Video: The horrific end of the Petty Officer on the Harley

[rooster59]

Video: The horrific end of the Petty Officer on the Harley

 

Image: Sanook

 

CCTV footage from Sattahip on Thursday showed a Harley Davidson driven at great speed into a pick-up that was completing a U-turn. Both rider and driver were Navy men. 

 

The rider of the Harley was Petty Officer Saman, 42. He was pronounced dead in hospital. 

 

The driver of the pick-up was a superior officer, Chief Petty Officer Thaksin, aged 49, who was unhurt. 

 

Sanook reported that the million baht motorcycle was a write-off. 

 

They claimed that the Harley rider had gone through a red light though admitted that police will be interviewing witnesses again to determine who had been in the wrong. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-12-22

 

 

Warning - graphic footage

 

 

 

 

[happy chappie]

What a waste of a nice harley.Both to blame there.man going through red light to do a u turn and the biker running at high speed and through a red light.idiot v idiot = death.oh and both being selfish and blind thrown in to the equation.

[Briggsy]

It was dark and they were both Thai military. Alcohol involved? Moronic suicidal driving from the Harley. How did he ever get to live to 42?

 

Ha, I just noticed the other motorcyclist sloping through the red light like, "Nothing to do with me."

 

I suspect this is one of those sets of lights that only serve a purpose during certain times of the day e.g. office hours, and after that no vehicle ever emerges from the side roads so the locals tend to ignore the red lights.

[Crossy]

12 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

... man going through red light to do a u turn ...

I see no light prohibiting a U-turn nor any indication that the pickup was making an illegal turn.

 

Harley definitely ran the red at speed.

[happy chappie]

8 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I see no light prohibiting a U-turn nor any indication that the pickup was making an illegal turn.

 

Harley definitely ran the red at speed.

 

8 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I see no light prohibiting a U-turn nor any indication that the pickup was making an illegal turn.

 

Harley definitely ran the red at speed.

I see a red light and two cars stopped at them.im my world red light means stop unless it's clear to turn left.he clearly went through a red light to make a u turn which would be illegal.

[chickenslegs]

1 minute ago, happy chappie said:

 

I see a red light and two cars stopped at them.im my world red light means stop unless it's clear to turn left.he clearly went through a red light to make a u turn which would be illegal.

At that junction there is a filter arrow allowing the U-turn, or right turn into the RTN area. So it seems possible that the pickup had a green light.

 

[bluesofa]

13 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I see no light prohibiting a U-turn nor any indication that the pickup was making an illegal turn.

Harley definitely ran the red at speed.

Yup, while agreeing the Harley ran the red light at speed, I'm baffled as to how you can say about 'no light prohibiting a U-turn', especially as the view on the CCTV is looking at the oncoming traffic, not at it from the rear, so can't see any signs/lights about what's allowed for the oncoming traffic?

Or have I missed the obvious - it is my specialist subject.

[Crossy]

@bluesofa Please read my post again and the post I was replying to!

 

I said that I cannot see a light prohibiting a u-turn, as you agree. I did not say he had a green light (we cannot see what lights were visible to that traffic).

 

We have a junction near us which would look exactly like that when right turns and u-turns from both directions are permitted.

 

 

[Different]

 

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

The rider of the Harley was Petty Officer Saman,

How would he got that expensive motorbike if he wasn't corrupt cop, I feel sorry for the ruined Harley.

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, Crossy said:

@bluesofa Please read my post again and the post I was replying to!

 

I said that I cannot see a light prohibiting a u-turn, as you agree. I did not say he had a green light (we cannot see what lights were visible to that traffic).

 

We have a junction near us which would look exactly like that when right turns and u-turns from both directions are permitted.

Ah, OK, I see your point about the pickup going through a red alight & an 'illegal U-turn'.

I take it you mean no light visible prohibiting a U-turn - regarding the direction the Harley was travelling in?

Just being pedantic I'm guessing you're assuming any U-turn prohibition would be identical in both directions?

 

[happy chappie]

35 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

At that junction there is a filter arrow allowing the U-turn, or right turn into the RTN area. So it seems possible that the pickup had a green light.

 

Thanks,would of been good to have it in the op.the only thing is why are the police interviewing witnesses to determine who was in the wrong? Also where in the picture is the green filter light to turn right.

[Crossy]

6 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I take it you mean no light visible prohibiting a U-turn - regarding the direction the Harley was travelling in?

No. I mean lights visible to the pickup, we cannot see them so we don't know what he had.

 

The post I was responding to stated that the pickup had gone through a red light, we cannot see said red light.

 

Others have noted that this particular junction has a right/u-turn filter meaning the pickup could well have had a green.

 

Either way, Mr Harley evidently made zero attempt to stop at HIS red.

 

[Henrik Andersen]

If Thai youngsters have to learn to behave better in traffic Thailand need to step up and learn all officials there working for Thailand to be a better idol for the young people and behave as good human beings 

This high speed is insane 

Come on Thailand 

 

[Ratt Thai]

1: The harley driver ran red light, no doubt about that.

2: Look at all the painted markings and the position of the lane where the pickup came from. Most probably he had a green light to turn into the right or make a U turn.

This kind of light / traffic situations are as common as 12 in a dozen...

[NanLaew]

29 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Thanks,would of been good to have it in the op.the only thing is why are the police interviewing witnesses to determine who was in the wrong? Also where in the picture is the green filter light to turn right.

In the video, the traffic lights that would have been facing the HD turn from amber to red almost immediately after the start of the video. We may assume that the amber was on for maybe 4 seconds before the video starts. We may also assume the green flashing maybe 8 seconds before the video starts. So the HD rider had maybe 8 seconds from the first warning of a light change (green flashing).

