Video: Why you need to be especially careful at a Thai green light

[berybert]

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

It seems from the way the article is written that the general assumption is that a green light means go. It does not. It means you can proceed IF the road is clear. When even such basics are not being understood, it is no wonder these accidents happen.

Fair play, the truck driver is an idiot, but if the woman had looked, rather than proceed blithely, the accident would not have happened.

Was the road clear ? 

If you answer anything other than yes you really shouldn't be allow to drive.

[Lobber]

<deleted> drivers no regard for any other road use. typical of this country.

And before anyone say Im Thai bashing, .. take the rose tinted glasses off ..

[mercman24]

this a repeat post, but worth it, a few days ago on third road 3 cars jumped a red from our left, our light was a good green, we could not cross the junction as they then turned right, in front of us,just selfish bastards not want to wait 2 minutes

[sammieuk1]

The probability of more often than not I'm first away at the lights is unpleasant to say the least ?

[janclaes47]

1 hour ago, LennyW said:

Technically you are correct, however, Red does mean stop - this also a basic that all too frequently is not understood!!!!

Whenever I'm at a traffic light that turns red in the near distance, I see at least 5 cars going through the light, and most of the times that includes some tourist buses as well.

 

The only way to stop this is if some steel pins would come out of the surface when a traffic light turns red.

[happy chappie]

2 hours ago, darksidedog said:

It seems from the way the article is written that the general assumption is that a green light means go. It does not. It means you can proceed IF the road is clear. When even such basics are not being understood, it is no wonder these accidents happen.

Fair play, the truck driver is an idiot, but if the woman had looked, rather than proceed blithely, the accident would not have happened.

So red light must mean boot it? Sorry but in my world red means stop and green is go.in your world it is a case of 50-50 who is to blame with both drivers being wrong.

[stanleycoin]

19 minutes ago, mercman24 said:

this a repeat post, but worth it, a few days ago on third road 3 cars jumped a red from our left, our light was a good green, we could not cross the junction as they then turned right, in front of us,just selfish bastards not want to wait 2 minutes

Cracks me up when you see them,  all calm at the Temples, with the flowers and incense.

waI-ing and knelling.

What a laugh,  Angry,   Raging  Somchai nuts cases inside,  with a gloss of varnish on 

the outside. 

 

 

 

 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, gunderhill said:

Once again the "speeding"   people will leap on this, yes he was going way too fast but the biggest thing here was a total lack of attention to the road.

Even if he/she was only doing 60kmh they would  have still hit the other car, maybe not with such catastrophic destruction but the  possibility for death is  still there.

All the  speed  cameras in the world won't stop this, its totally down to training and enforcement.

There will be no change except a  massive increase in virtually useless cameras, stopping people doing 100 kmh on a clear road achieves nothing whatsoever.

 

I am not one of the "speeding" people you describe but I was on my motorbike at that same junction 3 years ago and I got T-boned by a pickup truck running the red from my left in broad daylight. All the light were at red, ours turmed to green so I went straight ahead and the pickup simply speeded up and turned right across the road.

 

There was nowhere I could go and no way for me to avoid a crash. The good news was that I had dropped a mate off 10 minutes before.

 

The stupid old lady in the4 pickup missed my leg and hit the bike under my ass. If my mate would have been on the bike he would have lost his leg for sure. I was thrown off into the road with scrapes and bruises and a bent but not broken right wrist.

 

Fortunately a cop was at the junction and saw what happened and called it in. The pickup stopped 100 metres up the road. After the cop stopped the traffic to avoid me being run over we got the bike to the side of the road, straightened the hadlebars to make it rideable and bothe the pickup and I went to the main cop shop and negotiated a price for the damage which her family paid in cash.

 

I rang my wife and she talked to the station cop and it was all smothed over. I managed to ride 125km home after eating some Tylenol but my wrist hurt for a couple of weeks afterwards. I had an Xray at the hospital and nothing was broken.

 

Now I ALWAYS let somebody else go in front of me at any traffic lights.

 

IMHO anybody that runs a red and causes an accident should have their vehicle taken away and crushed and they should be jailed for a minimum of 3 months if nobody was hurt to life if anybody is killed.

