"We'll give family one million baht" for death of Canadian tourist says owner

[AI5AASIA]

10 minutes ago, connda said:

A little over 30k USD for blood money.  In the US the civil courts would award a couple of million USD and multiples more for punitive damages. 

But would they award anything if he doesn't have any dependents? Assuming it's not an Asian family where the young are brought up to support parents financially.

[Xaos]

One milion sounds cool isnt it

[madmitch]

So many posts comparing the amount of the payout compared with what a Western company might pay.

 

Just a reminder: this accident occurred in Thailand, not the USA or Canada. The award is commensurate to what might have been paid to a Thai person, in fact I'm probably overstating this: it's probably a lot more than might have been paid to a Thai. A typical Thai insurance policy would only have a limit of THB 1m as standard, whereas in the UK, for example, £5m (THB200m) would be the norm. However, a company's liability is not limited to the amount of the insurance. If an award goes over the top then it's down to the company to pay.

 

Thailand is not a litigious society with regard to liability claims and awards are on the low side. When it comes to libel and slander, however, Thailand is up there with the best of them!

[RBOP]

From pictures posted in other newspaper, the wire cable clamps are installed backwards "Never saddle a dead horse". If this found to be a cause there is criminal negligence and the engineering firm that past the inspection and owner should all be sued. 

[Cake Monster]

What the owners of the ZipLine in question state they will give the victims family, and what their Lawyers will agree, will be a Million miles apart me thinks.

The family will probably get independent safety checks arranged through their lawyers, which is their right. And if safety regs have been breached then the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.

[NightSky]

My condolences to the family of the deceased. 

 

Well, I know that these financial offers are accepted in Thailand as potential means of apology/compensation but all too often that seems to go hand in hand with relinquishing responsibility.

 

The difference in culture between the business operator and a western family could result in the financial offer being perceived as an insult and especially if it is construed as compensation for loss of life and payment to mitigate acceptance of responsibility.

 

Whether the financial offer is accepted or not I think the important thing here is that safety measures are put in place and a government body oversees the health and safety so these things don't happen again in future.

 

Someone should be held responsible.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by NightSky

[cardinalblue]

Is the owner Thai or non-Thai?

[bluesofa]

8 minutes ago, NightSky said:

My condolences to the family of the deceased. 

 

Well, I know that these financial offers are accepted in Thailand as potential means of apology/compensation but all too often that seems to go hand in hand with relinquishing responsibility.

 

The difference in culture between the business operator and a western family could result in the financial offer being perceived as an insult and especially if it is construed as compensation for loss of life and payment to mitigate acceptance of responsibility.

 

Whether the financial offer is accepted or not I think the important thing here is that safety measures are put in place and a government body oversees the health and safety so these things don't happen again in future.

 

Someone should be held responsible.

"Someone should be held responsible" - in the land of irresponsibility? Good luck with that.

 

Sadly I think this is an oxymoron in Thailand: 'government body oversees the health and safety'

 

[PJPom]

Has anyone noted that class one car insurance is only for one million per person and my broker/ agent tells me that the insurance company will normally pay 300,000 baht and wait for claimants to take them to court.

My company in Australia that built exhibition stands had to carry $A 15,000,000 public liability, that was early noughties, what it is now I don’t know.

[Naamblar2014]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai PBS reported that Flight of the Gibbon was under investigation for forest encroachment

Some hiso Thai discovered this successful company was owned by a foreigner.

[JimmyJ]

3 hours ago, YTP said:

RIP, unfortunate.

However if I weighed 125-200 kilos as reported, I would stay the hell away from any zipline or gravity-based thrills.

I weigh a lot less than that, and I stay the hell away from zipline rides anyway.

[mike787]

This is Thailand...get used to this stuff, it happens on the roads, in bars, in the forest, and anywhere else.   

[JimmyJ]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

So many posts comparing the amount of the payout compared with what a Western company might pay.

 

Just a reminder: this accident occurred in Thailand, not the USA or Canada. The award is commensurate to what might have been paid to a Thai person...

Many Thai attractions charge non-Thais 10x what Thais pay.

 

So in like kind they should pay non-Thais 10x what they pay Thais for the accident.

[hobobo]

4 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

and some flowers and a gift basket, right?

And free rides for the whole family?

[bluesofa]

5 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

Many Thai attractions charge non-Thais 10x what Thais pay.

So in like kind they should pay non-Thais 10x what they pay Thais for the accident.

