The wife of imprisoned opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour on Thursday denied reports that she and the driver of her husband’s SUV fled the scene of a crash in Kandal province that left another man with a broken femur.
Takhmao City police chief Sin Buthbondith said Mey Vanna, 48, had his left femur crushed by a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV bearing Senate license plates while he was driving through the intersection of streets 110 and 21 in the city on Wednesday.
Mr. Buthbondith said Mr. Vanna was driving a motorcycle-trailer transporting pigs when the SUV ran a red light at the intersection on the southern end of the city, but that the occupants of the car had fled.
“The car bore Senate number plates, but we do not know yet who owns the car, because the driver escaped on foot after the incident,” Mr. Buthbondith said, explaining that police had not yet looked up the license plates.
“We are cooperating with the Phnom Penh department of public works to investigate the number plate to bring in the driver responsible for the accident.”
But local media was quick to report that the car, which is now being kept at the Takhmao City police office, belonged to Mr. Sok Hour, who is in prison after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered his arrest in August.
Kun Lum Ang, the wife of Mr. Sok Hour and herself an opposition CNRP lawmaker candidate at the 2013 election, said she was in the car at the time of the accident but that her driver was not at fault and denied they had fled the scene.
“The motorcycle-trailer driver was wrong, because he hit our car from the front as his motorcycle-trailer was heavy,” Ms. Lum Ang said, adding that she and her driver had dealt with the situation as required by law.
“I and my driver did not escape like the accusations from the police and the media that we fled the scene. I stayed inside the car but my driver got out of the car and looked at the incident,” she said.
