richard_smith237

I think thats a valid point... [interacting with other foreigners / Westerners just because they are also foreign / Western]... ... If there is a natural conversation point, why not, of course... but otherwise... speaking with people we dont know, nope... that just odd.... but if eye contact is made there is nothing wrong with a nod, but that is for anyone regardless of nationality etc.... I often catch eye contact with other Thai guys, I give a nod and they nod back... nothing more to it. A few weeks ago I was at EmSphere looking at the cars... Another Westerner there (Eastern European I think), started talking to me, we were both interested in the car and talked for about 10mins, about the car.... pleasant enough chappy, pleasant enough converstation - just a human interaction, not forced or ignored... I never got the other fella's name - there was no need for that... nevertheless, there was no need to ignore him because I didn't know him, neither was there any need to over-indulge in the converstation... we had our little chat about the car and were both on our way....

Georgia - given your recently threads its as if you are developing (or already have) a strong anti-farang bias.... (there are a couple of others on this forum who can't help themselves denigrate other westerners at any opportunity). Thai said: on the stinky thing... Yep - 'People' can often stink... Family and I were in a lift the other day a Westerner and his Wife were in there, one of them (I assume the other foreigner) was stinking of body odour... no excuses there, he could surely afford laundered clothes and to take a shower, & use deodorant. Then just yesterday we had some work men over.... by the end of the day one of them was reeking of body odour, foul enough to smell it outside, meanwhile the other two seemed 'ok'. I think some people just stink more than others - but showering at least twice per day and always wearing freshly laundered clothes is an absolute must IMO - if I've so much as 'drawn a sweat' I always change my clothes when given a chance. ------------ On another note... a few weeks ago in hospital I was getting some 'pre-treatment checks'... (getting some blood taken)... One nurse (slightly older) says to the other (in Thai)... "he smells so nice"... ... the other nurse (younger).. comes and sits next to me... then responds... (in Thai again)... "Yes, he does smell so nice, really, really".... I smile and say thank-you in Thai... they then erupt in giggles, ask me if I can understand Thai, to which I reply in Thai, "Yes, I understand and speak a little"... we then have a conversation in Thai as they both get closer "smelling me" !!!... the older nurse then asks, "do you have a Thai Wife ?".... I answer yes... she then giggled... "don't tell her about this !!!"... A similar event happened again (after staying over night - minor surgery), I was able to shower... When a different nurse came in to see to give me my medication... (my was was present)... the nurse asked my wife... "he smells so nice, what is he wearing"... Wife and I laughing because this seemed to be an on going thing over a few days.... ...Meanwhile... I remember threads on here with Westerners stating how they get offended by women's strong perfume burning the nostrils, how Thai's hate strong smells of perfume and aftershave etc... ... ... Clearly Thai's like a 'pleasantly smelling' (not overpowering) odour of another person.. ... Clearly some 'miserly stinkers' are offending people with their 'I just use a bit of aluminium stick'.... they probably don't know they still have 'body odour'... ... Then there are the blatant stinkers !!!.... Personally, I think the biggest cause of stinkers is poorly laundered clothes... where antibacterial washing powder is not used and the 'stinky bacteria' are never quite fully washed away. I've had this in other countries... whereby I get my clothes laundered, then come back dry and smelling ok, but as soon as I start to sweat or 'get moist' the smell from the clothes is not pleasant and I'm forced to change.... (some hotels / laundries - use detergent that just does not do the job of ensuring bacteria is removed from clothes)...

The tyre blew out and the van spun off the road.... ... Why did the van spin off the road ??... could it be the drivers reaction that caused the spin ? - I had a blow out... no one else to blame but myself (pressures must have had a slow puncture I didn't notice - should have checked tyre pressures when I filled up for fuel in the middle of a long drive). - My Wife had a blow out, we did not notice that the inside of the tyre was so poorly worn (tracking was off, car was 3 months out of a service)... My fault for not inspecting the tyres as regularly as I should. In both situations, we didn't crash, because we didn't slam on the brakes - braking hard after the tyre blows out is an almost certain way to cause your car to lose control.

