Seven badly injured as van crashes into tree in Buri Ram

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Seven badly injured as van crashes into tree in Buri Ram 

By The Nation

 

 

A van crashed into a tree in the ditch in the middle of a road in Buri Ram early on Saturday, injuring the driver and six passengers, police said.
 

Police said the van driver Saroj Ritbamrung, 38, and six passengers were severely injured and rushed to Nang Rong Hospital.

 

The 5am accident happened on the main road leading to downtown Nang Rong.

 

Police believe the driver dozed off and lost control of the van, causing it to plunge into the ditch.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30352962

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-25

[jaltsc]

"Police believe the driver dozed off and lost control of the van, causing it to plunge into the ditch."

I am sure that the newly proposed licensing regulations would have prevented this. Lets face it, all that is going to produce are irresponsible drivers with  official pieces of paper. 

Edited August 25, 2018 by jaltsc

[NCC1701A]

I am going to say something terrible.

 

I hope the driver is suffering and goes on suffering.

 

I ride my motorcycle all over Thailand and it is always the minivan drivers that are trying to kill you.

 

I feel bad for his victims.

 

 

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

I feel bad for his victims.

Carry on. I can't feel bad for the people that insist on using them despite the high incidence of horrible, high-speed carnage that few passengers walk away from.

[jerojero]

Thank god the brakes were ok. Whew!

[sirineou]

6 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

I am going to say something terrible.

 

I hope the driver is suffering and goes on suffering.

 

I ride my motorcycle all over Thailand and it is always the minivan drivers that are trying to kill you.

 

I feel bad for his victims.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Carry on. I can't feel bad for the people that insist on using them despite the high incidence of horrible, high-speed carnage that few passengers walk away from.

 I feel bad for both the driver and the passengers. Personally I angry at the tree!

[Colabamumbai]

Me too, did the tree live, can't see the photos. 

[Colabamumbai]

17 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Carry on. I can't feel bad for the people that insist on using them despite the high incidence of horrible, high-speed carnage that few passengers walk away from.

Some of us have no choice when travelling to certain destinations. I tend to use them early morning, never at night, and not longer than a three hour ride.

[sammieuk1]

With a tree and ditch in the middle of the road he had no chance?

[atyclb]

17 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Carry on. I can't feel bad for the people that insist on using them despite the high incidence of horrible, high-speed carnage that few passengers walk away from.

 

on these vans usually i am the only passenger using a seatbelt. most thais just lack the concept of seatbelts being important or necessary.

[hobobo]

As far as I know self-driven cars are not legal or available in Thailand, or any other country. Hence the caption:

"A van crashed into a tree in the ditch in the middle of a road in Buri Ram early on Saturday, injuring the driver and six passengers, police said"

is utter rubbish. It should say that a bad/drunk/high-on-yaba/idiot/stupid/careless/incompetent (select one or more, as appropriate) driver crashed his van into a tree...

 

Stop blaming innocent vehicles!

 

[TKDfella]

Oh yeah, I love the headline 'A van crashed into a tree in the ditch in the middle of a road in Buri Ram early on Saturday, injuring the driver and six passengers, police said. With various vehicles crashing into trees I'm surprised that someone hasn't tried to find out if there's a 'attraction anomaly' between the two, Ha! Hey, are they Triffids in disguise???

[Mikeasq60]

I gotta say thai drivers...the worst in the world and that comes from a farang driver from one of the worst driver cities in America. Boston, MA.

[impulse]

14 minutes ago, Mikeasq60 said:

I gotta say thai drivers...the worst in the world and that comes from a farang driver from one of the worst driver cities in America. Boston, MA.

 

Thai drivers aren't even close to the worst in the world.  

 

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

on these vans usually i am the only passenger using a seatbelt. most thais just lack the concept of seatbelts being important or necessary.

 

On a bus I need to use sometimes they actually tie up the seatbelts to prevent them being used. It is utterly impossible to fathom the way Thais think. Why would you deliberately disable a safety device?

[Bangkok Barry]

3 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Thai drivers aren't even close to the worst in the world.  

 

 

Then why does Thailand have more road deaths than any other country in the world? And that only includes those who die at the scene of the accident. Please explain your statement.

