Sleepy driver survives car fire on HW7

[Rimmer]

Sleepy driver survives car fire on HW7

PATTAYA:--A sleepy driver survived a car fire April 11 on Highway 7, when onlookers woke him in time to escape.

 

Narong Yomha, 52, told police he was on his way home from work when he became too tired to drive at half past midnight, so he pulled over to catch a nap.

 

He was awakened by people pounding on his bronze Chevrolet window, yelling at him to get out.

Firefighters arrived too late to save the car, but no one was hurt.
The cause of fire was unknown.

 

-- PATTAYA MAIL 2019-04-13--

[jacko45k]

So he effectively stopped on a motorway/toll road to take a nap.

Berk.

I am glad his car was destroyed. 

[Vacuum]

Just now, jacko45k said:

So he effectively stopped on a motorway/toll road to take a nap.

Berk.

I am glad his car was destroyed. 

Well, to his defence, he actually stopped and had a nap. Most victims are stopped by a tree or electric pole, and never wake up again.

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, Vacuum said:

Well, to his defence, he actually stopped and had a nap. Most victims are stopped by a tree or electric pole, and never wake up again.

Trust you to improve on my glad image. 

[billd766]

6 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

So he effectively stopped on a motorway/toll road to take a nap.

Berk.

I am glad his car was destroyed. 

So you believe that he should have pushed on and perhaps had an accident and maybe killed a couple?

 

He did the right thing though perhaps in the wrong place. Tiredness and press-on-itis has killed many more people than stopping on the expressway ever will.

 

BTW there are a few dedicated laybys on the route 7 and he may have been in one of them.

[VocalNeal]

Car was on fire before he stopped.? He felt tired because of fumes from the fire or lack of oxygen?

 

 

[jacko45k]

18 minutes ago, billd766 said:

So you believe that he should have pushed on and perhaps had an accident and maybe killed a couple?

 

He did the right thing though perhaps in the wrong place. Tiredness and press-on-itis has killed many more people than stopping on the expressway ever will.

 

BTW there are a few dedicated laybys on the route 7 and he may have been in one of them.

No, I believe he should not have embarked on the journey, or made a stop at a suitable place, perhaps for a coffee. Parking up on a motorway and going to sleep in your car is extremely stupid and causes accidents. 

Right thing in the wrong place, what gobbledygook is that?

 

The picture in the IOP does not show a lay-by, nor are there any on Hwy 7 I recall,  except near the toll kiosks. There is an emergency lane, that of course gets used for parking.

Edited April 13, 2019 by jacko45k

[Vacuum]

6 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Most responsible people when driving any distance plan into their journey routine stops and breaks to prevent such tiredness occurring to the point where you can not continue and have to stop and sleep on a motorway.

Not in Thailand, there's numerous examples of this.

[Basil B]

1 hour ago, Kim J said:

Highly unusual for a car to burst into flame in this manner. I do wonder what was the cause of this fire?

Many house fires are caused by smokers falling asleep before properly extinguishing their fags. 

[Golden Triangle]

I have said it before and I will say it again, there are insufficient rest areas on any Thai roads, I have traversed this country North, South, East & west, over 10,000 kms on leisure trips, there are some spectacular sites and views to be seen which is fine if you are a passenger but as the driver I could not enjoy the views as there was nowhere to stop and admire them.

 

As for route 7, you have the rest areas this side of swampy, then a couple of Emergency parking areas, but no further off road parking or rest/fuel/coffee areas until you get to Pattaya.

 

I just pulled this stat from Google

 

How far apart are motorway services?

Areas Without Services. Motorway services should be as close as possible to being 27 miles apart (although for a short time 12 miles was the standard practice, more information on this can be found in the Unbuilt Services section)

 

He should not have parked there anyway, that's just asking for a truck to run into your backend with very bad results indeed.

 

[Fred white]

6 hours ago, jacko45k said:

No, I believe he should not have embarked on the journey, or made a stop at a suitable place, perhaps for a coffee. Parking up on a motorway and going to sleep in your car is extremely stupid and causes accidents. 

Right thing in the wrong place, what gobbledygook is that?

 

The picture in the IOP does not show a lay-by, nor are there any on Hwy 7 I recall,  except near the toll kiosks. There is an emergency lane, that of course gets used for parking.

Or as a 4th or 5th lane ????

[RobMuir]

10 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I have said it before and I will say it again, there are insufficient rest areas on any Thai roads, I have traversed this country North, South, East & west, over 10,000 kms on leisure trips, there are some spectacular sites and views to be seen which is fine if you are a passenger but as the driver I could not enjoy the views as there was nowhere to stop and admire them.

That’s a shame.

Quote

 

As for route 7, you have the rest areas this side of swampy, then a couple of Emergency parking areas, but no further off road parking

There are rest areas along there and trucks are parked there every night. Just look for the rubbish. No bins are provided.

 

Quote

 

He should not have parked there anyway, that's just asking for a truck to run into your backend with very bad results indeed.

 

Yes, much safer to push on driving while asleep.

 

He was parked near a well lit bridge which was a good move since he was rescued from a fire by passer bys.

 

It saved his life.

Not driving while asleep maybe saved other lives. A clever man.

 

11 hours ago, Kim J said:

He did not do the right thing at all. Most responsible people when driving any distance plan into their journey routine stops and breaks to prevent such tiredness occurring to the point where you can not continue and have to stop and sleep on a motorway.

That’s a bit much isn’t it? He was just going home after work. After midnight. Might have done a heap of OT.

 

Good on him, a hard working responsible man. 

Edited April 13, 2019 by RobMuir

[jacko45k]

6 hours ago, RobMuir said:

That’s a bit much isn’t it? He was just going home after work. After midnight. Might have done a heap of OT.

