1 hour 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.

7 seconds before her car got hit. How far can a car travel in 7 seconds if doing 70 or 80 miles an hour ?

 I don't know but I'd guess she wouldn't have seen the car once she started to pull away from the lights.

It is never safe when driving a car to start moving because you never have a clue what some idiot who might be drunk or on drugs might do.

Would you blame someone having a head on crash if a vehicle crossed the central reservation and smashed into them ?

 

The best thing that can happen all these , sorry to say but mostly Thai <deleted>, ram themselves into a pole or tree and nobody else is hurt!!!

One less idiot on the streets !!

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.

Fair comment.

" look - why should I look, the light was green that means I can drive off." 

When the lights change to green for me, it means I have been viewing the traffic well before the light change and still proceed with caution, likewise coming to an already green light, means having a good look approaching the intersection. 

4 hours ago, overherebc said:

Defensive driving in UK is a very good idea. Here it is an absolute essential.

Here it's called survival driving.

I have adopted the attitude that every driver is out to kill me and drive accordingly. 

It was pointed out to me years ago that the most dangerous time to drive was when there was little traffic on the roads. He being a tow truck driver said that very early and very late at night you have to be on your guard as that is when people drive at high speed and think they own the roads.?

5 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.

I suppose if she had never been born, or had never accepted that job offer, it would never have happened also? Your logic is a bit topsy turvy, there is one victim and another at fault ... namely, the lady and the truck driver speeding through a red light.

5 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.

The idea is generally right but it doesn't seem to be applicable in this instance. She definitely didn't rocket ahead as soon as the light changed, rather, she was proceeding quite carefully. Moreover, at the moment she entered the intersection the pickup (judging by the speed at impact) must have been too far. She could hardly have seen anything more than headlights in a fair distance. Don't see the female driver being a slightest bit to blame here.

4 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

I suppose if she had never been born, or had never accepted that job offer, it would never have happened also? Your logic is a bit topsy turvy, there is one victim and another at fault ... namely, the lady and the truck driver speeding through a red light.

If this had happened in the UK, they would have both been charged. The truck for reckless driving, speeding and jumping the lights, her for driving with undue care and attention. Because she obviously didn't check to see if anything was approaching before driving ahead. Had she been obeying the rules of the road, which with lights are the same here, she would not have been hit, so she is partially to blame, and hence not an innocent victim.

6 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

I suppose if she had never been born, or had never accepted that job offer, it would never have happened also? Your logic is a bit topsy turvy, there is one victim and another at fault ... namely, the lady and the truck driver speeding through a red light.

I don't think anyone is arguing the point that the pick up driver was at fault 100%.

However the main point especially at traffic lights here assuming a green light means it's 100% safe to just go can backfire on you.

5 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.

Its  slightly  possible that the truck driver would learn something from this  but  i wouldn't hold  my breath.

A  green light means go, a red  light "go faster"

1 hour 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. 

 

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. 

 

Well yes, but keep in mind that 'anticipation' is not taught in Thailand by: parents or in school (any level) and not learned by observing and learning from daily social behaviors and interactions.

 

 

13 minutes ago, gunderhill said:

Its  slightly  possible that the truck driver would learn something from this  but  i wouldn't hold  my breath.

A  green light means go, a red  light "go faster"

 

Truck driver 'it was just bad luck'. 

1 hour ago, Artisi said:

When the lights change to green for me, it means I have been viewing the traffic well before the light change and still proceed with caution

Many times when you stop at a red light, you cannot see traffic on the crossing carriageway as the white line to stop at, is too far back, or there are buildings in the way. But I shall TRY to do as you say, hold up all the traffic behind me, and look both ways twice before proceeding....by which time the lights may have changed back to red. Still, it will give me more time to buy a hanging Buddah/flowers or something to munch on. 

Green light in Thailand is only an estimate that its safe to proceed

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

About five years ago there was an accident near us on the ring road in Udon Thani.

A motorbike was turning right off the ring road on a green light. Had to pass the waiting oncoming ring road traffic (all waiting at a red light).

Apart from one pick-up which shot through the red light at speed and hit the motorbike. Three youths on the bike, not one wearing a helmet. Two died, one survived.

I saw the survivor being interviewed a couple of years later in a traffic camera type show. It showed the accident clip, he was clearly in the right. Then the camera zoomed out from his face to show him wheelchair-bound - for the rest of his life.

