Old Story About Hua Lampong

[canuckamuck]

The other thread about a train incident reminds of a story I once heard regarding the Hua Lampong station in Bangkok.

Apparently several years ago, a train became a runaway, and was began speeding towards the station. Instead of evacuating the station, I understand that the Thai authorities attempted at various intersections to derail the train by ramming it with stuff. Only when all their attempts failed, did they get on the loud speaker at Hua Lampong to tell people to leave the building. Loud speaker acoustics being what they are, very few people heeded the warning. The resulting crash caused many injuries.

Now, I have no idea whether this is true or if it is an urban legend. Does anyone out there recall this event? I would love to have some more details if it’s genuine.

[Payboy]

i would have asked the driver, but it seems he has fled the scene

[Deke]

True story. It seems like it was about fifteen years ago plus or minus.

They were doing some maintenance on the engine at Bang Sue or someplace where one of the mechanics left a brick on the "accelerator" to rev up the engine while he worked on it. Somehow the thing got into gear and away it went with no driver on board.

Like you say, it didn't stop until it crashed through the barriers at Hua Lampong injuring several people.

[canuckamuck]

Thanks Deke for confirming the tale, I knew if it were true someone out there would have heard of it. I tried searching for it, but I came up empty. It kinda sounded like the plot of a movie, so I was begining to be a bit dubious.

Thai visa comes through again. This is quite a valuable resource.

[grandad]

My recollection is of a string of about five locos heading, driverless, into Hualampong.

The station was cleared before the crash except for three girls working at a bank kiosk.

They, of course, had been told to never ever leave the kiosk unmanned; and, sadly, they

all were killed.