The motorbiker of the year

[Brunolem]

As a Westerner, I am regularly amazed by the number of opportunities offered to U turn on Thailand's roads. 

 

This makes me wonder how I was ever able to reach any destination in my country of origin which, as far as I remember, doesn't offer a single U turn option, especially on its motorways. 

 

Having said that, yesterday morning, I was driving on the 4 lane road linking Sisaket to Ubon, a highway where most cars are speeding at over 100 km/h. 

 

At some point, in front of me, on the left side of the road, appeared khun Samii, riding his antique motorbike, with Ms Panrayaa sitting behind him. 

 

Both of them were helmet-less... what would be the point?... and for good measure, Samii was busy smoking! 

 

Confronted with such a vision, I immediately went into full alert mode. 

 

And I better did because, as I was getting closer to him, Samii decided to cross the road at a right angle, without bothering to look or signal. 

 

Yet, this subtle stunt was only the first part of an elaborate manoeuver, since having reached the far right side of the road, Samii immediately veered left, engaging his bike in a full U turn... from right to left! 

 

At this point, I had reduced my speed to around 20 km/h and was honking to let Samii know that he was not alone in his backyard with only his chickens to kill. 

 

Yet, Samii just watched incredulously, cigarette hanging from his lips, totally unaware that, without sheer luck (low traffic) , he would have caused a crash on a major highway, and lost his bike in the process, never mind his and his wife's lives which don't really count for such a kamikaze. 

 

When you witness, day after day, insane behaviors like this, you come to the conclusion that, whatever road rules one may try to implement, it will be impossible to reduce road fatalities in Thailand to the level of Switzerland... maybe Swatziland might be a more realistic option... 

 

[Pilotman]

No worries, he will be as dead as a dodo soon, hopefully not taking anyone with him in the process. 

[richard_smith237]

It is examples such as this as to why have have dash-cams in both my car and on my motorcycle. 

 

You can't fix stupid, but you can do your best to protect yourself from legal consequences should the worst happen. 

[gmac]

45 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

No worries, he will be as dead as a dodo soon, hopefully not taking anyone with him in the process. 

You are overlooking the fact that somehow he has already reached an age probably greater than his antique motorbike's.  How do they live as long as they do?

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, gmac said:

You are overlooking the fact that somehow he has already reached an age probably greater than his antique motorbike's.  How do they live as long as they do?

goodness knows, he should have been long gone.  

[Hank Gunn]

45 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

It is examples such as this as to why have have dash-cams in both my car and on my motorcycle. 

 

You can't fix stupid, but you can do your best to protect yourself from legal consequences should the worst happen. 

Which is why I’m about to add a rear cam to my truck, which is an add-on option for my current dash-cam.

[richard_smith237]

1 minute ago, Hank Gunn said:

Which is why I’m about to add a rear cam to my truck, which is an add-on option for my current dash-cam.

Good idea... 

My bike has forward and rear facing cam (innov K2)

The rear-cam on my car has stopped working after 3 years of use... I need to get a new camera module for the set up (blackvue).

 

 

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, Brunolem said:

As a Westerner, I am regularly amazed.

appeared khun Samii, riding his antique motorbike, with Ms Panrayaa sitting behind him.

Well he was probably thinking he can do what he likes because he and the Mrs was living there before the soi became a highway. ????

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

Two days ago Thai TV news showed a traffic CCTV video of two lanes of traffic (centre and right) queuing at a red light. Opposite traffic in the adjacent carriageway was flowing on a green light.

 

Down the clear left hand lane of the queuing carriageway came two young helmet less men on a motor cycle. Without slowing the bike crossed the stop line cranked right as if to make a right turn and rode into the path of a highly visible passenger bus. The impact punted the two and their bike into the median kerb.

 

Presumed fatal to both. You can't fix stupid!

[Kerryd]

Last year in Sisaket I had an accident with an ancient on a scooter that did almost exactly the same thing. 

 

I had just left an intersection, passed a police checkpoint and was about 1 km from where I was going. I wasn't going fast as I was expecting to see the signs for the turn I had to make.

Couple hundred meters from the police check I come upon the old guy on a scooter with his wife, riding on the left shoulder. I was in the middle of the left lane, lots of room.

Until Somchai suddenly moves into the left lane (no signal or check to see if the lane was clear of course). I wasn't sure why he moved but I checked my mirrors and blind spot and moved into the right lane.

Then he moves into the right lane as well ! I'm almost past him, I have no idea what his intentions are and now I'm almost on the (painted) center divider. I figure I will still be able to get around him by going down the divider when suddenly he tries to make a right turn, right in front of me !

