Six killed, 13 injured in five-vehicle pileup in Korat

[webfact]

Six killed, 13 injured in five-vehicle pileup in Korat

By The Nation

 

Picture: Facebook Pu Chau

 

An oil tanker made a u-turn on a Nakhon Ratchasima road early Wednesday, resulting in a pileup of three passenger vans and a pickup truck that killed six people and injured 13 others, police said.
 

Police said the accident happened at kilometre marker No 108-109 of the Bangkok-bound Mittraparp Road in Tambon Maklua Mai of Nakhon Ratchasima's Sung None district.

 

The impact of the chain-reaction crash reduced the front of the vehicles involved into heaps of wreckage.

 

Police said the u-turn spot was dark, and the three vans and the pickup were driving at high speed. After the first van hit the front of the oil tanker, a second van smashed into the wreckage followed by a third and then the pickup.

 

Police said the driver of the first van, named as Komsan Huangyuangklang, was killed along with Thanakorn Sophajorn, the driver of the second van.

 

Four passengers in the second van were also killed. Two of them were identified as as Songmuang Polyaret and Chanon Kudwongkaew. Two female victims were not identified.

 

Thirteen people were rushed to hospital with injuries.

 

Police have yet to interrogate the survivors to establish the cause of the accident.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30350776

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-07-25

[Nong Khai Man]

 

Police said the u-turn spot was dark, and the three vans and the pickup were driving at high speed.......There's A Clue there !!!

[RotMahKid]

To many accidents with trucks at U-turn, so forbid them to take them, or even better close all U-turns and make decent access- and exit roads with underpasses and viaducts.

 

[Just1Voice]

Doing their best to hold on to the No#1 spot a world's most dangerous to drive in. 

 

[I wonder]

22 minutes ago, RotMahKid said:

To many accidents with trucks at U-turn, so forbid them to take them, or even better close all U-turns and make decent access- and exit roads with underpasses and viaducts.

 

U turns cheapest option, disruptive to traffic flow and most deadly

[shady86]

No need to investigate, middle of night, dark and the vans would not be able to brake on time as the oil tanker would need at least 30 secs to complete the u turn. poor judgement but all drivers involved.

[pokerface1]

23 minutes ago, shady86 said:

No need to investigate, middle of night, dark and the vans would not be able to brake on time as the oil tanker would need at least 30 secs to complete the u turn. poor judgement but all drivers involved.

From what Iv'e seen in the past sometimes they don't hit the brakes at all. Or if they did then the brakes failed to work.

[tracker1]

Forget the GPSs all public transport vehicles should have cameras and speed monitors fitted even though it is apparent the tanker is in the wrong

[Chassa]

On modern vehicles only half your brakes can fail.

The tanker would probably need 2 lanes to turn.

Cause: inattention and excess speed.

 

[sammieuk1]

The U-Turn of death and destruction the single most dangerous thing here after a Thai driver the appalling slaughter goes on and on RIP

[mercman24]

the trucks need repeater indicators on the side, like UK lorries, as once the truck has started to make the turn it is just a black mass in the dark , hard to see,

[kannot]

1 hour ago, I wonder said:

U turns cheapest option, disruptive to traffic flow and most deadly

be 100% safer is they staggered  them instead of  letting both sides  turn in the same place

[Darcula]

I haven't checked yet, but it must be one of the seven deadly days of the week.

[LoZth]

If the tanker was in the (proper) u-turn lane he'd need all the other side of the road, two/three to turn in and straighten up.......

 

(I lost count years ago of the dickheads that try and squeeze through on the right hand side of an artic at a u-turn and been knocked off their bikes!!!)

[KhunBENQ]

16 minutes ago, LoZth said:

If the tanker was in the (proper) u-turn lane he'd need all the other side of the road, two/three to turn in and straighten up.......

Quite sure this is the U-turn where the accident happened (km 108 to 109, Tambon Makluea Mai, Amphoe Sung Noen, "Sung None" is garbage):

 

https://goo.gl/maps/2QDRtoKZ1Ym

 

It's a fairly primitive U-turn.

It has a separate lane on the right but no extra space on the opposite side. The side road has been separated with a concrete wall.

Time consuming with such a big vehicle, slow with full turn on the wheel.

How dark was it? The road is (usually illuminated) there.

 

Dark, narrow U-turn, big dangerous vehicle: recipe for disaster.