You are correct of course - to proportion driver fault in this individual incident we need to ignore all the other observations we see on a daily basis... such as... ... Speeding Mini-Van ... Mini-Van being driven erratically ... Many vehicles with poor tyres (low / missing tread) As you point out, its easy to jump the obvious conclusions that this van was being driven very poorly by a lunatic driver but there is no proof of that. ... Thus - we can only make assumptions and discuss.... we could be wrong in assuming this van was being driven very poorly - my guess is the driver was driving like a complete ayhole and the reason I guess that is that this accident fits the pattern of so many others... Just yesterday I saw a number of dangerous things on the roads. - Pickup cars - speeding swerving - Vans being driven erratically and tailgating - Big Trucks with no tread on the tires (observed on slow moving traffic) So... why we can be certain - we can throw out a good guess and those who are suggesting driver fault are more likely to be correct than not, IMO.

No... The golden rule if you have a blow out is not to hit the brakes... Additionally - IF the road is 'that busy' the speed should not be so significant that it spins the van off the road. ... Thus: whichever pedantic approach you need to take to find an argument, its flawed.

Best of luck with a fair & just conclusion next month. While you & I don’t commonly see eye to eye on a number of subjects, no one should be using their car as weapon in a violent reaction to anything. This guy deserves jail IMO - as you already pointed out before, the professors (driver of the other car) admitted he hit you deliberately. INO that’s assault with a deadly weapon… & Props to you for following up so the rest of us can see how these issues are dealt with (especially when a westerner is involved / the victim)

Good… But, the leading cause of death in u see 15 years olds in Thailand is drowning… Teach water safety too !!! & electrical safety while they are at it.

Agreed - but that doesn’t mean the Frenchman’s reckless riding should be ignored…. I see people riding / driving with reckless abandonment of common sense & basic safety all the time…. The Police if course and ignore so much. If we see this reckless driving behaviour on a daily basis, so do the police…

No, it’s not the bikes faults. Car driver has to check his blind spot - he didn’t…. It’s the drivers fault. The motorcyclist could have / should have been riding more defensively & that makes him complicit in the incident “, but fault lies with the car driver for changing lanes suddenly without checking the blind spot = careless / reckless driving.

Exactly…. Teachers & adults are not even permitted to use the same toilets as the school children…. So what is this article ??? - attention seeking to create a woke-drama out of nothing.

Exactly this... One such area is travelling east from Chitlom area, near Sukhumvit Soi 1... There is a 20meter interval of road over which cars cannot travel (only busses can)... But, once you are on that road, its impossible to avoid the '20m interval of road' unless you want to turn left onto the expressway heading north. ... Its one of those 'you have to know' areas... And the police know very well, that not everyone knows... they make a killing in tea money at that junction !!!

1) Speeding tourist van spins off the road 2) Tour bus rolls down a ravine 3) Truck with brake failure takes out a motorcycle 4) Sports car takes out a motorcyclist 5) Tour Boat / speed boat over turns in rough weather 6) Boat loses engine and capsizes in river 7) Heavy truck (cement truck / container truck) tips over squashing car & occupants 8) Crane collapses 9) Something heavy (concrete) falls from a construction site (i.e. overpass on Rama II road) 10) Wealthy Person in expensive car, drunk and kills someone 11) Car falls out of multi-story car park 12) Pit-bull attacks (mauls / kills) child / owner / delivery guy 13) One neighbour shoots another over childish dispute. These are all situations that occur in Thailand with a degree of repeatability they almost become predictable.

Agreed... I had a rear left blowout at about 100kmh.... no issues, just brought the car to a gentle stop, then changed the wheel. I suspect I'd caught a slow puncture and didn't notice, 3+ hours into a long journey when the blowout happened, sidewall gave out and the tyre was hot - which led me to suspect that I'd been driving an under-inflated tyre for some time and didn't notice. The worst part was having to change the tyre on the side of the road in the middle of the Thai heat... exhausting...

