Woman seriously injured in Thailand taxi crash forced to pay £35,000 after wrongly believing she had travel insurance with bank

Travel agent Abbie Sontag, 28, from Harlow in Essex, has been forced to pay out £35,000 for medical care after the crash near Phuket

 

By Tommy Wathen & Tom Davidson Online Reporter

 

Abbie Sontag and Pete Brudenell were just days into their holiday when the crash happened near Phuket (Image: Essex Live WS)

 

A travel agent has been left 'unable to move' after the taxi she and her partner were in was in a head-on smash with a lorry in Thailand.

 

Abbie Sontag, from Harlow, and her boyfriend Pete Brudenell had only been enjoying their holiday on the south-eastern Asian country for a matter of days when they were involved in a serious collision with a lorry.

 

The 28-year-old has had to pay out £35,000 as she is stuck in the Thailand hospital and cannot be transferred, reports EssexLive.

 

On a GoFundMe page it states that the travel agent thought she had insurance with her bank - but was wrong.

 

Full story: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-seriously-injured-thailand-taxi-12510606

 

-- Mirror 2018-05-10

 

why should she pay, she was an innocent passenger in a public service vehicle a TAXI, oh silly me of course it is her fault, she should have walked, only in Thailand.i think the only way to get to a destination safely here is to say to the driver, i drive , you sit in the back lol,, 

You would think that the taxi would have commercial insurance to cover passengers, wouldn't you?

Its a shame but you would think a travel agent would be up to speed on whether she was covered by her banks travel insurance or not. As they say, assumption is the mother of all cock ups. 

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by Dmaxdan

9 minutes ago, webfact said:

the travel agent thought she had insurance with her bank

Terrible accident, but she should really have checked with the bank, before departure.

I am sure most travellers get asked by travel agents "do you have travel insurance ?"

3 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

 

I am sure most travellers get asked by travel agents "do you have travel insurance ?"

 

That's old school. Who uses travel agents these days? I haven't gone near one since the 90's.

I do feel for them as the accident was obviously not their fault in the slightest.  

 

Though another in a long line of Brits arriving in LOS with no insurance or not being covered by an existing travel insurance policy.  Reading between the lines it appears she has insurance but not covered for Thailand.  I note a lot of UK bank policies only cover Europe.  

 

Unfortunately she's not the first and certainly won't be the last.

This reminds me of another issue published here where a Thai insurance broker was boasting a coverage of 500'000 THB for inpatient treatment in a government hospital.

 

Another reason never to apparently contract any insurance in Thailand (or abroad) without looking at what amount is covered.

 

Hope the little hottie and anybody else injured recover fast and get out of this mess. 

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by observer90210

Stories like this really piss me off. If you are in a taxi and it has an accident, his insurance should cover any medical expenses, especially if you do not have your own. On that note though, I am continuously shocked how many stupid people, (and if you come somewhere dangerous like Thailand without insurance, you are stupid), either have no insurance or do not bother to check their coverage. Maybe time for the Government to force people entering the country to show proof of adequate coverage, or for them to be forced to buy a package at the point of entry to cover them.

11 minutes ago, mercman24 said:

why should she pay, she was an innocent passenger in a public service vehicle a TAXI, oh silly me of course it is her fault, she should have walked, only in Thailand.i think the only way to get to a destination safely here is to say to the driver, i drive , you sit in the back lol,, 

Public service vehicle..oh please

Lets all embellish and twist the words so as to turn another sad story into another a thai bashing exercise. 

I really do despair at the mindset of many ( not all ) on here.

How many of us on here have got on the back of a 'public service ' motorbike taxi?

How do we know he has insurance?

We wouldnt understand the documents in any case.

Imagine trying to sue.

There's a reason everything is so cheap.

But you expect switzerland on the cheap

Then again the tone of your post strongly suggests you could never be content.

This woman clearly didnt do her homework.

She has had a tragic and costly accident. You seem hellbent on twisting this so that the thais are portrayed as bad guys.

 

3 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Stories like this really piss me off. If you are in a taxi and it has an accident, his insurance should cover any medical expenses, especially if you do not have your own. On that note though, I am continuously shocked how many stupid people, (and if you come somewhere dangerous like Thailand without insurance, you are stupid), either have no insurance or do not bother to check their coverage. Maybe time for the Government to force people entering the country to show proof of adequate coverage, or for them to be forced to buy a package at the point of entry to cover them.

If you have kosher insurance and you get on a dodgy taxi you will have no problem.

Can you imagine presenting to bumrungrad and saying I have no insurance the taxi driver is responsible for the bill.

Dony leave without proper insurance..it isnt hard 

5 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Stories like this really piss me off. If you are in a taxi and it has an accident, his insurance should cover any medical expenses, especially if you do not have your own. On that note though, I am continuously shocked how many stupid people, (and if you come somewhere dangerous like Thailand without insurance, you are stupid), either have no insurance or do not bother to check their coverage. Maybe time for the Government to force people entering the country to show proof of adequate coverage, or for them to be forced to buy a package at the point of entry to cover them.

