Bus Owner Caught Trying to Hide Illegal Gas Cylinders After Deadly Fire

[sambum]

4 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Well I am if I dare say so, I was preparing and taking HGVs for testing in the UK 50+ years ago, I worked for the local council, we could not have one fail, in 9 years I had 2 fail, first one a spring leaf had cracked on the way, I actually heard it as I drove over a pot hole, second was my fault as one brake failed due to the adjustment cam clicking over too far, unbeknown to me. We didn't have a rolling road for testing, at our workshop.  

 

 "..........we could not have one fail, in 9 years I had 2 fail,...." ???

[sambum]

4 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Following this incident I agree, but if I am to be totally honest it is not something I have ever given any thought to previously .  The same probably goes for most people.   I do however remember a year or two ago when a minibus exploded during an accident killing an extraordinary amount of passengers. I think the issue raised then was overloading of passengers, I don't remember any calls for gas to be banned 

 

The logic being that less lives would have been lost if there hadn't been so many people on the minibus?

[Felton Jarvis]

This is an ungodly miscarriage of justice. The bus owner should be charged.

[Peabody]

12 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

The driver ran from the scene, leaving the rear door shut leaving those poor little children to perish. 

What is wrong with you? There is no rear door. 

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 hour ago, Peabody said:

What is wrong with you? There is no rear door. 

Yes there was but I couldn't be bothered explaining, your type wear me down. 

 

I know what's wrong with you, get some professional help. 

 

Edited October 4 by SAFETY FIRST

[marin]

58 minutes ago, Peabody said:

What is wrong with you? There is no rear door. 

oh boy,

 

Citing an initial report from the DLT, Mr Suriya said the bus involved in Tuesday’s fire was a single-deck bus, not a double-decker, and was equipped with the required safety equipment onboard. The emergency door at the rear was functional, he said.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2876497/bus-tragedy-spurs-safety-blitz. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post PCL. All rights reserved.

 

[harryviking]

Life in jail for those in charge! All of them! 

[Presnock]

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I agree.... Its CNG in public transport has never been banned... It was actively pushed by none other than Thaksin back in the day.

 

I also agree that 'most people' would not be aware of the risks and not know to show concern about CNG in a public vehicle, but enough on this forum have raised such concern.

 

Back in 2017, I raised concerns to my Son's school regarding 'school bus transport' before a field trip - I make this point only to highlight that the concern (e-mail) was forwarded directly to the bus company (Montri) who in their response also highlighted that their vehicles are diesel only. Thus, companies which could be considered more professional at the time, seemed aware of the risks associated with CNG.

 

 

We always refused over the school years to allow our daughter to go via the local transport for field trips, driving ourselves or having her fly to that location with a couple of other students whose parents felt as we did about the safety of our children.    When I saw the initial pictures of the CNG setups, I told my wife they appeared to be BOMBS just waiting for an accident...and these were those that were "legal".  

[Presnock]

52 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Yes there was but I couldn't be bothered explaining, your type wear me down. 

 

I know what's wrong with you, get some professional help. 

 

Just look at a few of the news videos, they show the emergency exits including that "rear" one.

[Presnock]

1 hour ago, Peabody said:

What is wrong with you? There is no rear door. 

WHY didn't he open any emergency doors before trying to get a "tiny" fire exinguisher" and then fleeing...they must have some kind of safety demo prior to the trip right to explain to the teachers where the emergency doors are and have them try to open them - these kids 3-8 years old probably couldn't open them anyway but the teachers could have..maybe.  Driver just abandoned them when he should have opened emergency doors immediately when noticing fire!  No explanation would satisfy me if I were one of the parents or investigators.

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, sambum said:

 

 "..........we could not have one fail, in 9 years I had 2 fail,...." ???

Sad 

[SAFETY FIRST]

5 minutes ago, Presnock said:

58 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Yes there was but I couldn't be bothered explaining, your type wear me down. 

 

I know what's wrong with you, get some professional help. 