Edited September 3, 2018 by billd766
edit for bad spelling after I had posted

[Nowisee]

6.83 seconds from green light to impact.  Um, brake failure is/has been claimed?
Not like she did a hole shot on green either.  Yes, legally in many places she could be at some fault too for pulling out in front of a red light running speeding idiot.  

The driver of the truck is going to receive what type of consequence?  This is where the laws and enforcement is negligent.  No amount of fines is going to change this behavior.  

IF there is one thing I have learned driving here it has been reinforcing my skills to wait, look, double check all directions and then proceed slowly with caution.  
IF I survive a few more years and make it back alive to farangland, I think my enhanced defensive driving skills will be about the only thing I take back from here.... oh yeah, I have learned some things that will get me ticketed there too...555.


 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Nowisee

[billd766]

2 hours ago, darksidedog said:

It seems from the way the article is written that the general assumption is that a green light means go. It does not. It means you can proceed IF the road is clear. When even such basics are not being understood, it is no wonder these accidents happen.

Fair play, the truck driver is an idiot, but if the woman had looked, rather than proceed blithely, the accident would not have happened.

 

But the junction WAS clear as you can see on the video so she was right to proceed.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

 

I disagree! There's no 'technically' about at all. The paragraph below is directly copied from the UK Highway Code and is the essence of what 'defensive driving' is all about:

 

'GREEN means you may go on if the way is clear. Take special care if you intend to turn left or right and give way to pedestrians who are crossing'.

 

In this instance, the pickup driver is clearly at fault, but had the lady used defensive driving techniques, as prescribed above, the accident could have been avoided.

 

And there is another factor at play here as well. Note the very dark tinting on the lady's windows. I'm sure that such dark tinting contributes to nighttime accidents here as well.

 

I wish people would stop blaming the woman and finding excuses that it was her fault.

 

It WASN'T her fault but that of the stupid <deleted> who ran the red light.

[HAKAPALITA]

My Wife lah de dah friend told everyone with great pride that Traffic Lights should be a lot brighter, her tinted windows made them difficult to see. Naturally all the other Hello Kitty sycophants nodded.They bloody amazing sometimes.!

[Moonlover]

7 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

I wish people would stop blaming the woman and finding excuses that it was her fault.

 

It WASN'T her fault but that of the stupid <deleted> who ran the red light.

Please don't misquote me! I did not say it was her fault.

 

However, lessons learned over the years from studying traffic accidents and aircraft crashes, clearly show that there is usually more than one factor at play when an accident occurs.

[ThreeEyedRaven]

16 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

But the junction WAS clear as you can see on the video so she was right to proceed.

Given she got nailed, obviously it wasn't clear. The law actually says you may proceed with caution on a green light, WHEN it is safe to do so.

So, if she had looked, rather than just assume it was safe, she would have seen the lunatic coming and waited. 

The speeding truck is to blame, but she also is at fault, for poor driving, and undue care and attention.

Edited September 3, 2018 by ThreeEyedRaven

[worgeordie]

That's what worries me,when my daughter travels to and from

night shift and even day shift at her hotel,up on the main road

i can hear ambulance sirens all the time,my heart drops when

ever i hear a siren around the time she's due home. 

regards Worgeordie

[poohy]

In my book the lady is blameless and the idiot running the light is the culprit

However we now have all this hoo hah re licences, but i bet the biggest cause of accidents  regardless of the driver having or not having a license are

 

• people pulling out from left without even looking applies to everything from motor bike to trucks
• people running red-lights
• or people turning across oncoming traffic when lights go to green 

 

[HAKAPALITA]

18 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Given she got nailed, obviously it wasn't clear. The law actually says you may proceed with caution on a green light, WHEN it is safe to do so.

So, if she had looked, rather than just assume it was safe, she would have seen the lunatic coming and waited. 

The speeding truck is to blame, but she also is at fault, for poor driving, and undue care and attention.

Thats what i should have put, thats what i meant.

[pieeyed]

The ass in the truck should be banned from driving for 10 years automatically.