Recently a 3 hr drive turned into a much longer drive as traffic backed up. Earlier on we'd been passed by about 10 pick-up trucks, modded, turboed up, lowered, everyone single one of them weaving in and out of traffic, going up the shoulder at speed, kicking up clouds of dirt and billowing out clouds of black-smoke from the turbo overclocking... Each of the individual pick-ups made an absolute nuisance of themselves causing people to swerve, avoid them... so many 'near accidents' as they aggressively and loudly forced their way though busy traffic.... Then the alerts started popping up on Google Maps - accident up-ahead... then the ambulances started threading their way though the traffic. While I don't wish harm on anyone - I was kind of hoping for some form of Karma while also hoping that these idiots hand not hurt anyone innocent or crashed into an innocent vehicle. I never saw any crash site, but one thing I am certain of - idiots driving these pickups in this manner are always a moment away from a major life changing incident caused purely by themselves. How many police cars did they pass ?? I've no idea - if any... BUT.. one thing is for sure, I don't see the roads patrolled and dangerous drivers such as these idiots being dealt with. We don't know what caused this incident (I refuse to use the word accident when someone is driving like an idiot)... and I suspect this pickup was being driven in the same manner we see so many of these pickups being drive - by an idiot in a dangerous and reckless manner. At least they didn't hurt anyone else.

Well.. every cloud and all that... ... At least it didn't end up down a ravine... Isn't that always happens to these busses around this time of year... ... Tour bus ends up down ravine... Next in line... ... Speed / dive boat overloaded with passengers over-turns...

Going by that photo the Vios was an innocent by stander (car). Could the cause be another poor LOG installation (Mistsubishi). To what extent is the owner & insurance of the vehicle which caused the incident accountable.

Fair point - lots of apps but we can get used to that easily enough. On the second point - having to go back to the car to move it is an inconvenience. CCS2 chargers are great… but not at the shops etc (the one I just used didn't have a Type 2 AC charger). Just highlighting that EV usage / charging etc not quite the perfect world. Just pulled into a PTT station with KFC - so we could charge & grab a snack… CCS2 chargers in use. Another point - scanning all those QR codes on my phone (QR stickers on the charge machines)…. that’s a massive security risk…. Lots of warnings going about alerting to the risk of scanning ‘fraudulent’ QR codes that gives scammers access to the phone.

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Yep.. the 'it happens elsewhere' argument - as if to suggest its ok that such issues occur here in Thailand. Would you run a statistical evaluation: How often does such an incident occur per year, per 100,000 lorry kms ? Without digging up stats, I think its obvious that there is far less vehicle maintenance and far more 'corner' cutting' from a vehicular safety perspective in Thailand than exists in Western nations. For anyone with an hour or so driving ahead of them today - they will witness numerous vehicles which visibly appear unroadworthy, we don't see the same issues with such frequency in the UK (for example as you compared Thailand to the UK earlier).

Thai's can, just as people can in any other nation... Thai's already have the skill set and do testing throughout many industries... International haulage companies do their own in-house testing (and driver monitoring etc), then there are the skilled labor forces of the oil industry, aircraft industry etc... IMO - there is not a shortage in skilled labor - there are just fundamental flaws in attitudes towards safety on a 'state' level.... As you pointed out, 'they'..... (I'm assuming you DLT testers) are not taught to inspect correctly, lack the tools and manpower because authorities and those in positions of responsibility have been 'getting away' with being slack, taking bribes etc for generations... This is systemic and endemic corruption tie in with a firm culture of apathy and lack of proactiveness.... ... Until people in positions of responsibility are held accountable - there will be little change.

6 month - its enough in other countries with similar laws and better safety records. What can be done to stop the circumnavigation of the law ? - better enforcement, police who are less apathetic... a solid anti-graft stance... thats the on going issue and far bigger than can realistically be discussed in a thread. Ultimately - so many of these safety related issues in thailand require a 'step' away from the systemic corruption that is so intertwined with the culture here, a whole cultural shift is required for improvements in safety to exist.

Absolutely agree.. Though, I suspect the testing knowledge exists here - its not as if Thai's are unskilled... but the general absense of 'proactiveness' is the major factor - inspection for something that may not happen, is considered a waste of time.

The law already states that commercial vehicles (lorrys busses etc) are inspected every 6 months. The issue of course, is not the law, but the circumnavigation of it.

The size of your bike has some relevance? It has some... When riding a larger bike with full kit, the BiB are less likely to pull a rider over because they know they are more likely to be fully licensed, taxed and insured etc Whether thats true or not, I'm not sure - but in Bangkok the BiB seem mostly interested in those riding scooters and tend not to bother riders on larger bikes...