Wrong-way 15-year-old driver killed by oncoming truck

 

SATTAHIP:--A junior-high student driving the wrong way on Sukhumvit Road died when he crashed head-on into a 10-wheeled truck.

Jirapat Phumisak, 15, died instantly when the Wuthipanya Rattanakul Co. Isuzu freight truck ran over his head after the ninth-grader’s Honda grazed the oncoming truck and crashed at the U-Turn in front of 700-rai Market Jan. 23.

 

Driver Somnuk Sommanat, 48, said he was bringing dirt to the 700-Rai Market. He said the boy was driving against traffic and lost control of the bike when he tried to avoid truck.

 

Read more: https://www.pattayamail.com/news/wrong-way-15-year-old-driver-killed-by-oncoming-truck-285574

-- PATTAYA MAIL 2020-01-28—

Lots of kids running around on some nice and expensive bikes. Not a helmet to be seen by any of them of course. Tragic that a kid on a 30-40-50K bike dies for lack of a 2000 Baht helmet, or the intelligence to know that head protection is critical when you are traveling at speed among other bigger vehicles. Even more so if you are running against the traffic the wrong way of course. I would call it the idiocy of youth, but it tends to carry on through all ages here.

1 hour ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Lots of kids running around on some nice and expensive bikes. Not a helmet to be seen by any of them of course. Tragic that a kid on a 30-40-50K bike dies for lack of a 2000 Baht helmet, or the intelligence to know that head protection is critical when you are traveling at speed among other bigger vehicles. Even more so if you are running against the traffic the wrong way of course. I would call it the idiocy of youth, but it tends to carry on through all ages here.

 

You figure a helmet's going to save someone when a truck runs over his head?

 

It carries on through all ages, and apparently it's contagious.  Because I can't count the number of westerners I've seen "going native" and enjoying the freedom that comes with lack of enforcement and consequences.  Speeding, going the wrong way, illegal turns, no helmet, shorts and flip flops.  Westerners who were taught better, and wouldn't dream of doing the same back home.

 

 

9 hours ago, impulse said:

You figure a helmet's going to save someone when a truck runs over his head?

{snipped}

A helmet saved my life when I was hit by another motorcyclist and knocked into the path of a pickup travelling in the same direction.

One side of my helmet had white scratch marks from the concrete road, the other side had black rubber marks from the tyre of the pickup.

The solution to their could not care attitude to safety and the rules starts in School or should do, but nobody cares enough to do anything about it.

9 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

A helmet saved my life when I was hit by another motorcyclist and knocked into the path of a pickup travelling in the same direction.

One side of my helmet had white scratch marks from the concrete road, the other side had black rubber marks from the tyre of the pickup.

 

I'm happy for you and your loved ones. 

 

But that anecdote doesn't change the fact that you're 20-40 times per km as likely to die on a scooter than safely ensconced in a 4 wheeled vehicle with doors and seatbelts.  There's a small window between the scooter wreck you'll walk away from even with no helmet, and the one that's going to kill you regardless of any helmet.  

 

I'd say that, in the same situation, you'd have just had a scratch in your door had you been in a car or truck.

 

41 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

I feel sorry only for the traumatized driver, not the stupid kid on the bike. His kind will never learn and sadly reflect the Thai attitude to driving.

Perhaps a bit of sympathy for the kid's parents too? 

8 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Perhaps a bit of sympathy for the kid's parents too? 

What, the same ones that waved him off with no licence, no insurance, no helmet and no concern ? Bet your life they are working on a replacement now

3 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

What, the same ones that waved him off with no licence, no insurance, no helmet and no concern ? Bet your life they are working on a replacement now

You know how it goes, no sense of responsibility or consequences of their actions, they will be mourning now but unrepentant. 

22 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Perhaps a bit of sympathy for the kid's parents too? 

Those parents who taught their kid to drive against traffic?

3 minutes ago, Youlike said:

Those parents who taught their kid to drive against traffic?

They taught him nothing I expect.

I don't think it was the driving the wrong way that killed him, more the lack of driving skills and being able to avoid a massive truck coming the other way..

Probably would have happened to him at some point driving the correct way on a single lane road, with a truck coming the other way !!

Sometimes I drive the wrong way down the hard shoulder but I tend to avoid any vehicles coming toward me...