 

Too late to try and go behind him (would have t-boned him). Tried to go a little wider to the right and almost made it. Some part of my bike (maybe the engine guard) clipped the front of his bike and knocked him down. My bike when down on the right side, skidded about 20 meters and flipped over to land on the left side. I don't know how I did it, but the only damage to me was some scuffing on the right arm of my jacket and my right hip starting hurting about an hour later (and I ended up with a whopping big black bruise there over the next couple of days).

The old couple got up and picked up their scooter but the rescue people took them to the hospital anyways. When I saw them later at the police station they had a large bag full of pills - must have been a dozen different bottles in there.

 

I told the cops what happened. Unfortunately I only had a GoPro camera on the bike and the battery died hours earlier. I ended up with a 400 baht fine for "being involved in an accident". (The thing was, as soon as the police saw I had "insurance", that was basically it for the investigation. I swear the other guy could have been completely blind and dead drunk and it wouldn't have mattered because I had insurance !)
Never did see the old guy produce a driver's license or any other paperwork in fact. Again, nothing seemed to matter once the police knew I had "good" insurance. I'm just glad it wasn't more serious. (Still ended up costing me a pretty penny though as the Insurance company decided they didn't agree with the shop's invoice and left me paying almost a third of the bill myself.)

I ditched the GoPro after that and got a better camera system that runs off of the bike's power and has front and rear cameras. My current one also has a GPS tracker. It takes 5 minute clips and has a 128gb memory card and will (like most of them) overwrite the oldest files if it runs out of space, but has a sensor that locks the current file in the event it detects an accident (sudden change in acceleration/deceleration).

 

 

[MadMuhammad]

50 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

Last year in Sisaket I had an accident with an ancient on a scooter that did almost exactly the same thing. 

 

I had just left an intersection, passed a police checkpoint and was about 1 km from where I was going. I wasn't going fast as I was expecting to see the signs for the turn I had to make.

Couple hundred meters from the police check I come upon the old guy on a scooter with his wife, riding on the left shoulder. I was in the middle of the left lane, lots of room.

Until Somchai suddenly moves into the left lane (no signal or check to see if the lane was clear of course). I wasn't sure why he moved but I checked my mirrors and blind spot and moved into the right lane.

Then he moves into the right lane as well ! I'm almost past him, I have no idea what his intentions are and now I'm almost on the (painted) center divider. I figure I will still be able to get around him by going down the divider when suddenly he tries to make a right turn, right in front of me !

 

Too late to try and go behind him (would have t-boned him). Tried to go a little wider to the right and almost made it. Some part of my bike (maybe the engine guard) clipped the front of his bike and knocked him down. My bike when down on the right side, skidded about 20 meters and flipped over to land on the left side. I don't know how I did it, but the only damage to me was some scuffing on the right arm of my jacket and my right hip starting hurting about an hour later (and I ended up with a whopping big black bruise there over the next couple of days).

The old couple got up and picked up their scooter but the rescue people took them to the hospital anyways. When I saw them later at the police station they had a large bag full of pills - must have been a dozen different bottles in there.

 

I told the cops what happened. Unfortunately I only had a GoPro camera on the bike and the battery died hours earlier. I ended up with a 400 baht fine for "being involved in an accident". (The thing was, as soon as the police saw I had "insurance", that was basically it for the investigation. I swear the other guy could have been completely blind and dead drunk and it wouldn't have mattered because I had insurance !)
Never did see the old guy produce a driver's license or any other paperwork in fact. Again, nothing seemed to matter once the police knew I had "good" insurance. I'm just glad it wasn't more serious. (Still ended up costing me a pretty penny though as the Insurance company decided they didn't agree with the shop's invoice and left me paying almost a third of the bill myself.)

I ditched the GoPro after that and got a better camera system that runs off of the bike's power and has front and rear cameras. My current one also has a GPS tracker. It takes 5 minute clips and has a 128gb memory card and will (like most of them) overwrite the oldest files if it runs out of space, but has a sensor that locks the current file in the event it detects an accident (sudden change in acceleration/deceleration).

 

 

Could you please provide a brand name and model number? TIA

[myjawe]

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

It is examples such as this as to why have have dash-cams in both my car and on my motorcycle. 

 

You can't fix stupid, but you can do your best to protect yourself from legal consequences should the worst happen. 

 

Please explain this to SImon43 who still does not know after 20 years in Thailand !

[lvr181]

On 6/1/2019 at 1:58 PM, gmac said:

How do they live as long as they do?

"Lucky" amulets?