Motorist killed, wife injured as power pole topples onto pickup in storm

By The Nation

 

 

A driver was killed and his wife severely injured when a power pole fell onto their pickup on a Chachoengsao road on Monday night, police said.

 

Pol Captain Jirawat Nampha, deputy inspector of Phanom Sarakham police station, said on Tuesday that the accident occurred at 8pm on the Phanom Sarakham-Sanam Chaiket road in Moo 3 village, Tambon Koh Khanoon in Phanom Sarakham district.

 

The deceased was identified as Komol Saowangkha, 49, from Prachin Buri. 

 

His wife, Sunan Saonawang, 46, was rushed to Phanom Mahasarakham Hospital for emergency treatment.

 

Police learned from Sunan that the couple had been returning to Prachin Buri from Tha Takiap district in Chachoengsao, but when they arrived at the area, a storm caused a power pole to topple over, resulting in a chain reaction and causing several other poles to fall.

 

Her husband had accelerated in an effort to dodge the falling poles but the truck’s roof was hit by the last of them to fall, police said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30343321

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-4-17

That's rough...to realize that he saw it coming, and was even doing his best to avoid it.  But power poles are relatively slender, and should not receive much wind loading.  Why are they installed so poorly?  If wind is an issue, don't they have support cables that they could use to make them more sturdy?

17 hours ago, AsianAtHeart said:

Why are they installed so poorly?  If wind is an issue, don't they have support cables that they could use to make them more sturdy?

 

Simple answer. Because this is Thailand and they would never anticipate what might happen in a country where fierce winds are common during a storm.

18 hours ago, AsianAtHeart said:

Why 

The words Thai or even Asia and Why do not go together. 

 

In a townsite bar in Indonesia about once a week a bedraggled "farang" would wander in sit down and begin to regale his day to the non-interested patrons. Some where in the story would be the statement " I don't know what they were thinking" or words to that effect.

 

The communal chorus-like retort would be "They weren't thinking"