Ha ha ha!

Stop it! You're using logic again.

[sammieuk1]

38 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

"Someone should be held responsible" - in the land of irresponsibility? Good luck with that.

 

Sadly I think this is an oxymoron in Thailand: 'government body oversees the health and safety'

 

That would be a strangely quite of late fat bloke with a shiny watch or two???? 

[4675636b596f75]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He said there was insurance in place so that one million baht would go to the victim's family. 

How fortunate.  Send the whole family!

[Grusa]

4 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Perhaps an insurance waiver would be requested to be signed. Potentially a whole can of worms.

I thought such "attractions" did exactly that. Participate entirely at your own risk.

[Borzandy]

5 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

and some flowers and a gift basket, right?

and a wai

[soistalker]

Just wei. Then continue endangering  other foreigners. They really just dont care.

[1duckyboy]

This zipline outfit has quite a history of accidents according to Thai PBS.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/canadian-tourist-dies-in-fall-from-zip-line-in-chiang-mai/. 

Check out the last three paragraphs. 

[UncleErnie]

Wow, a whole million baht! ????Me think not quite up to Canadian compensation levels for loss of a young life. Throw in a couple of meaningful WAIS (now we’re talking) and I guess everybody will be good.????

[Bournville]

Hypocrisy in Thailand is disgusting. Thoughts on forcing foreigners to get good medical insurance for the likes of Bangkok Hospital. But only liability insurance that would satisfy a thai familiy in such an incident. Pathetic. 

[Russell17au]

There are a few posters that have not read to OP properly and have incorrectly claimed that he weighed 125KG. This is incorrect. The cable has a maximum approved load weight of 125KG and who ever put him in the harness and coupled him to the cable should have checked his weight if he had any doubts about the safety issue and not allowed him to use the thing. There has only been mention of police going to check his weight and that information has not been released.

[jackdd]

The two men who died in the fire in Central World got about 1.4 million each (from a multi billion company) according to the news, so the 1 million in this case (from a rather small company) here is not too far away.

[matador007]

2 minutes ago, Russell17au said:

There are a few posters that have not read to OP properly and have incorrectly claimed that he weighed 125KG. This is incorrect. The cable has a maximum approved load weight of 125KG and who ever put him in the harness and coupled him to the cable should have checked his weight if he had any doubts about the safety issue and not allowed him to use the thing. There has only been mention of police going to check his weight and that information has not been released.

The ThaiPBSWorld link a couple above says victims weight was around 180kg.

If thats true, thet definitely 60kg more than what the max. approved, and 80-100kg more than what I would even entertain doing this at.

Always sad someone has to die/serious injuries for a wakeup call.

[Lacessit]

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Going off at a slight tangent, does this mean that financial compensation (in Thailand and other countries) should be on a sliding scale depending on the nationality of the injured/deceased?

 

If something like that ever happened, I suppose it would evolve into demands for checking the customer's passport and whether they were allowed to participate or be barred.

Perhaps an insurance waiver would be requested to be signed. Potentially a whole can of worms.

Good question, and I don't pretend to know the answer. As he was a tourist, he should have had travel insurance, although whether it covers death of the insured is yet another question.

There is a white water rafting "experience" at Mae Taeng in Chiang Mai. I refused to participate, as I had bugger all knowledge as to what the risk level was. I do prefer my skin as it is.

[observer90210]

1 mio THB won't bail them out imagewise, as it was all over the EU media this week end.

 

Whey they said 1 million, they ment at least 1 million UK£ ?!

[DaRoadrunner]

2 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

Many Thai attractions charge non-Thais 10x what Thais pay.

 

So in like kind they should pay non-Thais 10x what they pay Thais for the accident.

Thais are fond of double standards where Farang are charged more. If we are worth more then we deserve more compensation. 1M Baht is not a lot in Canada, I hope the family sue the Thais big time.

[Rod the Sod]

6 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

 

So who is giving the family the money ? 

If it is the insurance company, the zipline owner is giving the family <deleted> all.

If convicted of negligence, the company should compensate the family a hell of a lot more than the insurance limit. 

Tell you for nothing, the Insurer wont pay if the guy weighed more than the limit, or if the company broke any other rule, which they probably did. Rightly so too. The Directors think they can claim insurance, slip it over to the family and Bob's yer Uncle, off we go again. Hope to God it doesn't work like that this time. Why do some idiots think that just because you are insured, everything is taken care of???