Six marine officials killed as van blows tyre, crashes into tree

By The Nation

 

Picture: Channel 3

 

Six Marine Department officials were killed and five others seriously injured when their van struck a tree in Chumphon province Sunday morning.

 

A burst tyre was blamed for the 10am accident. The van plunged into a ditch and smashed against a tree.

 

Picture: Channel 3

 

The officials – all male between 42 and 58 years old – were returning from Phuket, where they’d helped dredge canals. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30364680

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-02-25

Sad for them and their family, but tires just burst about once a week or something. I change my own tires about weekly as they burst whenever i drive to the supermarket....

 

 

Oh no, my mistake. Tires normally do not burst. This is a sign of bad maintenance and probably over-inflated tires.

 

If you wanna stay alive you better never step foot in a minivan.

minivans coffins with wheels,  a tourist high country should have a safer mode of transport with well regulated rules and checks

don't even try to educate ,,,,,,m 

No mention of what speed it was doing, for that much damage.

Am I correct in thinking the speed limit for minivans is 90 KPH. Judging by the wreck it would appear to have been doing a lot more.

R.I.P. To yet more victims. 

1 minute ago, grumpy 4680 said:

No mention of what speed it was doing, for that much damage.

I was typing as you posted, 

A picture say's a thousand words:

 

How often have I seen air compressors at gas stations without a tire gauge attached. How often have I offered my own tire gauge to those, who did not know about the right tire pressure. How often was my offer turned down, kicking the tire with the shoe seemed to be an adequate test, that the tire pressure is correct. How often have I seen drivers filling up the tires of their cars and motorcycles, until the compressor stopped delivering, and you cannot tell them anything, they know better. I stopped counting.

Just look at the extent of the damage.......  You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out how fast this fellah was going....... RIP....... 

2 minutes ago, fxe1200 said:

How often have I seen air compressors at gas stations without a tire gauge attached. How often have I offered my own tire gauge to those, who did not know about the right tire pressure. How often was my offer turned down, kicking the tire with the shoe seemed to be an adequate test, that the tire pressure is correct. How often have I seen drivers filling up the tires of their cars and motorcycles, until the compressor stopped delivering, and you cannot tell them anything, they know better. I stopped counting.

Of the maybe 6 petrol stations within 10km of my house, only one has a working type pressure gauge machine, The rest either don't work at all, or you can't set the pressure.  One of them is on a major road north from Sattahip to Korat. 

Pictures 1 and 2 are radically different (to my eye). Perhaps picture 2 was taken after the "jaws of life" were used to extract the bodies.

In my 50+ years of driving a million miles or two, I have had the odd tire blow out but never a loss of reasonable control.

One memorable occasion was when driving a truck on a super highway at 100 kph and a front tire blew out. No great amount of control was lost. I steered the vehicle easily to the service lane.

 

Nearly got taken out a couple of weeks ago by a boy racer in his souped up toyota vios, he must of been going flat out. Heard a loud bang (tire blow out) so looked in my mirror and managed to take evasive action as he spun out of control.

I'll give you an idea of Thai maintenance. I was in Kanchanaburi two weeks ago, went to the motorbike renter that i've used for years and picked up my usual bike. A little way down the road i thought i'd just check the oil as i was going to the Burmese border, dipped the oil and found there was nothing on the stick, even screwed into the case then checked, nothing ! Ok, went back to the place and showed him the lack of oil, nevermind was his reply, gave me another bike which i assumed would be a step up from the last. Going down the same road less than 50 yards away i applied the brakes just as a check, oh dear me the front brake pads were down to steel to steel with the resulting grinding grating experience. Back to the shop, Somchai now was getting a bit Thai tetchy so i told him to get on the back, took him 20 yards down the road with the brake grinding away and he grudgingly motioned me to go back. Ok, third time lucky, took the bike outside stood it up level, checked the oil and low and behold, Zilch !  nothing just the same as bike one, you can now imagine the look on the Thai mechanics face when i showed him, his reply was that Honda change the oil and it wasn't his fault, i asked him if he had any oil ? no was his reply, then he came up with smartest thing he'd said all morning, maybe you should go somewhere else..... took the words right out of my mouth young man, give us me money, i'm off ..... I went up the road to another shop who i also know and explained to him what had just happened, he just laughed with a big grin on his face and said i know........  I wonder if he has a brother fixing mini vans ?   