 

Just look at a few of the news videos, they show the emergency exits including that "rear" one

Why are you telling me?

 

I said that there was a rear door 

[Presnock]

Just now, SAFETY FIRST said:

Why are you telling me?

 

I said that there was a rear door 

I was explaining where the other person could see a picture of where the "rear" door was located.  not sure how it went to just you as you already knew.

[Presnock]

1 minute ago, Presnock said:

I was explaining where the other person could see a picture of where the "rear" door was located.  not sure how it went to just you as you already knew.

Guess the video bit was for Peabody as he/she seemed to question about the rear door.

 

[OldmanJ]

Fry the owners of the company and give them 40 days to make all buses legal or burn them all to the ground.

[richard_smith237]

7 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

I'm pretty sure I was ridiculed on here for my comments regarding the unsafe nature and unroadworthy condition of these types of buses.

 

The home-made construction and lack of safety testing of Thai buses was all exposed years ago in a Channel 4 (UK) documentary after three English lads perished in a bus accident.

 

Shame it takes such an awful tragedy in Thailand for people to wake up to the truth and the way this cesspool really operates. 

 

I agree...  But I also remember a deadly school bus incident in the UK in 1993 when a mini-van struck a motorway service vehicle on the hard shoulder of the M40 motorway (14 deaths) - it was huge news at the time.

 

An inquest's most significant findings were that the minibus was not fitted with seatbelts, as legislation did not require minibuses or coaches to be at the time.

 

The law was changed in 1997 to make seatbelts standard equipment on all minibuses and coaches as well as outlawing bench seating.

 

It took 4 years for the law to be enacted which IMO is a ridiculous amount of time considering the risks.

 

My point in discussing the above is that tragic incidents happen - its the legislative response and enforcement that becomes the measure of a development. 

 

I hope Thailand moves faster than the UK did and bans all CNG in public transport vehicles and also legislates that seatbelts wearing in all vehicles becomes law.

Edited October 4 by richard_smith237

[sambum]

1 hour ago, brianthainess said:

Sad 

 

No, 😕

[MikeandDow]

 

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I agree...  But I also remember a deadly school bus incident in the UK in 1993 when a mini-van struck a motorway service vehicle on the hard shoulder of the M40 motorway (14 deaths) - it was huge news at the time.

 

An inquest's most significant findings were that the minibus was not fitted with seatbelts, as legislation did not require minibuses or coaches to be at the time.

 

The law was changed in 1997 to make seatbelts standard equipment on all minibuses and coaches as well as outlawing bench seating.

 

It took 4 years for the law to be enacted which IMO is a ridiculous amount of time considering the risks.

 

My point in discussing the above is that tragic incidents happen - its the legislative response and enforcement that becomes the measure of a development. 

 

I hope Thailand moves faster than the UK did and bans all CNG in public transport vehicles and also legislates that seatbelts wearing in all vehicles becomes law.

I agree with what you say but in all reality it will not happen lives are cheap in Asia and to implement Safety protocols in Thailand costs money, this will be forgotten in a few days its not the first time  tragedy  like this has happened look at the  tak bai incident taken 20 yrs to get any where, Thailand is not like the west its a 3rd world country and always be the same

[Bundooman]

17 hours ago, it is what it is said:

 

still blaming the driver?

How smug is that?

What makes you think the driver didn't know?

And why did he flee?

[Peabody]

6 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Yes there was but I couldn't be bothered explaining, your type wear me down. 

Look at the picture, young 'un. There's a big 'ole engine back there.

You may notice the SIDE DOOR.

[Peabody]

5 hours ago, Presnock said:

Guess the video bit was for Peabody as he/she seemed to question about the rear door.

 

Sorry. I thought the photo posted with the article was the bus in question.

[Confuscious]

How sick can one be?

Somebody created an account asking for donations for the victims and the school.

Account of the deceased teacher:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069356140834

 

[SAFETY FIRST]

4 hours ago, Peabody said:

11 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Yes there was but I couldn't be bothered explaining, your type wear me down. 

