13 teachers killed in road accident in Chiang Mai

CHIANG MAI: -- A chartered bus taking teachers from Chanthaburi to Doi Inthanon Mount plunged into a roadside pond, killing 13 of them and injuring several others.

Police said the accident occurred at 9:30 am on a road in Tambon Pamiang of Chiang Mai's Doi Saket district.

Police said the bus was climbing the mountainous road and lost control at a curve and overturned before plunging into the pond.

The 13 teachers died inside the bus.

The injured teachers were rushed on helicopters to nearby hospitals.

The bus was charted to take teaches from eight schools in Chan Thaburi for a field trip in Chiang Rai and the bus left Chiang Rai at 7 am to take teachers to tour Doi Inthanon.

-- The Nation 2007-01-19

A sad accident.

How come they were not in school teaching instead of galivanting around on field trips?

No mention of any pupils being involved.

Sad indeed. Those roads up around there are infamous. So are the bus drivers,...

bus was climbing the mountainous road and lost control at a curve

From what was shown on tv, I can't see how he could have lost control unless the driver was speeding.

As usual, further news report will show the bus driver was driving carelessly.

Congrats for keeping up the avareage one fatal bus wreck a week

Channel 11 Newsline just reported a revised death toll that has moved up to 22 with 26 injured.

Edited January 19, 200719 yr by sriracha john

RIP

And yet again!

A sad accident.

How come they were not in school teaching instead of galivanting around on field trips?

No mention of any pupils being involved.

Gallivanting??

We had just the "Teachers-day" and many schools are doing an excursion arround this time... what's wrong with that??

I've heard that 21 people were killed, not only teachers, also familymembers...

No pupils being involved? Perhaps not in the accident but try to think about a school who just lost 13 teachers by a tragic accident

Get on a bus in Thailand whether teacher or not and your life is in the hands of the driver..

REQUIEM IN PACE...Dukkha

We had just the "Teachers-day" and many schools are doing an excursion arround this time... what's wrong with that??

You mean a Baker Day..........?

I guess you work in a British curriculum school.

These were Thai teachers.

Excursions are fine, if you take the pupils with you.

"Per ardua ad astra.

Just because I am a moderator does not mean that the views I express are necessarily those of ThaiVisa."

I hope not, and think unlikely!

Another very unfortunate accident. From the wording it sounds like they might have drowned if the bus crashed into water, anyone know about that? I cant imagine some kind of speedy hellicopter rescue as mentioned, "Rushed". Ambulances and First Aid/Responder in general here is just horrible, there are some great docters and hospitals if you can live long enough to get there, this plays a major role in the high death counts on highway accidents.

Im completely over riding buses here and have been for some time, At least the trains are somwhat limeted to slower speeds and fewer high impact collisions by the shaky old tracks and small numbers of them on the rails.

Another very unfortunate accident. From the wording it sounds like they might have drowned if the bus crashed into water, anyone know about that? I cant imagine some kind of speedy hellicopter rescue as mentioned, "Rushed". Ambulances and First Aid/Responder in general here is just horrible, there are some great docters and hospitals if you can live long enough to get there, this plays a major role in the high death counts on highway accidents.

Im completely over riding buses here and have been for some time, At least the trains are somwhat limeted to slower speeds and fewer high impact collisions by the shaky old tracks and small numbers of them on the rails.

perhaps special advanced driving courses might be in order for bus drivers, very sad indeed

I do my visa runs on my bike because I just don't trust the drivers..............they take risks I wouldn't take

17 killed in bus crash The wreck of a tour bus which carried teachers from Chanthaburi, following an accident which killed 17 of its passengers in Chiang Mai's Doi Saket district yesterday.

BP

ACCIDENT / TEACHERS KILLED ON STUDY TOUR

Bus plunge leaves 17 dead

Chiang Mai _ Seventeen people were killed and 33 injured in a road accident after a tour bus, taking teachers from Chanthaburi province on a study tour, took a bend too fast and plunged into a river in this northern province's Doi Saket district yesterday. Thirteen of the teachers were killed on the spot, while the other four died on the way to hospital.

Additional disturbing, yet all to common, news continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/20Jan2007_news04.php

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to Tony:

sounds like they were going down the mountain, not up.

to Mai Krap:

although they plunged into a river, doesn't seem that any of them drowned. The horrendous way they did die is in the article.

to All:

the Chiang Mai hospital treating the survivors is urgently asking for blood donations of O and A groups.

See also this thread in the CM Forum.

We had just the "Teachers-day" and many schools are doing an excursion arround this time... what's wrong with that??

You mean a Baker Day..........?

I guess you work in a British curriculum school.

These were Thai teachers.

Excursions are fine, if you take the pupils with you.

No, Tuesday 16th was indeed a Thai school holiday - Teacher's Day - a day off - at least in the Thai school where my kids attend.

I remember because I thought it was kind stupid to have it on a Tuesday..rather than Monday

It's quite common for teachers to have seminar groups or conference activities once a year or so away from the school- kind of a working retreat. Nothing suspicious or untoward about it at all. I've been on a number of them myself. This news just makes me worried about riding those tour buses!!! You do a lot of that as a teacher, both with students and without.

"Steven"

That the teachers were / were not on some field trip or whatever is hardly the bleeding point is it? That some numb-nuts here have implied that it was somehow their own faults for being driven to their deaths by some cretin driver is unforgivable. And pathetic.

How come they were not in school teaching instead of galivanting around on field trips?

That is truly a sad comment, you are a real gem of a person!

Did the driver run away?

I once took a bus from Bangkok to Hua Hin. At one point the driver barely kept it from going off to the side. Driving as fast as possible up to the edge of control even after that happened. We got air and were flying!!! Moronic.

As I understand it, the driver was injured, so he couldn't flee the accident.

I always worry about these things. Once we had a group of teachers who needed to make a visa run to get their non-immigrant B visas. They arranged with a van driver to take all of them. I put a stop to it. I didn't want them all going either at the same time or on the same transport. Knowing how people drive here and that it is a long journey--to Malaysia, I thought it was too risky.

They were all angry, but at least they all eventually made it back.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

My condolences to the family, friends, loved ones and students.

That the teachers were / were not on some field trip or whatever is hardly the bleeding point is it? That some numb-nuts here have implied that it was somehow their own faults for being driven to their deaths by some cretin driver is unforgivable. And pathetic.

Quoted for truth.

To all here who rush to judgement: Please take a moment to mourn the innocent instead.

This is truely very sad. They said on the Thai news that the brakes failed. I guess we will never know whether they failed due to speeding or not..

Sad for everyone involved

RIP

That the teachers were / were not on some field trip or whatever is hardly the bleeding point is it? That some numb-nuts here have implied that it was somehow their own faults for being driven to their deaths by some cretin driver is unforgivable. And pathetic.

Quoted for truth.

To all here who rush to judgement: Please take a moment to mourn the innocent instead.

And another moment to slap all bus drivers to reality.

A shame anyone died, but as long as they did, it's too bad it wasn't a bus full of Cheing Mai taxi drviers.