Looking at the damage, and seeing the death toll, i think it was more than just a tyre blow out.

Speed, lack of experience, panic, maybe even drink involved, who knows.

Sad and tragic loss of life, many families mourning the loss of loved ones, R.I.P.

Probably on slicks for faster racing ????RIP

no one is safe

5 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Looking at the damage, and seeing the death toll, i think it was more than just a tyre blow out.

Speed, lack of experience, panic, maybe even drink involved, who knows.

Sad and tragic loss of life, many families mourning the loss of loved ones, R.I.P.

I would agree with you on that.

In the past I've had tyres blow out at speed, and while it causes the steering to 'wobble', it was straightforward to allow the vehicle to decelerate, then apply the brakes once it had come to a stop.

Nuff said

1 hour ago, neeray said:

In my 50+ years of driving a million miles or two, I have had the odd tire blow out but never a loss of reasonable control.

One memorable occasion was when driving a truck on a super highway at 100 kph and a front tire blew out. No great amount of control was lost. I steered the vehicle easily to the service lane.

 

Me too. Travelling Hua Hin to Surin, on the BKK flyover, doing about 70kph when near side tyre blew. I slowed down and stopped easily. My tyres were the correct PSI.

 

Rather than 'the tyre blew', it's more likely that he was travelling at great speed and fell asleep. The tyre brobably blew out in the ensuing impact or on the kerb - seconds before impact.

 

But I'm not an expert..... of course.

I'd bet that, besides the probable speeding, the van was severely loaded by the people, their luggage and who knows what else.

It seems it has happened at speed of over 100k with shining front tyres.

Thousands of people’s life in hands of ignorant idiots who believe they all whole braine. 

Well, you could look at this from a different perspective...

 

At least the Marine guys didn't drown by their boat sinking when out in the ocean....

 

 

2 hours ago, neeray said:

Pictures 1 and 2 are radically different (to my eye). Perhaps picture 2 was taken after the "jaws of life" were used to extract the bodies.

Or just the other side of the van ! 

So sad. LOS = Land of Shame. RIP dear men and their families grieve.

1 hour ago, Benmart said:

So sad. LOS = Land of Shame. RIP dear men and their families grieve.

Land of Shamelessness. (Is that even a word? Absolutely - check it out).

6 hours ago, grumpy 4680 said:

No mention of what speed it was doing, for that much damage.

some of the damage would have been caused by the 'rescue' crews

9 hours ago, fxe1200 said:

How often have I seen air compressors at gas stations without a tire gauge attached. How often have I offered my own tire gauge to those, who did not know about the right tire pressure. How often was my offer turned down, kicking the tire with the shoe seemed to be an adequate test, that the tire pressure is correct. How often have I seen drivers filling up the tires of their cars and motorcycles, until the compressor stopped delivering, and you cannot tell them anything, they know better. I stopped counting.

I dunno mate. How often?

10 hours ago, neeray said:

In my 50+ years of driving a million miles or two, I have had the odd tire blow out but never a loss of reasonable control.

One memorable occasion was when driving a truck on a super highway at 100 kph and a front tire blew out. No great amount of control was lost. I steered the vehicle easily to the service lane.

 

Yes but you lose control and spin out/roll over if you slam the brakes, which normally thai drivers do when their over/under-inflated front tire explodes.

I’ve instructed my wife over and over again, never-never to touch the brakes if a tyre goes. Just stear to the road side!