 

[HAKAPALITA]

Yes the Truck was wrong, but if the Car was driven by any of TVs keyboard experts , they would at least looked right.90/10 id call that one.

[ExpatOilWorker]

Darn, the police showed up 27 seconds after the accident. Impressive.

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, darksidedog said:

but if the woman had looked, rather than proceed blithely, the accident would not have happened.

Are you suggesting that we should all slow down at every green light, look both ways, and if all is clear, proceed. What would the average speed of traffic then be? But I agree, if it prevents me being smashed, so be it.

[HAKAPALITA]

1 minute ago, wgdanson said:

Are you suggesting that we should all slow down at every green light, look both ways, and if all is clear, proceed. What would the average speed of traffic then be? But I agree, if it prevents me being smashed, so be it.

Enjoy yer Beer before you Drive. Wonder the PC Mob hevent complained about your Avatar in a Motoring Babley.

[wgdanson]

8 minutes ago, HAKAPALITA said:

Enjoy yer Beer before you Drive. Wonder the PC Mob hevent complained about your Avatar in a Motoring Babley.

It is non alcohol beer honestly your Honour.

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, LennyW said:

Technically you are correct, however, Red does mean stop - this also a basic that all too frequently is not understood!!!!

And also true, the red pick up, because of excess speed, came into the intersection very quickly. 

[ELVIS123456]

Whenever you are first at a green light, look both ways (particularly right) before proceeding.

I started doing this in Aus many years ago and a couple of times I was glad I did.

Doing it in Thailand I was very glad I did it, many many times.

No excuse for the truck driver as he is an idiot/a''ole, but if you assume that this will happen at every intersection, then you are ready to stop when you spot one.

I can remember once hitting the brakes for a kid on a scooter going way over the limit - feels good to have 'saved' someone's life - probably not for long though.

 

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, poohy said:

In my book the lady is blameless and the idiot running the light is the culprit

However we now have all this hoo hah re licences, but i bet the biggest cause of accidents  regardless of the driver having or not having a license are

 

• people pulling out from left without even looking applies to everything from motor bike to trucks
• people running red-lights
• or people turning across oncoming traffic when lights go to green 

 

 

Not 100% blameless.....  She crossed a though a junction, which, if she had looked right she would have seen the on-coming truck approaching at speed. 

 

I remember being taught to drive in the UK and being reprimanded for crossing a junction on a green light without first checking both left and right. The Green traffic light indicates 'Go, if safe to do-so'... 

 

Of course - legally 100% of the blame lies with the speeding pickup who crossed a red light. But in this case, the woman 'could' have avoided an accident with some very basic defensive driving. 

 

 

I agree with many of the posters who've suggested that having a driving license or not makes no difference here. As ultimately having a license is usually recognition of a degree of training and understanding of driving and traffic regulations. Here, the license is just an irrelevant card and not a true indication of any level of useful training. 

[poohy]

6 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Not 100% blameless.....  She crossed a though a junction, which, if she had looked right she would have seen the on-coming truck approaching at speed. 

Seriously although i have a UK license all i can remember learning was  GREEN was GO! nothing about checking   but it was a few years ago

I suppose in civilized driving countries it doesnt matter so much

[ChrisY1]

Green is the last colour one sees before death..so they say......but...also very appropriate in Thailand

[lovelomsak]

4 hours ago, darksidedog said:

It seems from the way the article is written that the general assumption is that a green light means go. It does not. It means you can proceed IF the road is clear. When even such basics are not being understood, it is no wonder these accidents happen.

Fair play, the truck driver is an idiot, but if the woman had looked, rather than proceed blithely, the accident would not have happened.

You are playing with words here a bit 

  If the road is clear means that all traffic has gone through that may have entered before the light change. 

  By your understanding then red is cautionary light . Can we just slow down,it does mean stop and if do not see any vehicles in or near the intersection just proceed through?

 

[NanLaew]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

and if enough of them will meet their untimly demise because they 're to impatient to wait  aminut or so, maybe the penny will drop one day...

You are kidding aren't you?

 

The Thai currency is the baht BTW.