kwilco

Better than what?

Just turning up and telling others to go their jobs is really taking charge, is it?

The Thai military includes over 1,700 flag officers (generals and admirals), equating to about one general for every 212 troops. This is one of the highest in the world. But there are also many generals "without portfolio" just pottering around with time on their hands - they aren't going to go quietly when they have businesses to run......

you own words - it's the entire military.

I recently flew long haul with Thai after a long break from them – but the price tempted me….. on the way out I caught a cold after landing, on the way back I caught Covid. I just think they don't put the effort into customer care that other airlines do. The flight before had been EVA both ways; they always have been better than Thai. Experience suggests in cattle class, they have a magic extra inch or half extra leg room. At the turn of the millennium, I spent 10 years flying between Brisbane and London on a silver card with Thai – in the end, I couldn't wait to cash in my air miles and do my last round trip with them. I then changed mainly to EVA, Cathay Pacific or Qantas - the change was amazing. I have witnessed absolute failure in customer care by Thai airways, not just re-myself but the other passengers around me. I've seen air stewardesses reading a paper on the life-raft door standing ankle deep in litter - a whole group of very tall Aussie (sports?) women placed in front of a bulkhead - when they complained, the entire cabin crew spent the whole flight sitting in the galley coming out only to do minimum meal service. I've been told my meal was vegetarian rice when clearly it was chicken noodles. Eventually, on Flights from BKK to Brisbane I would refuse the inflight food and just have cheese and crackers - once told they didn't even have that. Once, when I asked for leg room, they gave me a seat with LESS legroom. I went to the steward who told me I was wrong and it was a seat by a door - so I took him along to my seat - there was no door just a bulkhead - he response "There used to be a door there". The problem with Thai airways is their attitude to customers is part of a culture going back years and no matter what changes they make, that underlying culture of the “customer is always wrong” still prevails. Other airlines that have problems they bend over backwards to help or solve your problem, but the culture on Thai Airways is to stubbornly dig their heels in and do nothing. My guess is that it is down to the way the staff are trained and they will be told off or punished by management if they stray from the rigid rules. The Thai hierarchical method of management. I think this attitude to staff was evident when I flew to London with my Thai ex - My ex’s sister was a senior steward with Thai air - Flying often to London – she was very tacit about her job. This one time, we asked if there were any “family perks” available – there was a pair of slippers and an eye pad….at the time there were huge discounts on other airlines for family members or even upgrades. In the end, we flew EVA who upgraded us unasked, to premium economy.

youHaven't travelled business class have you? THey are electric and fold out forward from the swab.

Eva and THai now share routes

How are Koh Samui and all the other islands getting on with clearing there hugely overloaded dumps?

What sort of answer would you expect? I think your response, a weird combination of sealion, ad hom and gibberish, rather precludes you from this discussion, doesn't it?

rubbish assessment - forks are in 2 main sections and designed to be soft for shock absorption

the Thai media spends a lot of time reporting crashes - one of the reasons is they can't actually publish a lot of political stuff as they could end up being sued or worse. THe result is that a lot of rubbish is posted about road safety eeven on this site - if you like many other posters don't know anything about it then it would be boring but there is a lot that needs to be said to change peoples perception about road safety in general and this is a good example of how people misunderstand and misread Road safety incidents in Thailand. Even you "are still banging on about it, talk about flogging a dead horse" and have decided to chip in - maybe you'll learn something - who knows?

We also can't tell if the video is running at the right speed - certainly ther e is a tendency for them to look faster and BE faster.

THat's irrelent - I'm talking about the fact you can't rely on them anyway. s I said there are papers on this.... A lot of witnesses are "shocked" by the event or impact and grossly over estimate speed etc ..

