Manasawin Nantasen, known as Tik Shiro, has been sentenced to two years in prison for a drink-driving incident in Bangkok that claimed two lives in October 2024. The 64-year-old singer, who earned the nickname “Thailand’s Michael Jackson” for his iconic fedora hat and moonwalk-inspired dance moves during his rise to fame in the late 1980s and 1990s, was driving across a bridge when he collided with a stationary motorcycle. The crash killed a 28-year-old woman and left her 21-year-old brother critically injured; he later died in hospital.
A video showing the singer kneeling in grief at the accident scene went viral across Thai social media. In court, a statement noted that the defendant surrendered and provided testimony helpful to the case, and had demonstrated remorse by attending the victims’ funeral and compensating their families.
According to the World Health Organization, Thailand ranks ninth among 175 member nations for road traffic deaths, with 18,218 fatalities recorded in 2021—an average of 50 deaths per day.