seems she fell asleep, but very odd a 7 year old would not wake up and get out. Terrible either way, but lets hope the driver has nothing to do with it other than negligient to check the van entirely.

[longwood50]

Seems very strange.  Even if the girl fell asleep you would expect that she would wake up as the other students were exiting.  If that did not occur you would expect that she would wake up and make attempts including but not limited to honking the horn on the bus to alert people to her being trapped.  It appears as though the side window on this van has a window that could be opened.  Either the girl had some sort of medical problem or perhaps foul play.  Hard to believe that the 7 year old would not have raised enough noise from iside the bus to bring attention to her if she awakened and everyone was gone. 

[Cabra]

Hard to believe no one noticed her missing before 4pm

[dimitri]

17 hours ago, longwood50 said:

If that did not occur you would expect that she would wake up...

When the sun shines directly on the van a child will not survive long. Probably she will be dead in an hour. 

It starts with confusion, someone will stop thinking logically. Your body temperature quickly becomes too high, causing your blood to clot.

In addition, you can expect that the doors of such a van cannot be opened from the inside if small children are being transported.

This seems more like an accident caused by negligence. Negligence by the driver, but also by the school who did not even call the parents when the child was not present.

 

[Bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, dimitri said:

This seems more like an accident caused by negligence. Negligence by the driver, but also by the school who did not even call the parents when the child was not present.

Do schools here call the parents if a pupil hasn't arrived, even a private school?

My wife's niece goes to an expensive school. My wife always contacts her teacher by Line if she's ill, for example.

Her nephew, who goes to a government school have no interest in his welfare whatsoever, unless of course he caused a problem directly for the school.
None of those teachers had any way to be contacted, we asked we went went to see them about another matter.

 

[Ramanathan.P]

This is ridiculous and not acceptable. The driver should know how many kids he is picking up and how many he is dropping. He has to keep the count. If he cannot count then how did he get his driving license. Even the teacher has to keep track. What were the driver and teacher doing in the School Van when they cannot keep track of the children in their custody? 

[longwood50]

6 hours ago, dimitri said:

When the sun shines directly on the van a child will not survive long. Probably she will be dead in an hour. 

Perhaps but it was also reported that she had blood around her mouth.  

As mentioned the front window appears to be the kind that can be opened from the interior.  I recognize the girl was 7 but I would think that the girl would have the presence of mind to blow the horn of the van if she could not get out.  The very fact that the girl remained on the bus despite all the noise that would normally be associated with children getting off the bus makes me wonder if she did not have some sort of medical issue before the bus ever stopped. 

 

[ChrisS]

Seems to me at the very least the driver should be checking the van is empty before he parks it up. R.I.P. this girl.

[HiuMak]

Happens everywhere in the world where kids, babies or pets left in the car and driver thinking it is ok not aware about the heat inside when the vehicle is left out for some time. RIP tragic incident sadly

[dimitri]

21 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

Do schools here call the parents if a pupil hasn't arrived, even a private school?

My wife's niece goes to an expensive school. My wife always contacts her teacher by Line if she's ill, for example.

 

 

Where I come from parents will get a phone call. Although that is mainly to prevent truancy.

 

[Bluesofa]

1 minute ago, dimitri said:

Where I come from parents will get a phone call. Although that is mainly to prevent truancy.

I'm guessing this isn't Thailand you're talking about?

[Pinetree]

3 hours ago, HiuMak said:

Happens everywhere in the world where kids, babies or pets left in the car and driver thinking it is ok not aware about the heat inside when the vehicle is left out for some time. RIP tragic incident sadly

That's only because there are a great number of unintelligent morons in charge of them. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid, dumb, thick as a brick,  a lot of human kind can be. 

[GKThai]

This is terribly sad, and a tragic end to the life of a child.

Van drivers and the teachers who accompany the children to and from school must be trained to check the entire vehicle in person by entering and looking between seats and throughout to ensure kids are not asleep or hiding and did not exit the vehicle.

I have heard of several children being left in school vans and the tragic result for the family - the safety of these young kids has to be taken much more seriously than it is now.

My heartfelt condolences to the mother and father and extended family and friends of Ji Hoon. Such heartbreaking news...