Van collision with truck leaves 11 dead

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Van collision with truck leaves 11 dead

By Thanapat Kijjakosol
The Nation

 

 

Eleven people were killed and four others seriously injured when a chartered van carrying Lao workers for visa renewal to the Chanthaburi immigration checkpoint collided with an 18-wheel truck in Sa Kaew province early on Sunday.

 

Police suspect Thai van driver Sansern Sathongkhan might have dozed off behind the wheel, and driven the van into the opposite lane where it crashed head-on with the oncoming truck.

 

 

Following the fatal crash report in Wang Somboon district at 4.15am, police and rescue workers rushed to the scene on the Sakaew-Chanthaburi Road section near the entrance to the Wang Somboon District Office.

 

They found the dead bodies of the van driver and Lao passengers at the scene, many of whom were crushed in the wrecked van while some were flung out under the force of the impact. Rescue workers extricated four seriously wounded people -including three Lao passengers and the truck driver Subin Pengmoo - to rush them to the district hospital.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374925

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-18

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UPDATE:

GPS on chartered van involved in Sa Kaew smash had been disabled

Full story: https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1118365-van-collision-with-truck-leaves-11-dead/?do=findComment&comment=14479364

 

 

[seajae]

and still the govt does nothing to stop this carnage, the vans are death machines and the drivers need to be properly tested and licensed. The vans need to be speed limited to 100k at most and driving times need to be adhered to, maximum time behind the wheel needs to be made mandatory with random testing for drugs & alcohol. The amount of accidents and deaths vans cause is beyond a joke

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by seajae

[Filipplenoir]

Visa renewal

[Ramdas]

Here we go again ???? not a day that goes by without an accident causing death and destruction  ????????‍♂️

Does anybody in the government care ?! It doesn’t look like they do otherwise they’d enforce rules and regulations as they do in other countries..

I don’t think speed is always the cause of the accident, since even when they drive slow ( while they’re on their phone or watching a tv ) Hence not paying attention what’s around them, it’s a prefect formula that lead to another accident..

Too bad innocent people have to be affected by Thais careless and stupidity on the wheels ☹️

Edited August 18, 2019 by Ramdas
Misspelt

[Con Peoples Fund]

10 minutes ago, seajae said:

and still the govt does nothing to stop this carnage, the vans are death machines and the drivers need to be properly tested and licensed. The vans need to be speed limited to 100k at most and driving times need to be adhered to, maximum time behind the wheel needs to be made mandatory with random testing for drugs & alcohol. The amount of accidents and deaths vans cause is beyond a joke

 

Its not gonna happen mate we all know but we can hope for a miracle.

[Handsome Gardener]

11 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

another copy and paste story brought to you by the do nothing Thai police and government. 

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

[Number 6]

Glad the government halted changing over to proper transportation vehicles staying with the old, broken vans. Well done Thailand. 

 

Just yesterday on TV was a story Thailand was going to sort out it's road issues, lower death rates.

 

Place is a horror factory.

[transam]

5 minutes ago, Handsome Gardener said:

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

Are you for real.....?

Do you live here....?

[Pilotman]

and expats still use their services to do border runs to renew visas; utter madness.  

[Cadbury]

PM Prayut gives it some occasional tokenism just to puff his chest out. However his spokespersons usually speak of the road toll in monitory terms rather than the huge loss of human life and the injured. 

One Dr. Witthaya referred to the financial cost as ......."that accounts for 6% of GDP".

If money is not a good enough incentive for the government to fix the problem then nothing else will be. 

[RotBenz8888]

35 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

might have dozed off behind the wheel, 

Just like RTP and people in the government, who have dozed off behind their desks. Another accident, this time with 11 dead, will not wake them up. 

[Hank Gunn]

17 minutes ago, Handsome Gardener said:

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

Okay, I’ll bite. People complain about these roadblocks because they are indeed useless/pointless with regards to improving road safety. Typically all the BIB do is extract fines for lapsed or nonexistent registration, with said fines being part of the BIB’s “supplemental” income. So ultimately these roadblocks have almost zero effect on improving road safety here.

 

There is no active patrolling of the roads here and various illegal and dangerous road behavior is actually ignored, even when witnessed by the BIB.

[poohy]

RIP to Passengers

Sad to say they are Lao it wont get much news coverage in Thai press.

At least the worthless driver cannot do it again

[Vacuum]

21 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

Glad the government halted changing over to proper transportation vehicles staying with the old, broken vans. Well done Thailand.

This has nothing to do with the accidents. It's almost always the drivers fault.  Had they checked the brakes, tires, if the steering wheel was fastened properly, and not falling asleep, there wouldn't so much accidents. But these are Thai drivers and you can't expect too much. Maybe after 100 years or so, one can expect some kind of improvement.

[KhunBENQ]

5 minutes ago, poohy said:

Sad to say they are Lao it wont get much news coverage in Thai press.

I first saw it this morning on KhaoSod Thai version.

