Inferno bus in use for 54 years

[saintdomingo]

I think many AN accident investigators are keen to hear as many professional, qualified comments as possible.

[mran66]

Clearly the body of the bus is not that old. Chassis maybe but even that a bit doubtful. 

 

Either way, the age of it unlikely to be reason for the incident, rather maintenance (tires, door locks, gas system, fire extinguisher system etc). 

[SantiSuk]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Unless you count the problems due to low GDP per capita, crap wages, and not enough money to adopt nanny state standards...

 

 

 

I doubt that many would support your derogatary remarks about standards and regulation being applied by public authorities to public transport, particularly as regards the carriage of our kids. 

[AndreasHG]

7 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

This is pure greed from the bus company owner. Most Thai businesses keep all the profit instead of reinvesting in improvements.

 

B.S.: Thai companies compete ferociously for business (unless they operate in "protected" businesses, like the liquor and alcoholic beverages industry). And competition keeps the prices low, so low that these companies often cannot afford to renew their obsolete equipment.

 

Thai authorities are the ones who shall ensure that all vehicles circulating on Thai roads are safe, starting from the biggest and most dangerous ones: busses and trucks.

 

Allowing 50 yo busses and trucks on the road, keep prices of transport low, at the expenses of safety.

 

Greed and profit have nothing to do with this accident. Dereliction of duty and corruption have a much bigger role.

 

[impulse]

1 hour ago, SantiSuk said:

I doubt that many would support your derogatary remarks about standards and regulation being applied by public authorities to public transport, particularly as regards the carriage of our kids. 

 

I was responding to a claim that "Every problem in Thailand always comes down to laziness and greed." 

 

Injecting a little dose of economic realty that low wages and lack of funds make even the most genuine of efforts difficult at best.  It's not all laziness and greed.  That claim is the derogatory one.  Coming from nanny state refugees...  Who want "back home" safety at Thai competitive prices.  You can have one, or you can have the other.  Not both.

 

[Grumpy one]

It's not uncommon to rebody old vehicles.

I worked at a private bus company in Aus, we had several buses with 2 year old bodies.

The chassis and mechanicals were first built in 1950.

Mind you they did get repaired when needed, unlike here

[ignis]

29 minutes ago, Grumpy one said:

It's not uncommon to rebody old vehicles.

I worked at a private bus company in Aus, we had several buses with 2 year old bodies.

The chassis and mechanicals were first built in 1950.

Mind you they did get repaired when needed, unlike here

 

Also in UK was common to have new bodies on older Coaches, we also have  a new body single body coach that used to be a double decker..  main give away was the crash box, but as I learnt to drive buses with crash boxes so was in heaven 

 

Main problem on a Diesel is the turbo, which can explode   > also a disadvantage of the rear engine buses as you cannot hear, [must keep a eye on the turbo booster gauge] 

[RandolphGB]

20 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Unless you count the problems due to low GDP per capita, crap wages, and not enough money to adopt nanny state standards...

 

 

 

 

Let's ignore racial inferiority. 

[RandolphGB]

17 hours ago, AndreasHG said:

 

Greed and profit have nothing to do with this accident. 

 

 

Corruption is driven by greed and laziness. 

 

 

[lordgrinz]

Just now, RandolphGB said:

Corruption is driven by greed and laziness. 

 

Hallmarks of the Thai culture.

[Lorry]

4 minutes ago, lordgrinz said:

 

Hallmarks of the Thai culture.

As opposed to which country's culture?

[lordgrinz]

1 minute ago, Lorry said:

As opposed to which country's culture?

 

Here it is embraced by the Thai people, stop fooling yourself.

[gk10012001]

Looks like that bus has one piece solid windows so no way to open them or push them out as many busses do.  A death trap waiting to happen.... and it did. 

[Ralf001]

That bus woulda looked very futuristic back in the 70'S !

[jaiyenyen]

On 10/2/2024 at 10:46 AM, impulse said:

 

I've seen some of the shops where they take a 50+ year old chassis and add a plywood shell with tinfoil skin to make it look newer.  I'm appalled at how flimsy the bodies are built.

You can put lipstick on a pig..........But it's still a pig.

[Captain Monday]

There is no way that is a bus from 1970.

[chiang mai]

11 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

There is no way that is a bus from 1970.

The chassis and drive train will be but the coach work will have been replaced a couple of times in that period. Truck and coach companies sell the chassis/drive train and the after market constructs different bodies.

[Lacessit]

On 10/2/2024 at 2:02 PM, PJPom said:

I think the one aspect people are overlooking is the source of the fire, the LNG tanks. If fitted correctly they are only as dangerous as a tank of petrol but if they are installed by unskilled persons their potential for leaking in an accident is probable. I worked with LPG fitted cars and regular tank testing was mandatory, I wonder how long since the tanks were tested.

All the above is just my speculation however I will never have a car fitted with gas here, I like living.

I am wondering if the fuel source was LPG or CNG. There is a big difference in the storage pressures involved, 2500 psi vs 25,000 psi.