Could just as well done a heap of Leo....

[overherebc]

22 hours ago, jacko45k said:

No, I believe he should not have embarked on the journey, or made a stop at a suitable place, perhaps for a coffee. Parking up on a motorway and going to sleep in your car is extremely stupid and causes accidents. 

Right thing in the wrong place, what gobbledygook is that?

 

The picture in the IOP does not show a lay-by, nor are there any on Hwy 7 I recall,  except near the toll kiosks. There is an emergency lane, that of course gets used for parking.

Quite a few 'emergency park areas' on 7.

Usually not used correctly, people stop right in the middle rather than as far along as they can do making it end up with shorter areas to use for others in an emergency.

[worgeordie]

Those Chevrolets burn well,hope he was insured.

regards worgeordie

[monkeycu]

21 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I have said it before and I will say it again, there are insufficient rest areas on any Thai roads, I have traversed this country North, South, East & west, over 10,000 kms on leisure trips, there are some spectacular sites and views to be seen which is fine if you are a passenger but as the driver I could not enjoy the views as there was nowhere to stop and admire them.

 

As for route 7, you have the rest areas this side of swampy, then a couple of Emergency parking areas, but no further off road parking or rest/fuel/coffee areas until you get to Pattaya.

 

I just pulled this stat from Google

 

How far apart are motorway services?

Areas Without Services. Motorway services should be as close as possible to being 27 miles apart (although for a short time 12 miles was the standard practice, more information on this can be found in the Unbuilt Services section)

 

He should not have parked there anyway, that's just asking for a truck to run into your backend with very bad results indeed.

 

10,000 k's around Thailand

Don't drive much do you?

[Golden Triangle]

1 hour ago, monkeycu said:

10,000 k's around Thailand

Don't drive much do you?

10,000 was on 2 trips, each one over a month long, the other 80,000 that I have driven on top of that to see family and friends and local site seeing so wasn't included in that figure  ????

[richard_smith237]

12 hours ago, RobMuir said:

That’s a shame.

There are rest areas along there and trucks are parked there every night. Just look for the rubbish. No bins are provided.

 

Yes, much safer to push on driving while asleep.

 

He was parked near a well lit bridge which was a good move since he was rescued from a fire by passer bys.

 

It saved his life.

Not driving while asleep maybe saved other lives. A clever man.

 

That’s a bit much isn’t it? He was just going home after work. After midnight. Might have done a heap of OT.

 

Good on him, a hard working responsible man. 

 

As someone else mentioned... Right thing to do, the wrong place to do it.... 

 

Never stop on the side of the road in Thailand, especially at night - so many drivers not paying full attention to where they are going and then you have the drunks.....

 

 

 

 

[Just Weird]

6 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Could just as well done a heap of Leo....

Could have done, but hadn't.

[Just Weird]

3 hours ago, overherebc said:

Quite a few 'emergency park areas' on 7.

Usually not used correctly, people stop right in the middle rather than as far along as they can do making it end up with shorter areas to use for others in an emergency.

That's the rule, is it, the overherebc rule? 

 

If people park in the middle of a lengthy stopping area does it make that area shorter, is the rest of the area not being used by them now unavailable to others?

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, Just Weird said:

That's the rule, is it, the overherebc rule? 

 

If people park in the middle of a lengthy stopping area does it make that area shorter, is the rest of the area not being used by them now unavailable to others?

I bet you straddle the white line in a car park and take up two parking places.

Generally you get HGV's with trailers who will use them if they feel the need to check something, tyres, load etc. Stick your car in the middle of the area as you obviously feel is a good idea might make it more difficult for the HGV driver. The emergency areas are not really long.

Edited April 14, 2019 by overherebc

[Rimmer]

A troll post has been removed

[essox essox]

On 4/13/2019 at 11:52 AM, Kim J said:

Highly unusual for a car to burst into flame in this manner. I do wonder what was the cause of this fire?

could have been a suicide attempt?? or insurance scam !!!

[mikebell]

On 4/13/2019 at 11:57 AM, VocalNeal said:

Car was on fire before he stopped.? He felt tired because of fumes from the fire or lack of oxygen?

 

 

Or alcohol was making him sleepy?

[greenbottle555]

On 4/13/2019 at 12:29 AM, jacko45k said:

So he effectively stopped on a motorway/toll road to take a nap.

Berk.

I am glad his car was destroyed. 

That's probably the "face-saving" version of the story. What is more likely is he fell asleep while driving, wrecked the car, passed out and was rescued. A car just spontaneously combusting while someone was napping in it makes NO sense.

 

The guy probably was doing a combination of working too hard (being poor sucks) and has a medical condition (such as sleep apnea, a the most common medical cause of non-alcohol related accidents). But the media doesn't want it to appear that people are just randomly going to sleep on the roads. Anyway, sleep apnea is a real medical problem that needs more attention.

[overherebc]

2 hours ago, greenbottle555 said:

That's probably the "face-saving" version of the story. What is more likely is he fell asleep while driving, wrecked the car, passed out and was rescued. A car just spontaneously combusting while someone was napping in it makes NO sense.

 

The guy probably was doing a combination of working too hard (being poor sucks) and has a medical condition (such as sleep apnea, a the most common medical cause of non-alcohol related accidents). But the media doesn't want it to appear that people are just randomly going to sleep on the roads. Anyway, sleep apnea is a real medical problem that needs more attention.

Had a boss ( expat ) once who would just go to sleep in the middle of a sentence for what seemed like minutes but was really 15/20 seconds then open his eyes and carry on talking as though nothing had happened. His boss had to stop him driving and supply a driver.

My boss was very overweight and I believe that was part or most of his problem. Took him a while to realise how bad it was.