Police Hand Over Fatal Crash Case Involving Army Driver to the Military

By Moe Moe 19 March 2018

NAYPYITAW — Police have handed over to the army an investigation into a fatal crash in which a journalist was hit by a car driven by a military officer.

U Tin Lin, a senior reporter at The Voice Journal, was killed instantly as he rode his motorcycle near the Naypyitaw Central Railway Station in Pobbathiri Township in the administrative capital after being hit from behind by a car driven by an army major at around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“We have investigated the case, and handed it over to the concerned battalion as [the offender] is an army official,” said police lieutenant Thaung Htike Oo of the Pobbathiri Township police station.

U Tin Lin lived alone in Pobbathiri Township, away from his family in Yangon. He had worked as a reporter for more than 15 years.

In the 2010 general election, he had unsuccessfully contested a Lower House seat for the National Democratic Force (NDF) representing his hometown in Yangon’s Kungyangon Township.

“We will bring the body to back to Kungyangon Township and organize his funeral. And the rest [lawsuit against the army officer] is up to his family,” Ko Aung Soe, executive editor of The Voice, told The Irrawaddy.

The driver, who was identified as Major Kaung Htoo Lwin from the Health and Disease Control Unit in Zayarthiri Township, was sent to the 1,000-bed No. 2 Military Hospital to undergo a blood alcohol test to check if he was drunk while driving, but the result is still unknown, lieutenant Thaung Htike Oo said.

Kyi Taung Kan police station in Pobbathiri Township has opened a case against Maj Kaung Htoo Lwin for reckless driving and causing death.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.