[atyclb]

9 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

It is utterly impossible to fathom the way Thais think.

 

 

"think" .   really????

 

 

 

once on the shuttle from morvhit bts to impact muang ton thani i had to cut an industrial plastic tie that disabled and held the seatbelt below the seat.

[kannot]

Yeah and because of this  we  need to buy more speed  cameras cause that "shure as  hell" is gonna  stop this nonsense

[kannot]

23 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

I am going to say something terrible.

 

I hope the driver is suffering and goes on suffering.

 

I ride my motorcycle all over Thailand and it is always the minivan drivers that are trying to kill you.

 

I feel bad for his victims.

 

 

and the tree!!

[impulse]

27 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Then why does Thailand have more road deaths than any other country in the world? And that only includes those who die at the scene of the accident. Please explain your statement.

 

That's road deaths per 100,000 population.  It's not road deaths per vehicle, or per passenger mile driven.  Being relatively affluent by developing world standards, there are a lot of vehicles in Thailand per capita.  And most of them are scooters.  That number is hugely skewed by the percentage of scooters, which are 20-40 x as hazardous per mile driven as a 4 wheeled vehicle.

 

It's real catchy to pull one select number from a study and make a definitive statement from it.  Especially if it fits your preconceived notions, or some personal agenda.   But if you drill down a little, that claim just doesn't hold up.  Over the years, I've posted the math to show that the USA would be far more hazardous than Thailand if 70% of Americans drove scooters for their daily transportation (like in Thailand), instead of the 4% of Americans who generally just ride their scooters on weekend jaunts.

 

Instead of looking at just the big flashing number, drill down and divide the fatalities by the number of vehicles (as opposed to the number of citizens).   Better yet, calculate the fatalities per km driven, and adjust that for the percentage of scooters.   That's a lot better reflection of the danger of driving a mile in Thailand vs (for example) Angola.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2018 by impulse

[hotchilli]

On 8/25/2018 at 3:14 PM, NCC1701A said:

I am going to say something terrible.

 

I hope the driver is suffering and goes on suffering.

 

I ride my motorcycle all over Thailand and it is always the minivan drivers that are trying to kill you.

 

I feel bad for his victims.

 

 

Totally agree, I hope he hurts now & suffers all through his life with pain.

I feel totally sorry for his passengers who like most of us have to put our lives into the hands of these so called professional drivers!!

[cookieqw]

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

On a bus I need to use sometimes they actually tie up the seatbelts to prevent them being used. It is utterly impossible to fathom the way Thais think. Why would you deliberately disable a safety device?

because if you survive you might be able to say you saw the driver fall asleep 555

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

I've posted the math to show that the USA would be far more hazardous than Thailand if 70% of Americans drove scooters for their daily transportation (like in Thailand)

 

 

But they don't, do they, so that is entirely irrelevant. But, as you say, it's per 100,000 per population, and Thailand leads the world. Plenty has been written about it and it is blatantly obvious why, every time you go on the roads and see the driving 'skills' of the Thais. Look up how many thousands were caught driving without a licence or were drunk during the last holiday period, and it doesn't matter what they were driving.

 

I'm sure that you would find, if you did a survey in Thailand, that every family knows someone who has been killed or seriously injured on the roads here. In the past two years or so there have been nearly 20 serious accidents within 300 metres of my home in Issan, and others killed or injured not much further afield, on a long straight road with no hazards at all. Yet driver after driver - bikes, cars, lorries - have been unable to stay on the road or navigate it safely.

Many Thais cannot drive because they have never been taught, they have no spacial awareness, no clue about stopping distances, they have a me-first attitude, they lack any sense of cause and effect, they have no common sense and no sense of responsibility. And they can drive in any way they choose, no matter how dangerous, because there are zero or close to zero police patrols or checks.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Bangkok Barry

[Ks45672]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Thai drivers aren't even close to the worst in the world.  

 

Statistics would prove otherwise... 

[mikebell]

8 minutes ago, Ks45672 said:

Statistics would prove otherwise... 

Would Impulse (who has done the Maths) accept 'Thai professional drivers are the worst in the world; eg minibus maniacs; motor cy drivers (there's one with only 1 arm in Pattaya!)

