More trouble for Samui ferry: loading bridge collapse nearly sends truck into the sea

 

Picture: Manager Online

 

A vehicle loading bridge of the Raja Ferry on Koh Samui collapsed yesterday morning.

 

The incident nearly sent a heavily loaded truck carrying coconut husks into the sea. 

 

The truck ended up wedged in position. 

 

Picture: Manager Online

 

The R9 ferry was due to leave at 9.00 am bound for Donsak on the mainland. 

 

The incident follows the sinking of a Raja ferry at the weekend that resulted in loss of life, notes Thaivisa.

 

Source: Manager Online

 

 

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To heavy, no maintenance, etc., etc.

If you fail to maintain equipment to the highest standards $hit happens ☹️☹️☹️

Of all the awful things carried by trucks on ferries, coconut husks must be one of the most benign. They would just float away and do no harm. Glad it wasn't, say, gasoline. 

Not a Chinese driver thankfully

There must be a minister by now for all things falling down and sinking what has he got to say ????

thank god thailand does not have nuclear power plants, well yes, 1 university test reactor

3 hours ago, crazykopite said:

If you fail to maintain equipment to the highest standards $hit happens ☹️☹️☹️

Safe Trusted Thailand.. not working out to well

1 hour ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

thank god thailand does not have nuclear power plants

and the thing is, and this scares me, is that even though they know that an accident would level a city, and cause the deaths of thousands of people, the Thai contractors and government ministers would STILL be involved in graft!

 

It really does frighten me the lengths they will go, to get free money. ????

10 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

There must be a minister by now for all things falling down and sinking what has he got to say ????

A committee is being set up to look into it as we speak..........

3 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

There must be a minister by now for all things falling down and sinking what has he got to say ????

I stopped using these ferries 20+ years ago and used the plane instead. The last Raja ferry I used was built in the German Democratic Republic (which seized to exist in 1989), then the vessel must have gotten sold to China by the various Chinese lettering all over the boat. Solid coats (plural) of oil paint could not cover the embossed/engraved German and Chinese letters. 

God only knows the history of that fleet and it would not surprise me, if the ferry which sunk as well as this particular ferry had an equally interesting history. 

But yes, money talks and if you are in a vintage ferry which had been shuffled all over the planet, then (preventive) maintenance becomes all the more important. For the latter you can look at most cars older than 5+ years - go figure! 

I’m glad they are taking this downtime to get their house in order-what a mess

Every time I used Raja I was amazed that the piers had not collapsed due to the amount of rust on the steel supports.

I always took my own inflatable buoyancy aid in case the ferry sank.

 

Seemed to me that if the boats were so decrepit that the Chinese didn't want them, how come they could legally be used in LOS ( no need to answer that- we all know )?

9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

 

Seemed to me that if the boats were so decrepit that the Chinese didn't want them, how come they could legally be used in LOS ( no need to answer that- we all know )?

From what I can see from the markings and original safety signs on the boats, it looks like they were once used in Korea or Japan, not China.

On 8/6/2020 at 6:10 PM, RickG16 said:

From what I can see from the markings and original safety signs on the boats, it looks like they were once used in Korea or Japan, not China.

Could be Japanese, but the characters didn't look Korean to me. They are quite different to Chinese or Japanese. Perhaps Taiwan, rather than PRC.

It's been a long time, so memory may be wrong.

Collapsing bridge, Sinking Ferry, how can this happen  to a high class tourist destination....

8 hours ago, actonion said:

Collapsing bridge, Sinking Ferry, how can this happen  to a high class tourist destination....

It's not about the destination, it is one company. 

On 8/15/2020 at 9:31 PM, RickG16 said:

It's not about the destination, it is one company. 

It's not the company it's the mind set that allows such a company to operate, and that affects the destination.

Pah, it'll  all be fixed ( again)  until the next death/incident when those  lucky safe tourists arrive at the Blue  Moon

On 8/5/2020 at 3:36 PM, Peterphuket said:

To heavy, no maintenance, etc., etc.

YEP!  Just another day.

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's not the company it's the mind set that allows such a company to operate, and that affects the destination.

That as well... but completely writing off Samui as a destination because of Raja's shortcomings is a bit wide of the mark. 

16 hours ago, RickG16 said:

That as well... but completely writing off Samui as a destination because of Raja's shortcomings is a bit wide of the mark. 

Did anyone do that? Assuming Songserm is still in existence there are at least two alternatives to get there, and three if the catamaran is still going. Run by a company out of Khao San Rd, but I forget the name. It left from Chumphon.