Travel insurance warning as NI man loses leg after Thailand motorbike accident

[thaiguzzi]

43 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Same here, except that I imported my bike here.

 

Simply too dangerous, I knew if I continued riding a big bike here I would kill myself.

Yawn.

Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.

Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.

Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?

 

Me?

I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

[salavan]

Please note health insurance does not cover  accidents 

[MadMuhammad]

2 hours ago, Letseng said:

 

And most travel policies are for 45 or 90 days only. If he is here to teach than travel insurance won't do it. 

Regardless, he has my sympathy. Get well soon.

 

Many policies cover motorcycles now right up to ‘big bikes’. My policy is for 9 months with no restrictions on engine size ????????

[MadMuhammad]

2 hours ago, overherebc said:

Unfortunately this is

'No country for safe biking.'

Don't care if you've ridden safely for the past 30 years or not, in fact I believe if you've never come off in your early years of biking the more likely it is to have a bad one here. 

Early on I managed a few 'down the road on my wee pink bum' happenings and they are the best experiences to have to learn what biking is about.

I bought a big bike here

( 1100cc ) after 30 years of UK and EU riding and hung up the helmet after about 2 years here. It was just too scary.

Well I should be safe then as I had a catastrophic accident in my home country that left me broken and disabled. 

I had no hesitation in buying a Duc here and I have even less hesitation in taking it out daily. The biggest worry I find are the loose road surfaces.

Once you realise you must be ready at all times for any eventuality (which is normal anyway) I honestly don’t find the road traffic that big of a concern 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

Yawn.

Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.

Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.

Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?

 

Me?

I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

The idiot sitting 2 foot off your rear wheel in his pick up or car is just one of the dangers. It would take a long time to list the rest of them.

You could be, maybe you're him, the best/safest/most careful biker in the world but here the roads are full of drivers/riders who 'know' they sre best and that means you are just an annoyance that has to get out of their way.

 

Happy biking. Stay chrome side up.????

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

Yawn.

Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.

Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.

Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?

 

Me?

I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

Don't you mean Kawayamhonduki?? ????

[Bournville]

In Thailand a motorbike accident is never about "if" its a matter of "when" and how bad.

Sad someone lost a limb. Very sad. Plus now financial hurt I expect for a while to come

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[indepth]

3 hours ago, z42 said:

Travel insurance very rarely covers bike crash injuries, and insurance companies in many cases need social media pressure to actually force a pay out.

 

Wish the injured man as speedy a recovery as possible

Rubbish. 

[simon43]

Please note health insurance does not cover  accidents 

 

Huh?  I just checked my policy and I'm covered up to $1.2 million annually for hospital costs associated with illness and/or accidents.

[BestB]

1 hour ago, salavan said:

Please note health insurance does not cover  accidents 

Health insurance covers any in hospital treatment unless pre existing conditions not mentioned during application and acceptance 

[humbug]

a tragic story ruined by the junta media propaganda machine. Thousands of foreigners everyday are using the private hosptals throughout this land paying huge sums for a variety of health services. The idea the media paints is the opposite reality. Just pop in to bumrumgrad or bangkok hospital etc and see the stacks of foreigners paying bills.

[tlandtday]

3 hours ago, z42 said:

Travel insurance very rarely covers bike crash injuries, and insurance companies in many cases need social media pressure to actually force a pay out.

 

Wish the injured man as speedy a recovery as possible

yes more scamming by insurance companies so where is the incentive to buy if not covering motorbikes?

[SammyT]

2 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Yawn.

Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.

Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.

Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?

 

Me?

I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

Agreed. I don't have a big bike but have ridden a moto for the last three years. Its just to get me from A to B, but 70 - 80kmh is my limit. I've not even come close to having an accident, because I drive defensively, put the keys away after a few beers and always assume that cars haven't seen me and drive accordingly. 

 

My insurance covers me so long as I'm driving legally - licenced, insured, sober, with a helmet etc. Common sense stuff really. When I see the manner in which many tourists drive scooters in the resort towns, I'm wholly unsurprised that travel insurance doesn't cover scooter accidents. 

 

I'm wondering if this guy was working here without a permit, being paid cash, and therefore didn't have the mandatory insurance that employers are meant to provide? Either way, I wish him a speedy recovery.

[baboon]

3 hours ago, simon43 said:

DON'T BE A DICK AND THINK IT WON'T HAPPEN TO YOU!!

You can say that again. This accident is hot on the heels of another teacher being killed locally in yet another motorbike crash. It's bloody dangerous out there. 

[balo]

Another hopeless case without insurance.  And he lives here. "Should have known better" etc.  

 

I am tired of this. 

 

 

[baboon]

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Yes IF the school was above board.

It is. Has a good reputation locally. 

[HLover]

2 minutes ago, balo said:

Another hopeless case without insurance.  And he lives here. "Should have known better" etc.  

 

I am tired of this. 

 

 

It would be nice if an insurance company was recommended.

Seems everyone likes to complain about them all.

 

[Sheryl]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

He was a teacher, surely his employers were legally required to cover him under the SS scheme?

