Lucky to be alive tonight

[Black arab]

In the pick up this am 11:30am travelling north from phu khiao to chum pae, with my wife step daughter a friend on holiday and his wife. All good on a dual carriageway ,then in a split second a car is coming across the central resavation and heading straight for us. I swerved to the left and as i did a pelting shower of stones and dirt hit us. I pull over to the hard shoulder  check all are ok, then look back, luckily for us he hit a lamp post just before entering our side of the carriageway he then rolled his car throwing him out.

I ran back to see him led by the passenger door of his pick up, alive but unconcious. Many people stopped to help and call rescue service so i returned to my car to survey the damage and call insurance co. My windscreen had cracks also drivers window and also hunderds of stone dents to bonnet off side panels. Once insurance agent was on his way i returned to scene of collision to be told he was drunk by the police rescue service and onlookers. I always drive to arrive here in thailand and have done so for 36 years of driving but their aint much you can do when the totally unexpected arrives in front of you.

Just my report on a scary incident,

Be safe out there.

[impulse]

Glad you're safe.

 

Yet another data point about 2 wheelers vs 4 wheelers.   Had you been on a scooter, chances are you wouldn't be around to post about your harrowing experience.

 

So much better to read a first person account of a close brush, than a 3rd person report of a fatality.

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by impulse

[faraday]

Glad you're ok, bet you must be a bit shook up.

 

Take it easy over the next few days, the accident may well replay again in your mind.

 

My sister was involved in a serious event in the UK a few weeks ago, fortunately she was ok, but the shock lasted many days.

[JAS21]

Did you catch it on your car cam ... that would be worth a look ....

[KhunBENQ]

And always more touching if it happened on a road that one drives occasionally (like me).

Good luck to you!

 

[rambling]

Wow, lucky, and good reflexes swerving.

[NanLaew]

On 2/8/2020 at 9:17 PM, JAS21 said:

Did you catch it on your car cam ... that would be worth a look ....

What's a car cam?... I hear the OP ask as he googles away. I hope he or his traveling companions made a note of the rego number of the other car. This purely for cultural awareness training of course.

 

This exact scenario is the one that scares me most when on a long haul drive. The amount of YouTube videos that show these or similar types of accidents in Thailand probably indicates the high risk of such an event.

 

I recall maybe some time last year that there was talk of erecting thousands more kilometers of Armco barriers between the opposite lanes on major highways rather than just at bends or either side of intersections and u-turns. Probably not included in any budgets but if anyone is using any relatively new or upgraded dual-carriageway, maybe take a note if there's any increase in the extents of these barriers?

[canthai55]

Glad you made it out of that one.

That being said, I have been riding bikes for over 50 years. If I wrote about every near death experience during that time I would be glued to the keyboard.

Happens daily.

No Offense meant or intended re: your experience

[Crossy]

Yeah, I'll echo the above, I'm glad you and yours are ok with only a damaged vehicle to show for it.

 

If you don't already have one get a dashcam, there are insurance discounts for those with one fitted too. Both our vehicles have them.

 

Crossover accidents are my second biggest fear when driving here (first is having some youngster fall off a bike in front of me and me having nowhere to go).

 

The instinct to pull left isn't always the best course of action, heading for where the impinging vehicle came from is often cited as a good choice (he's likely not going back there). 

 

If you watch some of the (many) dashcam videos on YouTube the natural swerve direction often makes a collision inevitable whereas holding your line (anchors on hard) or going the other way would just have resulted in soiled underwear.

 

But one has almost zero thinking time.

[canthai55]

http://warp.povusers.org/grrr/collisionmath.html

[tlandtday]

You can be the world's greatest driver here but it only takes one drunk or idiot to derail your plans.  The only rule here is there are no rules.  Be safe.

[Golden Triangle]

Glad you are able to tell us about it, very happy that your family & friends are all okay.