School Bus Fire Claims Multiple Lives and Injures Young Students in Rangsit

[Confuscious]

RIP to the kids and teachers who perished locked-up in a hell of fire.

What can be said about this?
- Thailand IS AND WILL EVER BE A 3rd-WORLD COUNTRY.

- Every bus in Europe needs to have "windows smashers" on every row of seats and most of us know how to use them. Was this feature mounted on the bus and did the children/teacher how to use them?
- Who is to blame here?
  - The driver who knew that he was driving a modified vehicle to run in NGV and did a runner?
  - The school for allowing the bus company to drive the students/children in a bus that did lack of every security?
  - The Thai government who allow these buses to be on the road, knowing very well that they are death traps?
 

  - THE SMILING SERPENTS WHO HAVE THE GUTS TO PUT-UP A SHOW LIKE THIS IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN WHO WITHNESSED THEIR FRIENDS AND TEACHERS BURN TO ASHES ALIVE A FEW HOURS BEFORE?
 

If the parents of these children have balls, each of these serpents were now declared "Death or Alive".

 

[yang123]

4 hours ago, anchadian said:

(1/3) BREAKING: Just before the fatal bus carrying 44 students and teachers caught fire in Pathum Thani, it had sideswiped a black Mercedes-Benz that was traveling from Rangsit to Bangkok in the far right lane, shortly after noon on Tues.

 

(2/3) The insurance agent for the Mercedes revealed that the bus was moving from the middle lane and veered into their lane. It's believed this happened at the moment when one of the bus's tires exploded.

 

This caused the Mercedes to hit the center barrier and scrape along it for abt 100 meters. The Mercedes driver quickly braked. The driver quickly exited the vehicle. Meanwhile, the bus continued for about 400-500 meters before catching fire.

 

https://x.com/KhaosodEnglish/status/1841070198130163982

 

 

Dash-cam?

[richard_smith237]

35 minutes ago, lordgrinz said:

So do mine, but I got into a heated argument with my daughters teacher, who believes the children don't need to wear seatbelts. In fact, the last trip was by minibus, where the driver had zip-tied the seatbelts out of the way, and my daughter confronted him on it, the teacher said it was "OK, not needed". My daughter was scared to confront the teacher after the teacher didn't stand up for her, and knew my rule that she isn't allowed to go in any vehicle unless she wears one, the teacher kept her on the minibus. I went down one side of the teacher and down the other, I wanted her fired! I told my daughter under no circumstances will she be allowed to ride in any vehicle at school without a seatbelt being used, if they don't have them, or are deliberately sabotaged, she is to get off the bus. I will gladly come pick her up, but there is no way she is not wearing one. My anger over the lack of safety in this country is my major issue with Thailand, and I am sick of the people who allow it to happen, and with blatant ignorance, continue to defend it. 

 

Awesome - giving your child the empowerment to follow your (and her) safety standards is fantastic....

 

Many parents will just say 'play along' you can't change the culture etc, but I have a firm respect for every parent whatever their nationality who teaches their children to stand up for their very own basic safety standards.

 

 

 

I just wish adults here acted with the same empowerment - that would already start to make headway into improving safety standards... if the drivers were 'able' to question the safety of their vehicle without risk of being fired etc... or if they were able to drive a maximum limit of hours etc without loss of money etc...   (no - thats not racist Kwilco)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DavisH]

5 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Pol. Lt. Gen. Prachuap urged bus operators to ensure their vehicles meet the necessary safety standards before offering services to the public to prevent further tragedies in the future.

Urging doesn't work! How about massive fines and/or deregistering  these shoddy bus companies with their poorly maintained and illegally/poorly modified buses. There should be random checks on ALL buses and fines dished out. But no, the government won't do anything substantial in regards to this. Poor law enforcement is pervasive here. 

[Spamhead]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Yep...   that happens with my kids too...   I had concerns that this meant they 'blasted through' everywhere... but one of the parents (neurotic) also followed and reported back to the 'mums' that the drivers were safe.

 

On my Son's first field trip (he was 3 or 4) I questioned the use of child safety seats in the busses - and received a very disappointing response (International School).