If they didn't cover him, he could just sue them for the medical costs.

If it was a private school they are exempt from being required to be under SS.

 

Most private schools offer some type of insurance in place of it but usually of such low level as to be almost worthless.I recall one case a couple of years back where the maximum amount of the policy was exceeded in the first 24 hours alone and the man still needed more neurosurgery and prolonged hospitalization. And that at a medium priced hospital.

 

The provision of grossly inadequate insurance by private schools has a particularly bad impact on foreign employees unfamiliar with health insurance and health care costs. Many assume that having "insurance" automatically means everything they need is there.

 

If it was a government school and he'd been there over a month then yes, he'd be covered under SS so presumably that is not the case.

 

Though in this case there is reference to an insurance policy that had lapsed.  Hard then to figure out the story.

 

 

[Khaeng Mak]

2 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Yawn.

Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.

Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.

Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?

 

Me?

I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

StevenL lives in downtown Phuket and his fear of riding there is well justified. 

 

Statistically Thepkrasattri Road is the most dangerous place to ride a motorbike ON EARTH. 

 

I too had a big bike when I lived in Phuket and I was hit 3 times by Thai drivers.  All of whom fled the scene. None of the accidents where my fault.

 

Not everyone lives in Nakon Nowhere and enjoys riding around taking in all the sights, sounds and smells, which by the way means watching people picking their nose, suffering the racket of morlam played way too loud on a Vigo stereo system, and sniffing buffalo crap and burning plastic bags.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Khaeng Mak

[baboon]

3 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

If it was a government school and he'd been there over a month then yes, he'd be covered under SS so presumably that is not the case.

It is a private school. A friend's daughter goes there.

[nausea]

Even a minor accident is scary if you're wearing flip-flops, shorts, and no helmet - taxi for me, everywhere, unless it's absolutely unavoidable, then I say a short prayer. But I have to admit, in my early days here, I pushed the limit, got away with one minor accident. As for health insurance, unless it pays for an ambulance plane home it ain't worth having, IMHO. Yeah, I taught and had BUPA health insurance, but you're gonna bust their limits pretty quickly with anything serious. A lot of us keep money set aside for minor incidents but that big one, well unless you have really serious money you're lost.

[j8k]

Brits can get travel insurance up to 18 months, and many companies offer extensions to that too! Really no excuse, but of course feel for the guy and hope he recovers, medically and financially.

 

Expecting the school to cover is folly too!

[jlwilliamsjr18]

4 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

should have health insurance through his teaching contract

Ha.... unlikely... schools the crappy ones love hiring expats, pay them cash offering no insurance or work permits. How...bribes keep the storm away, until something like this happens. 

[Kieran00001]

4 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Tragic. However, while we expect tourists visiting for a short period to gamble with buying insurance or not, those who live here should know better. I hope he makes as full a recovery as possible in the circumstances and any living here without some medical insurance heed the message.

 

Those who work here are supposed to be covered, within the 5% total income tax deducted is 1.5% for medical cover, every province has state hospitals which take foreigners on social security.

[crazykopite]

I thought that if you have a work permit in Thailand then you are covered for medical expenses 

[buick]

4 hours ago, fisherd3 said:

It will be impossible to formulate any private insurance plan in Thailand that anyone can afford when e.g Bangkok Hospital Rayong charges 34,000 thb for first Rabies shot of a course.

i paid 2,000thb at a hospital in buriram and then the same amount at burumgrad in bangkok.  then it came time for the third one and i was in USA, they wanted 900usd.  it sounds like the hospital in rayong is using usa pricing !!! 

[Number 6]

Here's a great method to self insure, free.

 

Stay off motorcycles.

[miamiman123]

Renting a motorbike....stupid move teacher

[Number 6]

21 minutes ago, jlwilliamsjr18 said:

Ha.... unlikely... schools the crappy ones love hiring expats, pay them cash offering no insurance or work permits. How...bribes keep the storm away, until something like this happens. 

Government schools do offer poor albeit FREE insurance. You're always welcome to purchase your own. If you're working without a permit you pretty much deserve what you get. Why wouldn't this be ripe for abuse?

[boonrawdcnx]

Yawn.
Sell your Kawayamazuki XYZ1100 space ship and buy a RE 500 single.
Tour the countryside taking in all the sights, sounds and smells @ 80 kmph instead of hooning around at 160 kmph.
Or are you saying you'd kill yourself on anything bigger than a stepthru?
 
Me?
I'm off for a ride on my Triumph.

Agree with you - enjoy our motorbike tours all around the North!
Fantastic trips up to a week long - never use the main roads if you can avoid it quite country roads with lots of stops - getting to know friendly people and other bikers.

One thing is for sure here you ride for the fun of it - never for speed! And you can NEVER let your guard down when you ride here and never drive fast!

Insurance is mostly useless here even if you purchase first class insurance which I have but I have an additional accident insurance from my home country.
Have been riding motorbikes for 30 years in Thailand and - knock on wood - never an accident.
One car accident though that somebody else caused - still police tried to blame me - but I did not give in to their BS.



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