 

The pickup starts to make the u-turn less than 0.1 seconds after the light turns red.

The HD collides with the pickup about 0.3 seconds AFTER the light turns red.

 

The point of impact is pretty close to where the '3' is in the picture below which is the birds-eye view below where North is up. The HD was heading east to west through a simple set of traffic lights, red, amber and green. He clearly ran the red light.

 

As pointed out earlier, the pickup traveling west to east is afforded a filter light to turn south into the Naval Base (or u-turn). He probably had the green filter light but whether he jumped that light can't be determined without knowing the traffic light timing. Given that these traffic lights may be timed like most traffic lights we encounter on Highway 3, I would say the pickup probably did jump the filter light.

 

One thing to note that this is a very long t-junction, measuring about 75 m between stop lines. It is unknown if the traffic light timing has been adjusted to compensate for traffic being caught passing through such a long junction, ie. longer flashing green, steady amber before red for westbound traffic and/or longer delay before green and right turn filter for eastbound traffic.

 

Estimating the speed of the Harley, maybe he was above the speed limit (60 or 90 kph?) on which traffic light timings are usually based.

 

 

[chickenslegs]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

In the video, the traffic lights that would have been facing the HD turn from amber to red almost immediately after the start of the video.

I didn't notice that until you pointed it out - well spotted.

 

With that information, and knowing the junction quite well, I would say that the Harley definitely entered the junction on an amber (stop) light and the pickup almost certainly anticipated the green filter arrow and went too early.

 

 

 

[White Christmas13]

Wow I got really worried about the road toll in western australia for this year a massive 152 

[tifino]

the PO will be bound for promotion to CPO from all this...

 

as per usual procedure

[BigT73]

2 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

I didn't notice that until you pointed it out - well spotted.

 

With that information, and knowing the junction quite well, I would say that the Harley definitely entered the junction on an amber (stop) light and the pickup almost certainly anticipated the green filter arrow and went too early.

 

 

 

If the pickup anticipated the light change his head still should have been facing the oncoming bike and seen the pace it was travelling  from its headlight.  I have seen this scenario happen here alot, I wonder if its zero fuggs given or a lack of depth perception? 

[TumblinDice]

Say good bye to that illustrious career. At least he wont have to make those high monthly (interest) payments for the rest of his life.

[impulse]

Regardless of who was at fault, this is yet another data point where 2 guys experienced the exact same wreck. 

 

The guy with 4 wheels walked away, apparently unhurt.  The guy on 2 wheels was killed.

 

[Rimmer]

A couple of troll posts have been removed

[a977]

I give the HD rider 8 out of 10 for the dive with half twist and pike would have been 10 out of 10 except for his finish

[CharlieH]

All I saw was the pick-up turn infront of the bike. The bike was too fast to do anything, I doubt the pick up driver saw the bike or didnt judge the bikes speed.

Another waste of life.

[NanLaew]

10 hours ago, BigT73 said:

If the pickup anticipated the light change his head still should have been facing the oncoming bike and seen the pace it was travelling  from its headlight.  I have seen this scenario happen here alot, I wonder if its zero fuggs given or a lack of depth perception? 

A reasonable hypothesis.

 

However, if the HD had been obscured behind two lanes of vehicles already stopping or stopped on amber/red, and the HD driver had already decided to change lanes, moving to his left and shoot-the-gap, the pickup driver would not have seen him in time. I have seen the shoot-the-gap-instead-of-braking-or stopping a lot here as well.

 

No question about the general limits on spatial awareness/depth perception of most Asians. Then again, on another forum when a foreigner was mortified when his Thai wife (driving) pulled out to overtake with a motorcycle clearly coming the other way, she apparently commented, "Motorbike small, it can move over." Unfortunately, this attitude gets shot down by the general precept that in the unfortunate event of a collision, the bigger the vehicle, the higher the blame.

[pattayadude]

????

[KhunBENQ]

18 hours ago, happy chappie said:

Both to blame there.man going through red light to do a u turn and the biker running at high speed and through a red light.

I have no idea why in the forum a short version of the video is to be seen?

The pickup had crossed the line long before yellow.

While he stands there the light changes to yellow.

Then red and after another short wait, the pickup starts to turn in.

The light is red about three seconds(!) before the impact.

The complete video is on the sanook website.

 

It's easy saying that you should anticipate the speed of a two wheeler in the night.

Care for some math?

Assuming the bike was going 120 km/h then it could have been as far as 90 meters from the crossing when the light turned red (with the rough 3 second estimate).

And 120 km/h might be a conservative guess.

[KhunBENQ]

Slight correction.

The "full" video is in this sanook news report:

https://video.sanook.com/player/1344177/

[Burma Bill]

17 hours ago, Ratt Thai said:

1: The harley driver ran red light, no doubt about that.

2: Look at all the painted markings and the position of the lane where the pickup came from. Most probably he had a green light to turn into the right or make a U turn.

This kind of light / traffic situations are as common as 12 in a dozen...

Yes, the pickup driver would have seen a GREEN arrow pointing right on the traffic light. Motorcyclist going too fast to stop.

[crazygreg44]

17 hours ago, NanLaew said:

 We may also assume the green flashing maybe 8 seconds before the video starts. So the HD rider had maybe 8 seconds from the first warning of a light change (green flashing).

I wonder if you ever watched the video yourself. There is no green light flashing as there is no red light flashing.  The only flashing light is an ORANGE light flashing for a minimum of 3 seconds before the lights change to red for the Harley driver.  Plenty of time for him to come to an halt  - if he only was going by the 90 km/h allowed speed, but he was more probably going +120 km/h.  He rode his leisure Big Bike much too fast, and that's what's to it, he was not willing to jam into the brakes whilst the orange lights were still flashing. After the change to red, another second passes before he runs through