The four students killed in a Kampot road accident in Banteay Meas district on December 1. FACEBOOK
Kampot provincial police are building a legal case against a man whose car rammed into four high school students, killing them on December 1.
Provincial police chief Mao Chanmathurith said on December 26 that police would now refer the case to court as negotiations on civil compensation between the students’ parents and the offender’s representatives had failed.
“We have to do things like inspect the scene of the accident again and recheck the details in the reports on the incident to be sure it’s all correct first before referring the case to court. But as far as the officers investigating the crime are concerned, this is a case that should be prosecuted in court,” he said.
He added that the police had no authority to intervene over civil damages other than facilitating a meeting between the two sides, but beyond that it was up to the victims and the driver to negotiate and come to terms over any financial compensation.
Rath Bun, one of the parents, said on December 26 that the case had been left unresolved because the driver had requested a negotiation over civil compensation.
He said that initially the families of the four students were demanding compensation of $20,000 per victim. But after learning more about the driver’s situation, they reduced their demand to $7,000 each – an offer still rejected by the driver.
As the grieving families did not want to prolong the negotiating process, they then asked for $5,000 per victim but the driver postponed negotiations several times and once again refused to pay.
Bun recalled that on December 25, he and the other parents had gone to meet with provincial governor Mao Thonin, who said he would intervene directly if the car driver failed to come up with an acceptable compromise.
He said the governor had promised to help them with the situation because he could not allow people to carelessly run over children in his province and escape justice. Thonin then told the provincial police to finish up the necessary work for referral to court.
The car driver declined to comment and referred The Post to the victims’ families when reached for comment on December 26.