 

LPG tank testing is every ten years. With CNG, it is supposed to be every year.

[Captain Monday]

17 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

The chassis and drive train will be but the coach work will have been replaced a couple of times in that period. Truck and coach companies sell the chassis/drive train and the after market constructs different bodies.

Is this to save on registration fees or taxes?

 

[jayboy]

On 10/2/2024 at 2:02 PM, PJPom said:

I think the one aspect people are overlooking is the source of the fire, the LNG tanks. If fitted correctly they are only as dangerous as a tank of petrol but if they are installed by unskilled persons their potential for leaking in an accident is probable. I worked with LPG fitted cars and regular tank testing was mandatory, I wonder how long since the tanks were tested.

All the above is just my speculation however I will never have a car fitted with gas here, I like living.

 

Thank you.Your speculation seems to be absolutely on the money though I believe the canisters were compressed natural gas (CNG).The News Report and the subsequent comments unfortunately give no insight into the causes of this tragedy.

 

The BBC corespondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head, made some important points in his Twitter feed which can be summarized as follows:

 

The bus was essentially a bomb on wheels waiting to explode.All long distance buses in Thailand should be regarded as dangerously unsafe unless proven otherwise by credible inspections.In this case 11 gas canisters were distributed around the lower deck and not restricted to 3 canisters in the rear per the regulations.This explains the rapid and intensive fire.

 

Jonathan Head expresses the view that in many countries the Transport Minister would feel compelled to offer his resignation after this appalling tragedy in which incompetence and probably corruption resulted in the death of so many young lives.

 

So far Minister Suriya has not submitted his resignation

[Captain Monday]

1 hour ago, Captain Monday said:

There is no way that is a bus from 1970.

I spent part of the 70 and 80s on school buses 

from G1-6 the school was close I usually walked. If it was raining my mom would drop me off on her Mercedes 

Middle school I rode my bike

High school was farther but I got credit for riding my bike 6 miles (each way) and did not have to do PE

 

There was an outdoor smoking area for High school students . A different world

[chiang mai]

42 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

Is this to save on registration fees or taxes?

 

Versatility and range of options mostly. I worked with Iveco/Ford for a year and they did the same thing, produced bodiless trucks that the aftermarket fitted out according to what the customer wanted, there was something like thirty five different configurations, far too many for the manufacturer to make and sell.

[it is what it is]

On 10/2/2024 at 4:06 AM, impulse said:

So the driver is basically a scapegoat.

 

 

that was obvious from the start, though he didn't do himself any favours by scarpering the scene instead of staying and trying to help.

[kickstart]

On 10/2/2024 at 2:16 PM, retarius said:

I saw a photo where they appeared to be stored in an odd fashion directly over the engine. The fire was raging but the gas tanks hadn't exploded. There were 4 tanks visible and undamaged with the fire raging in front of them.

You must have been looking at a different photo from me, the gas tanks I looked at were in the middle of the bus in the luggage holds, the engine on nearly all buses like this one are at the back of the bus, away from the gas tanks, someone on Thai tv on the evening of the accident was saying about brakes overheating, you could well say  that the MB engine that was replaced would have been secondhand.  

A 50-year-old bus, normal in Thailand, it would have had a re-spray with some fancy design on it, a guy near me paints buses some of the designs are quite striking.

[impulse]

20 minutes ago, it is what it is said:

that was obvious from the start, though he didn't do himself any favours by scarpering the scene instead of staying and trying to help.

 

Given news stories over the years of Thai mobs beating the crap out of people who cause accidents, I'd cut the guy some slack.  At some point, there was no way he could help with that inferno, and it was time to protect himself from vigilante justice.

 

[metisdead]

Off topic deflection posts and replies have been removed as this topic is not about greed and corruption in the USA. 

[Lorry]

These threads are always  full of racist posts.

Blaming Thai culture,  Thai greed, Thai corruption, Thai stupidity, Thai carelessness, Thai unwillingness or inability to learn.

Many state how superior "the West" and its safety is.

Someone in the bus threads reminded us of Santika - but 8 years after Santika 5 more people than at Santika died in a residential fire, in a very Western country. And I haven't seen Thais exulting in racist bigotry about it.

They were rightly shocked, like we are about this bus fire.

 

 

 

[digbeth]

how much of the bus is from 54 years ago? not the engine, not the body, only the chassis and maybe some suspension components

 

it's not an aircraft where repeated vibrations would make the steel unworthy

 

providing that the body is done up competenly of course, I don't think Thailand is up to standards like fire resistant fabric or even the whole fiberglass they use to build the bodies, they only test that it's not too top heavy adn topple over on a slope for it to pass the first registration 

[bendejo]

Some subway lines in Buenos Aires have cars from Japan that were not purchased new, they never bothered to take down the Japanese notices about blocking the doorways etc.  Gotta wonder why Japan got rid of them.

 

I first came to Bkk in 1975, all the buses were those tin-can things with wooden floors.  They still run today on some lines, and they look like they can be 50 years old.