 

 

I hate to disappoint you but this is not always the case. I witnessed one such incident just this afternoon on Srinakarin Road with four coaches speeding down the outside lane following a police motorbike.  Not even a bus length between them. A tyre blow-out or emergency stop by one and the following buses would be unable to avoid an accident. 

 

I 

[sherlockh]

My heart goes out to the families of those lost in this dreadful incident. If it is true that the door(s) failed to open this needs looking into on ALL public transport.

[Confuscious]

[James9999]

1 hour ago, tandor said:

.IMO the cause is not engine failure or a gas leak but the seizing up of the front left wheel bearing causing the bus to come to a grinding halt, smoke billowing then fire erupting..have a closer look at the CCTV footage.

If it came to a grinding halt why was it also reported that it continued for another half a kilometre? Something very wrong with that left near side wheel though. May be taking 400 to 500 metres to stop has been reported incorrectly. As for people who video a tragedy unfolding but bravely carry on videoing, what can you say.

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Only a fool is incapable of looking around and making clear and factual observations. 

 

Only an idiot thinks those observations hold no validity whatsoever in establishing patterns, even if anecdotal. 

 

And... only a ridiculous apologist thinks any of this equates to racism or bigotry...   

 

You, Kwilco, try so extremely hard to shoe horn accusations of bigotry and racism into these discussions because you are unable to explain the patterns any other way - the observations of these patterns are not racism, they are not bigotry - they are simply identification of a systemic weakness and those weaknesses exist in many countries.

 

These weaknesses exist in countries with white people too... they exist in the UK. different issues to a difference extent - yet patterns and weaknesses can also be identified through observation - and that is why you are wrong when you attempt to kneecap commonsense discussion with flawed accusations of racism and bigotry - in this example, trying to drop the 'woke bomb' fails when the issue is human nature. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are using this tragedy to reinforce your own "master race" sense of superiority.

Like others on this thread you are looking around to blame some Thai person so you don't actually have to think about what actually happened and why.

 

Why is it that people who cling to racist philosophies so tightly spend so much time claiming they aren't racist?

 

[ericbj]

It seems that burning gas must have been able to enter freely the cab of the bus.  Which from the photos does not appear to be badly crumpled by its impact with the barrier.  

 

I am guessing that reducing the potential for similar accidents in the future requires giving attention to this problem: ensuring there is as little chance as possible that gas escaping from a severed pipe can enter the cab.

[kwilco]

It is very disturbing that the amateur crash reporters are so fixated upon try to find blame in the collision that may have started this tragedy. the REAL question is why, after a relatively minor collision did it escalate into a major disaster.

What needs to be looked at is the whole situation with regards to coaches and safety.

 

Collisions WILL happen it is what we do to mitigate the ramifications that is most important.

[jaizan]

9 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Busses should not burn that quickly trapping so many inside. If this bus is one of those fitted with a cheap gas conversion somebody has blood on their hands.

Agreed.   The bus has next to no visible impact damage.  Yet it's caught fire.

 

Passenger cars are subject to various crash test that leave the cars heavily deformed after crashing into solid barriers at 30mph.  They still must not catch fire after such tests.  
I presume the same kind of principles apply to the engineering of buses in developed countries.

I note it's a Mercedes Benz bus.  I suspect it would be some kind of aftermarket conversion to catch fire like this.  

Edited 36 minutes ago by jaizan

[kwilco]

27 minutes ago, jaizan said:

Agreed.   The bus has next to no visible impact damage.  Yet it's caught fire.

 

Passenger cars are subject to various crash test that leave the cars heavily deformed after crashing into solid barriers at 30mph.  They still must not catch fire after such tests.  
I presume the same kind of principles apply to the engineering of buses in developed countries.

I note it's a Mercedes Benz bus.  I suspect it would be some kind of aftermarket conversion to catch fire like this.  

 

27 minutes ago, jaizan said:

note it's a Mercedes Benz bus. 

Most of these buses are built on second-hand (imported) chassis - the bodywork was probably done in Thailand - even without the gas it's very likely the interior was not in proper fire retardant gadding - it's an automotive Grenfell.

[kwilco]

1 minute ago, kwilco said:

The bus has next to no visible impact damage

THe impact may be on the off side against the barrier and not visible in the photos.