 

[Redline]

Sue the government!

[ramrod711]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

An oil tanker made a u-turn on a Nakhon Ratchasima road early Wednesday, resulting in a pileup of three passenger vans and a pickup truck that killed six people and injured 13 others, police said.

Who would ever have thought that tractor trailers making U-turns in the middle of multi lane highways would be a bad idea?     ?

[Darkside Gray]

Install traffic lights at all U Turns and reduce the numbers of U Turns or install sleeping policemen at 200 mtrs/100 mtrs and 50 mtrs prior to the turn to slow down the drivers.

[akirasan]

If only there was some way to illuminate vehicles at night ?

[NanLaew]

17 minutes ago, akirasan said:

If only there was some way to illuminate vehicles at night ?

And stop inter-provincial minivans tailgating at 100 kph.

 

As mentioned earlier, this is a particularly bad u-turn in that there is no widened hard shoulder on the opposite side for u-turning traffic. There's a drainage ditch between the 2 lanes, hard shoulder and a feeder road so semi-trailers making u-turns have to turn from the right (fast) lane rather than the filter lane. An ongoing recipe for disaster, especially on a long, straight bit of highway.

[kannot]

58 minutes ago, Darkside Gray said:

Install traffic lights at all U Turns and reduce the numbers of U Turns or install sleeping policemen at 200 mtrs/100 mtrs and 50 mtrs prior to the turn to slow down the drivers.

so traffic  lights  every 1  km..............yeah great  plan

[kannot]

57 minutes ago, akirasan said:

If only there was some way to illuminate vehicles at night ?

lots of  empty space inside most drivers  heads..............surely a  light bulb inserted there would illuminate their eyes

[Briggsy]

5 hours ago, RotMahKid said:

To many accidents with trucks at U-turn, so forbid them to take them, or even better close all U-turns and make decent access- and exit roads with underpasses and viaducts.

 

Developed countries have solved this issue by primarily using the roundabout.

 

However many studies have concluded that roundabouts are simply beyond the capabilities of the majority of Thai drivers at this stage in their evolution and would actually cause more accidents and thus Thailand has remained stuck at the U-turn and a quite remarkable rate of road fatalities for decades. ?

[ratcatcher]

30 minutes ago, kannot said:

lots of  empty space inside most drivers  heads..............surely a  light bulb inserted there would illuminate their eyes

Agreed. One of the basic rules of driving is that you are aware of the road and traffic conditions around you at all times. 

Even at night, a massive semi trailer fuel truck would show up in the headlights of the following vehicle.  The truck seems to have the markings of  PTT  oil company. Their drivers are more highly trained than your average gravel trucker due to the hazardous cargo. I'm sorry, but I tend to apportion more blame to the drivers of the following vehicles ........."high speed". 

[digger70]

5 hours ago, tracker1 said:

Forget the GPSs all public transport vehicles should have cameras and speed monitors fitted even though it is apparent the tanker is in the wrong

Why sherlock?

[tracker1]

1 minute ago, digger70 said:

Why sherlock?

Well the GPSs haven't solved anything with cameras fitted there would be no argument whos right or wrong as for speed monitors they speak for themselves !

[digger70]

19 minutes ago, tracker1 said:

Well the GPSs haven't solved anything with cameras fitted there would be no argument whos right or wrong as for speed monitors they speak for themselves !

That still don't answer my question,,,you said the truck was Wrong,,,

[Happyman58]

You got to hand it to the Thais when they do something they do it in style. You have to think if you were the transport Minister you would be thinking How can we fix this. Ladies and Gentlemen The winner this year again for most number of road deaths for the gold medal is Thailand . Put your hands together for Thailand Number 1 again

[oldrunner]

Humm....let me guess. No road lights, Yep; Huge tanker making careless "U" turn, Yep; Never mind on-coming traffic no matter their speed; Yep; I'm thinking Vehicular Homicide on the part of the Fuel Truck Driver...WHAT'S THAT? He fled the scene? Too bad.

[ratcatcher]

7 hours ago, mercman24 said:

the trucks need repeater indicators on the side, like UK lorries, as once the truck has started to make the turn it is just a black mass in the dark , hard to see,

Can you see the repeater lights on this similar truck?

 

The above is incorrect. Sorry Mercman.

This is the actual truck placarded for gasoline 1203