12 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Tragic that a kid on a 30-40-50K bike dies for lack of a 2000 Baht helmet,

 

11 hours ago, impulse said:

 

You figure a helmet's going to save someone when a truck runs over his head?

 

My thoughts exactly.

28 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Sometimes I drive the wrong way down the hard shoulder but I tend to avoid any vehicles coming toward me...

Then you are just as bad, in fact worse because you know better.

12 hours ago, Rimmer said:

Wrong-way 15-year-old driver killed by oncoming truck

R.I.P. boy!
Probably without a license, in this case the parents are to be considered completely responsible!
The old truck probably had problems with the brakes and the driver perhaps on drugs!
When the police begin to pay some attention to all those (they are many) who are going in the wrong direction, not just mopeds!

9 minutes ago, 30la said:

R.I.P. boy!
Probably without a license,.......

Probably!  He was 15, he COULDN'T have a licence.

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Perhaps a bit of sympathy for the kid's parents too? 

For allowing their 15 year old son to ride a motorbike without a helmet on Sukhumvit?

So all the police bandit stops on Sukhumvit have been in vain?  (Apart from the millions collected in 'fines'!)

13 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Tragic that a kid on a 30-40-50K bike dies for lack of a 2000 Baht helmet,

 

Even a 30,000 baht helmet like the one a Norwegian friend has will not help against the wheel of a 26-ton truck. ( 10 wheels = 26 tons or more; we are in thailand )

What is unfortunate is the total lack of intelligence of a kid who obviously does not have a driving license (15 years) as well as from his parents who let him "drive" such a machine.

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

The solution to their could not care attitude to safety and the rules starts in School or should do, but nobody cares enough to do anything about it.

 

Exactly. The driver of the bike doesn't care, his parents don't care (no discipline taught and enforced), schools don't care (no discipline taught and enforced), police don't care (no law enforced). And so these things go on and on and on and on. They don't care so I don't care. Their country, their life. Just glad that this kid who sees nothing wrong in driving on the wrong side of the road killed himself before he killed others. The lack of responsibility and discipline is an epidemic in this country. Oh, and it kills more each day, more each hour, than any virus they are so concerned about.

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Then you are just as bad, in fact worse because you know better.

 

That's why I don't live in the U.K anymore... I like freedom to chose my own destiny

 

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

They taught him nothing I expect.

they ALL get TAUGHT NOTHING, KOZ THEIR PARENTS know nothing.....kids follow in their parents footsteps from a very young age...

How many times do we all see Mother/Father driving NO HELMETS....and the kid on the bike not wearing one too...so later in life when the kid/kids get a bike (probably NO LICENCE/INSURANCE)  they JUST do what they did when on bikes with their parents !!!

Road safety EDUCATION is what is needed but here it is never ever taught...!!

13 hours ago, impulse said:

You figure a helmet's going to save someone when a truck runs over his head?

Yes, it often does in such circumstances.

 

You're obviously completely clueless about it.

48 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

That's why I don't live in the U.K anymore... I like freedom to chose my own destiny

 

Do you mean freedom to  drive like an idiot?

1 hour ago, DefaultName said:

He was 15, he COULDN'T have a licence.

Another clueless poster.

 

Motorbike license minimum age is 15 in Thailand. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Assurancetourix said:

who obviously does not have a driving license (15 years)

Another clueless poster.

 

Motorbike license minimum age is 15 in Thailand. 

 

4 minutes ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Another clueless poster.

Motorbike license minimum age is 15 in Thailand.

Yes, 15 years for a motorcycle not exceeding 110cc.

A motorcycle over 110cc is 18 years.

11 minutes ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Another clueless poster.

 

Motorbike license minimum age is 15 in Thailand. 

That won't change the reality that he didn't have one or that he was riding against traffic with no lights, helmet or other protection taken for granted elsewhere ????

1 hour ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

That's why I don't live in the U.K anymore... I like freedom to chose my own destiny

 

What about the others killed by your stupidity just a moronic idiot like those born here. 

13 minutes ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Another clueless poster.

 

Motorbike license minimum age is 15 in Thailand. 

That still won't change the reality that he didn't have one or that he was riding against traffic with no lights, helmet or other protection taken for granted elsewhere ????