[zzaa09]

On 8/25/2018 at 1:14 AM, NCC1701A said:

I am going to say something terrible.

 

I hope the driver is suffering and goes on suffering.

 

I ride my motorcycle all over Thailand and it is always the minivan drivers that are trying to kill you.

 

I feel bad for his victims.

 

 

Seems as in recent years the incidents involving mini-vans has surpassed those of the regular inter-provincial coaches. 

Would go out on a limb to suggest that the fly-by-night van associations are even less regulated and licenced than the bus companies appear to be. 

[impulse]

32 minutes ago, mikebell said:

42 minutes ago, Ks45672 said:

Statistics would prove otherwise... 

Would Impulse (who has done the Maths) accept 'Thai professional drivers are the worst in the world; eg minibus maniacs; motor cy drivers (there's one with only 1 arm in Pattaya!)

 

I'd concede that Thai mini-van drivers are the worst I've ever experienced.  But there's a lot of places in the world I haven't been.  And the Travel Channels show some pretty hairy journeys by bus and by van in a lot of countries besides Thailand.

 

And for taxi drivers, I've had much worse drivers than Bangkok taxis.  My only experience on motosai taxis has been in Thailand, so I have nothing to compare to.

 

My main point is that the numbers everyone grabs onto don't compare the risk per km.  They compare the risk per inhabitant, whether they ever ride in a vehicle or not.  Thailand has 74 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.  Madagascar has 2,963 deaths per 100,000 vehicles, in spite of having a lower fatality rate per 100,000 inhabitants  (28 vs Thailand's 36).  I'd rather be in a Thai vehicle myself...

 

And before we get into a pissing contest about these exact numbers and how they're collected and reported, there is no way a country with 74 deaths per 100,000 vehicles has worse drivers than a country with 2,963 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.  You are 40x safer in a Thai vehicle than you are in a vehicle in Madagascar.  And it's not even the worst.  Guinea has over 9,400.  

 

So anyone claiming Thailand has the worst drivers in the world is demonstrably wrong.  They glommed onto the wrong number to support their agenda, or "prove" their pre-conceived notion.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2018 by impulse

[Esso49]

7 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I'd concede that Thai mini-van drivers are the worst I've ever experienced.  But there's a lot of places in the world I haven't been.  And the Travel Channels show some pretty hairy journeys by bus and by van in a lot of countries besides Thailand.

 

And for taxi drivers, I've had much worse drivers than Bangkok taxis.  My only experience on motosai taxis has been in Thailand, so I have nothing to compare to.

 

My main point is that the numbers everyone grabs onto don't compare the risk per km.  They compare the risk per inhabitant, whether they ever ride in a vehicle or not.  Thailand has 74 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.  Madagascar has 2,963 deaths per 100,000 vehicles, in spite of having a lower fatality rate per 100,000 inhabitants  (28 vs Thailand's 36).  I'd rather be in a Thai vehicle myself...

 

And before we get into a pissing contest about these exact numbers and how they're collected and reported, there is no way a country with 74 deaths per 100,000 vehicles has worse drivers than a country with 2,963 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.  You are 40x safer in a Thai vehicle than you are in a vehicle in Madagascar.  And it's not even the worst.  Guinea has over 9,400.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

 

 

 

Just a pity that the data source you have referenced is 2013 and 5 years out of date.   Thais have improved their kill rate greatly from since then no doubt.

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

Just a pity that the data source you have referenced is 2013 and 5 years out of date.   Thais have improved their kill rate greatly from since then no doubt.

 

Yeah.  Like the drivers in Madagascar have overturned a 40X deficit in the past few years.  

 

[impulse]

4 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

On a bus I need to use sometimes they actually tie up the seatbelts to prevent them being used. It is utterly impossible to fathom the way Thais think. Why would you deliberately disable a safety device?

 

I'm not sure about Thailand, but I found out why they used to do it in China.  I scrounged around for a seat belt that obviously hadn't been used in months.  When I arrived at my destination, I had a black streak of grime on my beige pants where the filthy seat belt had been.  Rather than suffer the complaints of the few seat belt wearers like me, or spend the money to keep them clean for the tiny minority who actually used them, they simply disabled them.

 

I don't agree with it.  But I do understand it.