ThaiRath also covers it.

It's a question of numbers (of death). Sad but true.

 

Dozed off at 4 AM in Sa Khaeo province. Probably behind the wheel since many hours.

Did he forget his speed pills?

 

[mikebell]

24 minutes ago, Handsome Gardener said:

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

I suspect you are going to get some flak for your nonsensical post.  Road blocks AKA 'stick-ups' is merely a moneymaking exercise by RTP; from my observations at Pattaya Cop shop at least 15K per hour is collected as ransom for your licence; these are only the ones you see; there are lots more fines going direct to the cop.  The blocks  merely hold up traffic, making a nation of impatient drivers more impatient.

My strategy would be to put cops out on motor bikes at NIGHT & WEEKENDS.  Speedsters/red light runners/helmetless bikers all know the above times when they can drive with impunity.

[upu2]

48 minutes ago, Handsome Gardener said:

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

Trouble is when they check and find irregularities they impose a small fine and still let the person carry on.

[Just Weird]

1 hour ago, Ramdas said:

Here we go again ???? not a day that goes by without an accident causing death and destruction  ????????‍♂️

Does anybody in the government care ?! It doesn’t look like they do otherwise they’d enforce rules and regulations as they do in other countries..

 

"Does anybody in the government care ?! It doesn’t look like they do otherwise they’d enforce rules and regulations as they do in other countries.."

Yes, sure, it's common knowledge that, because they enforce laws, deaths do not occur on the roads of other countries on a daily basis!

[the guest]

I call them coffins on wheels. You'll never find me going in one. 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

"Does anybody in the government care ?! It doesn’t look like they do otherwise they’d enforce rules and regulations as they do in other countries.."

Yes, sure, it's common knowledge that, because they enforce laws, deaths do not occur on the roads of other countries on a daily basis!

So why does a small country like LOS, with in place laws, have near the worst road carnage record...?

[sn1per]

1 hour ago, Handsome Gardener said:

When thai police set up road blocks/checks they are condemned on here as pointless

 

What would be your strategy ? 

Active policing may be a good start

[transam]

Just now, sn1per said:

Active policing may be a good start

It is the only start...

[Isaanbiker]

No comment other than RIP. 

[thasoss]

1 hour ago, Cadbury said:

PM Prayut gives it some occasional tokenism just to puff his chest out. However his spokespersons usually speak of the road toll in monitory terms rather than the huge loss of human life and the injured. 

One Dr. Witthaya referred to the financial cost as ......."that accounts for 6% of GDP".

If money is not a good enough incentive for the government to fix the problem then nothing else will be. 

and the govt. have said they aim to reduce road toll by 50% by 2020

[SantiSuk]

Second worst road-kill rate in the world and there seems to be no sense of national shame about it.

 

If I was Thai and had access I would challenge a certain recently appointed individual of extremely high rank/status who in theory is capable of cutting through national barriers to change (or at least his father certainly did so) to take on the reform of Thai culture and elite couldn't-care-less-ness concerning  road safety as a project.

[BobbyL]

Sad, but the daily cull here will never stop. 

 

A week or so back Prawit and his numpties were saying how they were going to improve road safety (I think drop the numbers by half was their ridiculous plan).

 

I would love to know what strategies they have in place to reduce the death toll by even 5 - 10%. 

[ChipButty]

3 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

Sad, but the daily cull here will never stop. 

 

A week or so back Prawit and his numpties were saying how they were going to improve road safety (I think drop the numbers by half was their ridiculous plan).

 

I would love to know what strategies they have in place to reduce the death toll by even 5 - 10%. 

Back in 2017 someone said he was going to reduce accident by 80%, How's it going?

[ChipButty]

Some years ago a friend of mine had a bump with one of these minivans that had just got back from doing a visa run the minivan didnt have any insurance and had just returned from Penang and full of Farang

[Number 6]

1 hour ago, Vacuum said:

This has nothing to do with the accidents. It's almost always the drivers fault.  Had they checked the brakes, tires, if the steering wheel was fastened properly, and not falling asleep, there wouldn't so much accidents. But these are Thai drivers and you can't expect too much. Maybe after 100 years or so, one can expect some kind of improvement.

Perhaps. But doubtful. That's why if the transport improved it would be a step in the right direction. Drivers...well wait for AI.

 

I'd like to think if they were in a proper vehicle they would have at least stood half a chance. Certainly when one is catapulted from a vehicle the possibility of survival drops a wee bit. Better vehicles have better impact and crash standards. Never will happen.

[Vacuum]

3 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

Perhaps. But doubtful. That's why if the transport improved it would be a step in the right direction. Drivers...well wait for AI.

 

I'd like to think if they were in a proper vehicle they would have at least stood half a chance. Certainly when one is catapulted from a vehicle the possibility of survival drops a wee bit. Better vehicles have better impact and crash standards. Never will happen.

Are you talking about seat belts? If so, nobody will weare them, at least not the locals.