Picture: Siam Rath

 

A U-turn in Muang district of Prachuap Khiri Khan on the way to southern Thailand has been dubbed "The U-Turn of Death".

 

Road safety expert at the highways department Suphot Sermsap has been working on ways to improve the Ban Bung area where there are 15-16 accidents annually causing lots of death and injury.

 

Two children were thrown out of a pick-up and killed at the U-turn in February last year.

 

Now there are nearly 30 million baht plans for a new one 400 meters from the old one.

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

The problem with the old one is that it is by an intersection and what with being on a fast, straight stretch accidents occur frequently.

 

Just sealing it off is not an option as the area is densely populated and people need a uey. 

 

Meetings have taken place with traffic police and other authorities as Suphot's plan for improvements take shape.

 

An artist's impression of the new plan was published by Siam Rath. 

 

 

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The single biggest problem is where U-turns for both directions are combined, neither side can see safely passed the other side also queuing to turn.......that and the drivers are Thai.

Doesn´t matter if they double that sum. If have no real driver education and responsible and caring drivers nothing will ever change.

In the UK there exist roundabouts on high speed highways. The only reason they still have so many U-turns as default is one of cost. Cost would include condescending to actually design the bllody things correctly using over 100 tears of experience in other countries. And to educate as to how to use them. 

'U' turns and 'Road Safety Experts' seems like an oxymoron. Until the experts can see all U turns are dangerous there is no hope.

 

Why cannot Thais grasp the idea of roundabouts? We even have one in our housing area and they drive in the wrong direction around them?

29 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

The single biggest problem is where U-turns for both directions are combined, neither side can see safely passed the other side also queuing to turn.......that and the drivers are Thai.

Unfortunately when they make it one way, there is always some moron who insists on coming the wrong way saving a few metres, cant fix stupid.

1 minute ago, sungod said:

Unfortunately when they make it one way, there is always some moron who insists on coming the wrong way saving a few metres, cant fix stupid.

...that and cars, even lorries, doubling up by jumping to the front of the queue.....frightening.

nearly a million dollars to put down some orange cones ?

All U-Turns in Thailand are "U-Turns Of Death."

If the picture in the OP is the future of this then it's IMHO a good plan. BUUUUUUUUUUTTT the drivers are not going to use it the way it's intended

 

This is they way how they see it will be used

 

 

but this is way how it will be used

 

 

 

Or just put in traffic lights, ooh wait traffic lights and speeding lorries.

 

Just yesterday coming back from the City, waiting at the traffic light, light for us turned to green, and it was already 2-3 seconds green for us and when looking left I saw a truck at full speed went through the red lights without a hint of slowing down. Fortunately the Motor Bike drivers that were in front of us saw it also, else they would have been another SAD statistic of how unsafe Thai Roads are.

27 minutes ago, MJCM said:

If the picture in the OP is the future of this then it's IMHO a good plan.

Sorry but it is never a good plan to have traffic allowed to drive perpendicularly across an open highway in front of oncoming traffice no matter what the exit route.

8 minutes ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Sorry but it is never a good plan to have traffic allowed to drive perpendicularly across an open highway in front of oncoming traffice no matter what the exit route.

Yes I agree, but in Thailand that is they way they do it. Law of the Land as they call it!

 

I have never seen a U-turn (that I can recall) on Europe roads.

I wonder how long it will be before the market stalls occupy that bit of empty road.

9 minutes ago, NE1 said:

I wonder how long it will be before the market stalls occupy that bit of empty road.

5555555555

 

Spot on as it will be not used for completing the u-turn anyway

2 hours ago, connda said:

All U-Turns in Thailand are "U-Turns Of Death."

There's another one at the University in Ubon. I was thinking it was that one until  I opened the story

 

These deadly U-turns are everywhere. Would it really hurt their pocket that much if they just put more traffic lights in?

Hopefully this issue gets resolved.  But it’s not only the issue of the roadway.  It’s a combination of roadway and actions of drivers 

Elevate the U-Turn as on the freeways. 

8 hours ago, webfact said:

The problem with the old one is that it is by an intersection and what with being on a fast, straight stretch accidents occur frequently.

How about putting down a few speed bumps for 100,000 baht instead of spending 30 million. Well, we know why. don't we...........

9 hours ago, webfact said:

and people need a uey.

Veres there's a vill there's a vey

8 hours ago, MJCM said:

Yes I agree, but in Thailand that is they way they do it. Law of the Land as they call it!

 

I have never seen a U-turn (that I can recall) on Europe roads.

The U turn is a complete waste of money. On the route 1/32 north of Ayutthaya the U turns have been blocked of and overpasses have replaced them. All of them are well signposted and 2 lanes wide and so much safer.

 

The only drawback is that pedestrians still walk/run across 2 frontage lanes, 4 lanes of highspeed traffic just to get to the middle of the road. They then do the same on the other side of the road.

 

Just to avoid walking 100 metres to a pedestrian bridge and cross safely. The bridge even has a roof to keep the rain off.

 

The traffic on the main highway is travelling between 100 to 150 kph.

There is already one of these u turns on the South side of Pak Tho , but as somebody posted , ladened trucks from a stand still take a while to get across , considering the speed cars are going on the Dual Carriageway. And as we know , trucks are not shy on pulling out.

Double trouble in the blind.

21 hours ago, Will B Good said:

The single biggest problem is where U-turns for both directions are combined,

Are drivers.