Mika Salo Says Bangkok Leg Injury Was an Accident

Former Formula 1 driver Mika Salo says the Bangkok incident that left him with a deep leg wound and 28 stitches should be treated as an accident, not a knife attack, after telling Thai police he does not believe he was assaulted.

According to a statement published by the Bangkok Post, Salo told local authorities on Tuesday that the injury was accidental and that he intends to visit Thailand again in future. That marked a clear attempt by the 59-year-old to calm reports that had quickly framed the episode as a stabbing.

Salo told Thai broadcaster PPTV he “did not have the feeling that I had been attacked,” and made clear he did not want to level an accusation unless he was “100 percent” certain. He also stressed that nothing had been stolen from him, reinforcing his view that the episode did not fit the pattern of a direct assault.

His own account of what happened, given to Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, points to a brief and confusing moment rather than an obvious attack. Salo said a motorbike or moped rider passed very close as he crossed at a pedestrian crossing, and that he felt only a small impact on his leg. He did not realize he had been seriously hurt until roughly 50 meters later, when a passer-by alerted him to the blood running into his shoe.

After first trying to clean the wound himself, Salo took a taxi to hospital. There, doctors found the injury was much more serious than he had initially understood. The wound was deep, had damaged muscle tissue and ultimately required 28 stitches.

That medical assessment is one reason the story has remained difficult to pin down. Ilta-Sanomat reported that doctors believed the wound had been caused by a sharp object, and Salo said hospital staff told him there had been many similar cases with comparable injuries that evening and night.

That account does not neatly fit with his own explanation that the injury may have been accidental, possibly caused in the close pass by the motorcycle. It also helps explain why the case has not simply gone away after Salo tried to lower the temperature around it.

Bangkok police are still examining CCTV footage and other evidence, according to the source summaries, while also looking into reports of similar injuries involving both residents and tourists. So even with Salo now personally urging caution over claims that he was attacked, the investigation continues against a backdrop that suggests his case may not have been an isolated one.