What about all the Thais they probably dont have insurance so whats the difference?  On this case she thought she did have insurance. Apart from that surely the taxi must have insurance, liability etc

1 minute ago, 2008bangkok said:

Apart from that surely the taxi must have insurance, liability etc

Erm, well, good luck with that.  If he did then it would barely cover the cost of two bowls of noodles.  

 

Seriously, don't go on holiday abroad, anywhere, without solid travel insurance.  You really are on your own away from the nanny state of the UK.

13 minutes ago, Unsane said:

Erm, well, good luck with that.  If he did then it would barely cover the cost of two bowls of noodles.  

 

Seriously, don't go on holiday abroad, anywhere, without solid travel insurance.  You really are on your own away from the nanny state of the UK.

Legal taxi's are yearly checked for legality of the car and insurance. I think the requirement is 5 mio minimum, not sure if that is per person or per accident.

 

Did she take a legal taxi though?

25 minutes ago, Expatthailover said:

Public service vehicle..oh please

Lets all embellish and twist the words so as to turn another sad story into another a thai bashing exercise. 

I really do despair at the mindset of many ( not all ) on here.

How many of us on here have got on the back of a 'public service ' motorbike taxi?

How do we know he has insurance?

We wouldnt understand the documents in any case.

Imagine trying to sue.

There's a reason everything is so cheap.

But you expect switzerland on the cheap

Then again the tone of your post strongly suggests you could never be content.

This woman clearly didnt do her homework.

She has had a tragic and costly accident. You seem hellbent on twisting this so that the thais are portrayed as bad guys.

 

in la-la land, nobody is 

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Legal taxi's are yearly checked for legality of the car and insurance. I think the requirement is 5 mio minimum, not sure if that is per person or per accident.

 

Did she take a legal taxi though?

Therein lies the problem.  How would one ever know?

 

Best idea is to have solid insurance as backup then we never need worry.

You are living in la-la land, nobody is Thai bashing.

You are dreaming, just trying your usual tripe that everything here is wonderful.

What about my accident? Pickup going the wrong way, but i am a farang so my fault, not 1 baht compensation.

46 minutes ago, tropo said:

That's old school. Who uses travel agents these days? I haven't gone near one since the 90's.

Well as that is what she does for a job I would assume quite a few people.

Sorry folks serious storm here now, electric on- off messing things up.

My comments aimed at expatthailover.

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by colinneil

49 minutes ago, tropo said:

That's old school. Who uses travel agents these days? I haven't gone near one since the 90's.

Well as she is a travel agent obviously people do still use them. I am like you, haven't used one since about 2002, and every time I buy a plane ticket two reminders come up to buy insurance before I pay. One would expect a travel agent to be on top of this. Hope they recover, but I won't be contributing.

1 minute ago, Blackheart1916 said:

Well as she is a travel agent obviously people do still use them. I am like you, haven't used one since about 2002, and every time I buy a plane ticket two reminders come up to buy insurance before I pay. One would expect a travel agent to be on top of this. Hope they recover, but I won't be contributing.

I've never been offered a comprehensive travel insurance package when buying tickets with LCC's. I get them from an independent insurance broker.

We seem to be talking regularly about people/ tourists  not having Travel and Medical insurance when  visiting and travelling in Thailand

No doubt there will be more stories in the future same stuff

good job there is the Gofundme to help out 

she's a travel agent and she doesn't know <deleted> she's doing? that whole island is full of dolts.

3 minutes ago, Blackheart1916 said:

Hope they recover, but I won't be contributing.

I'll be honest, I have twice previously contributed to two seriously injured Brits involved in accidents in LOS who had no insurance, but I had to draw the line as it's never ending and I'll end up skint otherwise.

9 minutes ago, colinneil said:

You are living in la-la land, nobody is Thai bashing.

You are dreaming, just trying your usual tripe that everything here is wonderful.

What about my accident? Pickup going the wrong way, but i am a farang so my fault, not 1 baht compensation.

At least quote the post you are responding to,

16 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Legal taxi's are yearly checked for legality of the car and insurance. I think the requirement is 5 mio minimum, not sure if that is per person or per accident.

 

Did she take a legal taxi though?

I saw that taxi once but it was a long time ago.

2 minutes ago, stevenl said:

At least quote the post you are responding to,

 Again you jumping in before reading everything, i posted further on about it.

Electric is having on off day here, on-off on -off, messing my computer up big time.

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by colinneil

You might have thought governments might like to step in extreme circumstances the Thai's should help out and repatriate this poor innocent girl to save loss of tourism face and the UK's to show the rich have a heart .get off your lazy <deleted> and get this girl home.  

3 minutes ago, colinneil said:

 Again you jumping in before reading everything, i posted further on about it.

Electric is having on off day here, on-off on -off, messing my computer up big time.

I saw you posted that, so your 'again' is not justified. So you expect readers to go back to the original post and your reply and understand what you're on about. In that case, better settle things via PM.

But if it is meant for the open forum, quoting the post you're reacting to really is easier.

 

Maybe we can get back on topic now?

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by stevenl

4 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

You might have thought governments might like to step in extreme circumstances the Thai's should help out and repatriate this poor innocent girl to save loss of tourism face and the UK's to show the rich have a heart .get off your lazy <deleted> and get this girl home.  

Why?