Foreigners driving in Thailand are usually ignorant of the priority laws and fail to understand their significance. Anyone who has driven in Europe in thee 1960s/70s will know the effects of "priority" laws. (the other way round) the effect was devastating - and there have been significant changes to overcome this. THsiland has not. In Thailand they still remain as a significant part of the driving psyche and culture - foreigners ignoring them do so at their peril. A lot of driving behaviour is subliminal - It may also be a contributory factor that the (elderly?) Swiss guy comes from a "DoR" country - he may have not instinctively looked or anticipated oncoming traffic correctly. THe classic example. of this is the pedestrian who steps off a kerb having looked left instead of right.\in this case in doesn't look as if he checked the traffic to his left and even if he did, he may have looked into the wrong lane and nothing wouls have registered - least of all a "fast" moving vehicle in what he considered to be the wrong lane. THe most common thing said after an accident is "I just didn't see him".

Digital not frames - we don't know if it was constant, accelerating because we haven't seen the hudred or so metres before the junction. THe difference in speed between 30 and 40 kph is huge. It can be calculated by the distance off line travelled by the m/c that was hit. In countries where crsheds are scientifically analysed the speeds of vehicles is detwermined quite accurately not from video but the resulting distances travelled on/across the asphalt. In Thailand crashes simply aren't calibrated. Certainly no=one on this thread could make an accurate assessment.

In Thailand priority is to the left. If two vehicles enter a junction from different directions at the same time, the vehicle on the left side has a right of way, except when there's a designation of "principle roadway" in which case the vehicle on the principle roadway has a right of way.] Section 72 11 [A principle roadway is announced by the traffic officer and installed with indicative traffic signs.] the "law" part of this is mentioned in the Highway code translation which actually dates from 1979 Land Traffic Act, B.E. 2522 (1979)

You aren't taking into account the natural fallibility of observation - it is totally subjective. I'm not saying you are wrong but there is simply not enough in view to make an accurate judgment. Another factor is that gauging speed on videos is very difficult - you actually have to measure distance against time and check that the reply speed of the video is properly calibrated. Without doing this videos tend to make speeds look faster. If you care to check there are a lot of papers on the fallibility of witnesses to calibrates speed and the fallibility of video evidence.

It’s down to perception. I said…. “People's perceptions of driving in any country are universally uninformed and their ability to understand what is really going on is minimal It is also worth bearing in mind that in a 4-wheeled vehicle in Thailand you are LESS likely to die than in a 4-wheeled car in the USA”. There is a lack of understanding of what is happening – the general attitude is that “driving in Thailand is mad and all Thai drivers are bad” – but the statistics don’t back this up – as 4-wheeled transport is less deadly than in the USA where a lot of people wrongly consider the driving to be "better".

That's how it all started.

Unfortunately the video doesn't show the approach of the SUV to the junction, so there is very little you can reliably conclude from it. People are very bad at viewing videos dispassionately.

we can't see - if the traffic lights are working. we can be pretty sure the motorcyclist didn't look left. the driver of the SUV did not seem to have adjusted speed for the junction. Anyone having driven this junction and all the other junctions along these roads will be aware that they whole layout is totally unsatisfactory especially at rush hours. It seems that Thai has not one single traffic engineer anywhere in the country

Yes - many foreign drivers are not good enough to adapt to a driving environment that is quite different from their home country. Some even think that Thai people should drive like they do in their home country. Basically if you find yourself shouting at other drivers, it is probably you who are not fitting in. Pelpe's perceptions of driving in any country are universally uninformed and their ability to understand what is really going on is minimal It is also worth bearing in mind that in a 4-wheeled vehicle in Thailand you are LESS likely to die than in a 4-wheeled car in the USA.

I'm not questioning tany decision (mind you - RTP??) - I'm pointing out the paucity of understanding people have when it comes to analysing acidents in general - especially watching videos. "experienced this exact same incident several times at this same intersection" - ? - Brings to mind a quote of Einstein's "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

A maun road is designated by police or local authority. It may be altered or whatever but that doesn't mean it is given a change of designation. However if there are road marking at the junction that would say. Most foreign drivers are unaware of the defumault....that is priority on the left.

I certainly wouldn't assume it would change for the better.