 

and I bet that the idiot who hit him got no jail time and ended up paying a ridiculously small amount of Baht  'fine' to the family. The lack of a true  Rule of Law, or enforcing it,  in this country sucks. Its the one big thing that really pisses me off about Thailand. 

3 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

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. 

 

 

 

 

If you hate them so much why live in Thailand?

6 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.

Oh give us a break...a pun?? Maybe. This accident occurred at night and lights at the junction might be bright but along the approach roads....not sure. It is more difficult at night to calculate how fast two approaching headlights are coming at you. In any case, in the lady's case IT WAS  CLEAR AT THE TIME SHE CROSSED there was no obstructing traffic. If anything she was proceeding slowly enough for the pickup to have been able to avoid such as collision. But alas the pickup was 'bombing along' and the driver just couldn't give a damn about anyone else on the road.

1 hour ago, The manic said:

If you hate them so much why live in Thailand?

Who hates anyone. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! apart from the ( Bad Somchais ) 

I just like the truth, even if it is in short supply here. 

 

But it's only love,   that keeps me here.

Not the fools , idiots and apologists. 

My number one driving rule:

Make sure no one goes where I want to go.

8 hours ago, JAG said:

She was a lucky lady in that the impact was the engine. If it had been the passenger cabin..

My thoughts exactly, a nano second earlier & she would have been T-boned .....

the truck was going at a fair old lick, I'm not sure he even reacted to the lights, maybe he was asleep at the time or busy doing something else?

Sheer madness when you can't cross a junction on green!!!

1 hour ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

It is the one thing the Thais do correct, driving on the correct side, as EVERYONE used to do since before Roman times.

 

Trust the jumped up little git Napoleon and the ignorant Americans to try to change a several thousand year old norm. Thank God for British rightwise thinking during Empirical times, lest we be doomed.

 

Not only is it historically the correct side, but as most people are right handed, and steering the most important function for the hands on a vehicle, it is physically the correct way for the vast majority. 

 

Well done Thailand for keeping the correct side of driving. Shame they are so inept at the rest of it.

 

Some people have had to adapt by using both hands while driving.

8 hours ago, impulse said:

It may have been a simple case of an idiot at the wheel. 

 

But I've been through plenty of Thai red light intersections where the lights were so misplaced, or so confusing that I almost blew through a red light myself.  Between crappy placement where you can't even see the light until you're right on top of the intersection, to having green arrows on one light pole and the (relevant) red light 50 meters away, there's a lot of room for improvement at many intersections.

 

Or, like I said, it may have just been an idiot.  

 

I was thinking exactly the same before I read your post, however the pickup was absolutely flying through that intersection. See intersection, slow down.?

Just wondering if accident could have been avoided if the victim's car if fully autonomous? Guess it wouldn't have work here with so many idiots driving.

Never trust a green traffic light here

Must say that I've pretty much given up driving once it gets dark...too dangerous and too many drunks/drug addicts and general morons who have finished work/just got up or out the house and start running around quickly to grab their food, visit markets and conduct their evening scumbaggery. Day time is bad enough but these fools are off-the-chart at night.

I would hope the pickup driver's insurance company make HIM pay for all damage! Green lights here don't necessarily mean go. 

10 hours ago, gunderhill said:

A sealed bag over the head would be more use to society? 15  minutes  should be enough.

You grant him/her 15 minutes?

7 hours 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.

Rubbish.

 

The speeding truck is 100% responsible and nobody else.

 

Poor driving? She had only driven about 5 metres.

 

Undure care and attention? She HAD the right of way and unless you were there you have absolutely no idea what went on.

Stop the road blocks for checking many poor people on motorcy if they have a DL and of course first pick them out for wearing no piss pot on the head. Get after the red light jumpers and fine the <deleted> out of them potential killers.

No camera's for line changers but for red light. Have your priorities RTP.

 

5 hours ago, MaksimMislavsky said:

The idea is generally right but it doesn't seem to be applicable in this instance. She definitely didn't rocket ahead as soon as the light changed, rather, she was proceeding quite carefully. Moreover, at the moment she entered the intersection the pickup (judging by the speed at impact) must have been too far. She could hardly have seen anything more than headlights in a fair distance. Don't see the female driver being a slightest bit to blame here.

 

That doesn't stop many posters blaaming her as the victim for being partly her fault.

 

5 hours ago, overherebc said:

I don't think anyone is arguing the point that the pick up driver was at fault 100%.

However the main point especially at traffic lights here assuming a green light means it's 100% safe to just go can backfire on you.

 

But they are partly blaming her and that is the problem.