Unreliable GPS and faulty brakes blamed after scores injured in bus crash in Nan

[Assurancetourix]

2 minutes ago, villagefarang said:

The bus driver had probably never been in that area before  

Yes , No , Maybe ..
But road maps exist;
ah yes, i forgot, thai people can't read a road map;
even though my wife quickly learned .. How, when you want, you can

[Golden Triangle]

5 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

Let's say brain failure ..
When you are a smart bus (or truck) driver, you don't need the brake pedal on a descent, even if it is long ...
Even if you have an automatic gearbox because it can still be used manually.
The driver still needs to know how the mechanics he has under his ass  work.

and then how did we do when the GPS did not exist?
We were staying at home?

This is surely what this imbecile driver should have done.

 

I wrote it in another article on this forum;
in the 1970s and 1980s, Italian trucks known as millipedes all ran over 100 tonnes with engines rarely exceeding 250 horsepower;
they climbed the mountain passes first small  and descended in the same way;

gearboxes with mechanical or electrical relays something that seems unknown to me in Thailand like the Telma electromagnetic retarder

always first small and retarder on the exhaust; you never saw their brake lights come on ... because they weren't using their brakes.

 

Driving a coach at the beginning of the 70' I had already that technology on my coach ;

a Chausson 110 horse power ..

Not this one but the same with which I made the Rennes - Fougeres line in France

 

from this site :

https://www.lineoz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17532&start=350

 

 

https://www.army-technology.com/contractors/armoured/ateco-equipment/pressreleases/telma-retarders/

Yep back in the 80's I was driving coaches through Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Yugoslavia etc, we had TELMA electromagnetic retarder, never needed the brakes on any hairy downhill rides ???? 

[villagefarang]

5 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

Yes , No , Maybe ..
But road maps exist;
ah yes, i forgot, thai people can't read a road map;
even though my wife quickly learned .. How, when you want, you can

If he didn’t have a map it wouldn’t matter if he was able to read one or not and paper maps are not usually very up-to-date.

[Assurancetourix]

25 minutes ago, villagefarang said:

If he didn’t have a map it wouldn’t matter if he was able to read one or not and paper maps are not usually very up-to-date.

It is of course correct;

but when you are a conscientious professional driver you do not leave without cookies ..
A GPS is good when you already know the region which, to read the article, was not the case for this driver.
So one more paper card, even if it is incomplete, which is the case with all paper cards in Thailand;

it is also a shame to present maps supposedly at 1 / 200,000 * on which the small roads are very often absent and always without numbers.
In fact, apart from the main axes which are more or less well drawn, there is nothing on the paper maps of Thailand.
Without forgetting the folk numbering which does not correspond to what one reads on the terminals and the villages which are not in their place .. that obviously does not help;
one example among thousands:

look for Ban Rak Thai in Mae Hong Son province on a Thai map.
On my PN Maps "North of Thailand", this well-known village simply does not exist.
on my PN Maps "Chiang Mai" so better scale, reverse village with ban Na Pa Paek ..

The big problem with GPS is that it will indicate barely passable roads as roads with a 4x4 pickup;
a coach on this kind of track ...oups !

[ujayujay]

Correction: Unreliable Driver blames GPS and Brakes.

[ubon farang]

Ok we are back on the brake failures for accidents. Microsleep got a run for a while and now its back to brake failure. Nothing like a bit of variety is there? How about bus drivers who dont know how to drive a bus? Would that have something to do with it? Love to see the tests these drivers have to do to get their bus license? Or better still do they do a test at all?

[Assurancetourix]

Even on an incomplete map like mine where the towns and villages are sometimes not quite where they should be we still have an idea of a route.
On my PN Maps, I have circled in red the two cities (villages rather because they are small).
Ban Luang is on the road to Phayao; I went there mountain biking about ten years ago.
Even with a large 12 meter long coach you can very easily turn around in the center of Ban Luang to return to Nan and take the right road to go to Pua, the road to go to Bo Kluea, the salt village where I also went mountain biking; damn, the percentages!

 

[Chazar]

1 hour ago, villagefarang said:

Up here in the north of Thailand you would be surprised how often the GPS lady sends you down the shortest route with no real awareness of the kind of vehicle you’re driving or the conditions of that road. In a car you can easily rectify the situation but in a bus that size you would have a real problem getting yourself out of trouble, being on a narrow road that you didn’t expect to be on. The bus driver had probably never been in that area before  

women  drivers, change the  voice to a mans,  bound to go  the right  way then....problem solved

[Classic Ray]

I just googled Telma Thailand to see how widespread their Retarder use is here. There was only one mention, fitted to a quarry truck imported from China! 
 

Voith seem to have started fitting their retarders to some buses, but not common. So maybe the drivers are not being given the proper tools for the job, for the god of profit.

[Redline]

They don’t downshift.  The government doesn’t care how many die on the roads-the lack of enforcement is negligent 

[gk10002000]

good or bad GPS or auto route or Tom Tom, or Google map is irrelevant.  The driver was driving!

[mike787]

So unfortunate, a new update GPS and checked brakes could have avoided this.