Phuket Death Trap Status Returns With a Bullet

[Adumbration]

In the wake of Covid my road trips down to Phuket were....pleasant....

 

No mini vans, no Chinese or Russian tour buses, and Thai driving at a reasonable clip.

 

Took the GF down to Phuket last night for a birthday dinner.

 

Departed my village about 4.30pm and arrived in Phuket Town about 6.30pm.

 

Mini vans heading south into Phuket were thick on the ground...and all of them driving flat out and dangerously, weaving in and out of the traffic, driving on the foot path to get ahead a few spots in the traffic jams and cutting people off.

 

Traffic jams at Sarasin, Thalang, Ko Kaew, and top of bypass road caused by tour buses.

 

Thai drivers back to speeding and selfish me me me road manners.

 

I was in Phuket for under 6 hours and I witnessed 3 seperate road accidents right in front of me (and almost one pedestrian fatality).

 

1. Cops pulled over pickup truck loaded with about 30 burmese workers in the back at the checkpoint at Sarasin.  As the truck pulled off to the side a young girl in her twenties lept out of the back and fled accross both lanes of inbound traffic I had to swerve around her (I was on a bike) and the car behind me had to lock up the brakes and she just fended his bonnet off with her hand as she kept running.

 

2. Honda wave with husband and wife in their 60's had a woman in her 80's sandwiched in between riding 3 up.  Quiet short cut back road into Samkong past the university.  Traffic still flowing too fast.  New white pick up truck ahead of me had to hit the brakes because a motobike pulled out of a side street without looking, and the 3 up oldies right in front of me plowed full song straight into the tailgate of the truck.  It was all I could do to swing around the 80 year old so that I did not run her over as she sprawled on the tar mac.

 

3. German farang and his wife late fifties eating at our restaurant.  After meal outside in parking lot that adjoins Chaofa road, wheels his rental bike out backwards onto the road while talking to his wife.  Did not look and wheeled it backwards and straight out into path of oncoming car that clipped him and sent him sprawling on the ground in front of his wife.

 

4. On the ride home around 11pm, grab food delivery guy on motorbike t-boned by speeding pickup truck, didn't actually witness the crash but people were just milling around to provide assistance and pick the guys bike up off the road as we passed.  Guy was in a bad way.

 

Thais are dreadful drivers.  But in Phuket they have had no practice for the last 2 years because of Covid.  They are also back in selfish road manner mode due to the smell of high season money.

 

Be careful out there.

 

P.S.  As an afterthought on minvan drivers I should also mention that when I pulled up at the PT gas station at Thalang so the the GF could use the toilet a minivan driver pulled up next to me where I was sitting on my bike.  He was a twenty something weedy tattoed guy and he was twitching very noticeably...to the extent that he saw me watching him and tried to stop and when he couldn't walked around behind his van so I could not see him.  Drug usage increased dramatically during Covid lockdowns.  These newly minted addicts are now back out in the workforce.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Adumbration