Rayong: SUV driver causes road crash while reaching for fallen phone

[webfact]

SUV driver causes road crash while reaching for fallen phone

By The Nation

 

RAYONG: -- A SUV driver caused a road crash that severely injured a van driver and passenger in Rayong early Thursday when the driver tried to reach for a smartphone that he had dropped.

 

Ban Kram Police Station in Rayong’s Klaeng district was alerted of the accident at 4:30 am.

 

Pol Captain Chandi Wannupatham, deputy inspector of the police station, said the SUV driven by Ronnarot Charoenying, 47, crashed head on with a Klaeng-Bangkok passenger van driven by Wissanu Klinkhachorn, 47.

 

Ronnarot was not injured and waited at the scene to speak with police. The van driver suffered two broken legs and was stuck inside the van while the only passenger in the van, Pensri Suwannakha, 62, broke her leg.

 

The van was headed to pick up passengers in downtown Klaeng when the accident happened,

Ronnarot told police that he had dropped his smartphone so he looked down and was trying to reach it when his SUV swerved into the opposite lane and crashed into the van.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30327305

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-09-21

 

[smedly]

LOL you couldn't make it up, so basically he is admitting to using his mobile while driving the fact he dropped it is a mute point.

 

Like I have stated many times on TVF - IMO a very high percentage of accidents in Thailand are caused by people using mobile devices while driving, drunk drivers - poor maintenance of vehicles - blatant refusal to follow the rules and traffic laws - non existent higher training for those in charge of HGV's and public transport.................most of which could be avoided if the police actually did their job and enforced the law.

[samsensam]

9 minutes ago, smedly said:

LOL you couldn't make it up, so basically he is admitting to using his mobile while driving the fact he dropped it is a mute point.

 

Like I have stated many times on TVF - IMO a very high percentage of accidents in Thailand are caused by people using mobile devices while driving, drunk drivers - poor maintenance of vehicles - blatant refusal to follow the rules and traffic laws - non existent higher training for those in charge of HGV's and public transport.................most of which could be avoided if the police actually did their job and enforced the law.

 

that about sums it up.

[mauGR1]

Driving and using a phone is much more dangerous than driving while totally drunk, and it's very difficult for road police to catch them.

Now in Europe there are strict laws against DUI, but not much they can do against the idiots who text while driving.

Lately i had 2 risky situations myself, both times i blew the horn in anger, the idiots didn't even hear it.

[phantomfiddler]

Is that Darwin Jr. I see in the background ? smiling !!!

[toofarnorth]

Smart phone , smarter than the average Thai driver .

[Humpy]

 One of the reasons car owners have dark tinted windows is to avoid being seen using their mobile phones, texting or not wearing a seat belt. Ecclesiastical nick knacks hanging from the rear view mirror can only be a distraction. Likewise the lorries with their windscreens 2/3 covered with posters. I noticed a bus in our local town with its windscreen covered with the past 12 years of road tax stickers down the center 1/3 of the screen.... together with a massive bunch of the usual ecclesiastical bits dangling halfway down the screen. The lower half of the screen housed a selection of rag dolls and toys. A driver wanting to join my road from the left had difficulty seeing the oncoming slow moving traffic....... to see a little better he wound down his heavily tinted window....... and he was wearing sun glasses !!  Time to ban tinted windows, and   things hanging in the driver's field of vision . Car designers go to great lengths to provide the driver with the maximum amount of widows commensurate with a safe  and strong car bodywork . Will things change ?...... I doubt it. 

[PETERTHEEATER]

5 hours ago, Humpy said:

 One of the reasons car owners have dark tinted windows is to avoid being seen using their mobile phones, texting or not wearing a seat belt. Ecclesiastical nick knacks hanging from the rear view mirror can only be a distraction. Likewise the lorries with their windscreens 2/3 covered with posters. I noticed a bus in our local town with its windscreen covered with the past 12 years of road tax stickers down the center 1/3 of the screen.... together with a massive bunch of the usual ecclesiastical bits dangling halfway down the screen. The lower half of the screen housed a selection of rag dolls and toys. A driver wanting to join my road from the left had difficulty seeing the oncoming slow moving traffic....... to see a little better he wound down his heavily tinted window....... and he was wearing sun glasses !!  Time to ban tinted windows, and   things hanging in the driver's field of vision . Car designers go to great lengths to provide the driver with the maximum amount of widows commensurate with a safe  and strong car bodywork . Will things change ?...... I doubt it. 

Tinted films that are above a specified percentage of light transmission are illegal under Thai Traffic law a statute which is routinely ignored. You will see on TV reports by members who have tried to drive over the border into Malaysia and had their vehicles rejected for excess tint as measured with an optical instrument.

 

My brother in law asked me to drive his new SUV at night into town but I declined telling him that the dark tinted windows prevented me from seeing other traffic safely. He shrugged and drove himself. Two weeks later he collided, at night, with a motorcycle (with lights) fatally injuring the rider. His excuse to the police, 'I didn't see him'  Since the car was being paid for on instalments it had First Class Insurance cover but the assessor refused to accept the claim his company citing illegal modifications to the vehicle. The claim was later accepted when a second inspection showed that the film was actually tinted to legal level. Of course he was without the car for a day while that was...er...taken care of by a local auto-shop. 

 

Again, this is a failure on the part of the BiBs to properly enforce the law and of vehicle testing stations to reject older vehicles on-test prior to annual road tax payment.