Cabbie was an advocate for safety cameras

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004 | 11 a.m.

After a passenger tried to rob cabdriver Pairoj Chitprasart last year, he became vocal in his support of surveillance cameras in taxicabs.

The 51-year-old advocated for the cameras in his Thai-language newspaper that he supported with his taxi-driving pay, his girlfriend of five years and co-manager of the newspaper said.

Now she and Chitprasart's fellow cabbies are haunted by the thought that a camera might have prevented Chitprasart from being victimized a second time, this time by a passenger who set him afire Friday night. Chitprasart died of his injuries Tuesday.

"He wanted taxi companies to put cameras in the cabs for safety," Oywan Sawyer said while at Palm Mortuary as she helped to make funeral arrangements for Chitprasart.

"He said, 'I wish taxi cab companies cared more about the drivers,' " Sawyer said. "He did say sometimes that he was scared."

Chitprasart was taken off life support Tuesday morning, three days after he was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire during a robbery attempt in downtown Las Vegas.

James Scholl, 33, is charged with murder in connection with the incident. He was being held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center.

Local cab drivers have been pushing hard for cab cameras for some time, but in February the Taxicab Authority Board refused to require cab companies to install the devices, which cost several hundred dollars each.

Instead the board voted to study the issue. The results aren't expected until next month, and the soonest the board could vote on it would be November.

Craig Harris, a veteran Las Vegas cab driver and editor of the cabbie magazine Trip Sheet, said the beaucratic foot-dragging on the cabbie camera issue "cost a man his life."

Nellis Cab, the company Chitprasart worked for since 2001, refused to comment.

Chitprasart, who has a 14-year-old son, came to the United States from Thailand in 1988 to find better life, and he succeeded, Sawyer said.

He studied journalism and photography in college, Sawyer said. Shortly after they met in 1999, "he said, 'Do you want to do a (news)paper with me?' " Sawyer recalled.

She had no background in journalism, but she agreed to help him. He launched the Thai Las Vegas News, a bi-monthly newspaper, reporting on local Thai issues and events and translating local, national and international news into Thai. Sawyer served as director of marketing.

"I learned from him, everything," she said.

Chitprasart got a job driving a cab because the paper was slow to show a profit, Sawyer said. He worked for Union Cab from 1999 to 2001 then switched to Nellis.

Chitprasart wrote about cabbie issues in the paper, and he called for the surveillance cameras to be installed in all cabs to protect drivers and passengers, Sawyer said.

Taxicab officials "have been talking about cameras for a while but it never gets done. I don't understand it," Sawyer said. "He just wanted taxis to be safe."

While Chitprasart waited for that day to come, he continued to work hard -- as a driver and as a newspaperman, Sawyer said.

The relatively small Thai community in Las Vegas embraced the newspaper and he became a well-known fixture at events and social activities, taking pictures and interviewing people, she said. He loved it.

Last summer he had put away enough money to purchase a home in Spring Valley near the Las Vegas Beltway and Durango Drive.

"It was his first house," Sawyer said. "He was so proud of it. His life was going so well."

She had lunch with him Friday, then he called her at 7 p.m. to check in.

An hour later, he was fighting for his life at University Medical Center with third-degree burns on more than 70 percent of his body.

Police arrested Scholl the next morning after he bragged to a friend that he had set a cabbie on fire because he refused to hand over his money.

Sawyer isn't surprised that Chitprasart didn't give in to Scholl's demands, she said. Last year when a passenger tried to rob him he slammed on his brakes and ordered the man from his cab. He was "hard-headed," Sawyer said, and didn't give up easily.

She said she didn't understand how anyone carry out a brutal attack such as the one that killed Chitprasart.

"I just want him to tell the police, tell someone, why he did this, why he burned him," Sawyer said, her eyes filling with tears. "Why not have a knife or gun? That might not have hurt him as much as gasoline."

"I want to know what kind of human being he is," she continued. "I want to know if he's happy or sad about what he did. He affected lots of people."

Customers have been calling Bangkok Market on West Flamingo Road near Decatur Boulevard and asking about Chitprasart's death, employees said.

Twice a month Chitprasart stopped into the store and dropped off stacks of his newspaper. He sometimes chatted with the owner, Yupa Sutthivareepong, but other times he was too busy.

He was known as a good, hardworking guy, she said.

Kanowan Gee, who works at the store, said Chitprasart's death has shocked the local Thai community.

"A lot of people knew him because he had the paper," Gee said. "We can't believe something like this happened."