Look at the picture, young 'un. There's a big 'ole engine back there.
You may notice the SIDE DOOR

Dear Mr Peabody 😂, I'm worn out but I'll post this photo for you. 

 

Above that big 'ole engine is an emergency exit door. 

 

 

Edited October 4 by SAFETY FIRST

[Gobbler]

No fire extinguisher on the bus? Why did the driver need to open the door? It won't open on the inside? 

[scott1999]

20 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

No he didnt... 

 

This is a screen shot of the video showing the driver run to get a Fire extinguisher after trying and failing to open the rear doors...   By then it was probably all tragically too late. 

 

There are two specific videos doing the rounds.

1) Screen shot below is from one of the videos.

2) Another video taken from the opposite side showing the driver franticly trying to get access to the bus from the other side.

 

The driver did flee though - but only after all attempts to rescue the kids failed.

He probably feared for his life....  not a correct action at all by the way, but the manner in which the 'some-media' and people on forum are spreading this misinformation is poor form. 

 

One video here (though the ack of urgency is heartbreaking - the driver already seems to know all souls have been lost).

https://www.tiktok.com/@kiepertot.28/video/7421123731168251154

 

 

The bus driver 'escaping the scene' seems like a narrative everyone is keen on to direct their anger... 

Finally, as this thread shows, it is the owners who need to be targeted.

 

I'm not going to argue on this forum as it's just completely a waste of time. I was in this business in England for over 20 years the duty of the driver is the care and safety of the passengers this could have been dealt with very differently if the driver had stopped the bus turned off the engine turned round and said three words get off now and he had helped them leave the bus He would be a hero today.  Instead he went looking for a fire extinguisher and trying to open the back Emergency doors that he should have checked before any passengers got on the vehicle. Obviously the bus was badly maintained it had been turned into a bomb with 11 gas cylinders with one of the cylinders in the passenger section of the bus a company that has form of their driver's running away in the past and now it looks like the Ministry of transport officers were getting kickbacks to certify these busses death traps so as I was saying

1: The drivers only job in an emergency is the safety of the passengers not to try and put out a fire he can do that afterwards once all the passengers have left the bus and don't say they couldn't get off because of the doors and even in that video there's a student that got out of the door there was half open.

 

And as for the state of the interiors of these Thai busses they've turned them into bombs on wheels with everything inside flammable such as the curtains the plastic fans the seat covers as you can see from the photos of the bus the whole interior was gutted now look at a bus in England no curtains no padding on the ceilings no fans just clean and safe they need to stop turning these vehicles into mobile discos and understand their only responsibility is to get their passengers from A to B as safely as possible. 

Here's a list of the duty of care that each driver should be trained to understand and do in an emergency which of course this driver didn't do. 

 

In the event of a fire, your top priority as a bus or coach driver is to help passengers disembark as quickly and safely as possible before the fire escalates. Here's how the procedure should go:

1. Stop the vehicle safely: Pull over immediately and turn off the engine to reduce any additional risk of the fire spreading.

2. Open the doors: Immediately open the doors to allow passengers to disembark and leave the vehicle quickly.

3. Instruct passengers: Calmly but firmly instruct passengers to exit the bus in an orderly manner. Encourage them to leave personal belongings behind to speed up the evacuation.

4. Use emergency exits: If the main doors are blocked or unsafe, direct passengers to use emergency exits, including windows or roof hatches.

5. Move passengers to a safe distance: Once outside, guide everyone to a safe distance, away from the vehicle and out of harm’s way.

6. Call emergency services: After ensuring all passengers are safe, contact emergency services to report the fire and get help.

Once everyone is safely off the vehicle, then, if it’s safe and you are trained, you can attempt to control the fire with a fire extinguisher. However, passenger safety is always the first priority.

[Stargeezr]

IMO, the bus driver should have known how to get the doors open, or at least used a fire extingusher to bust what ever windows he could

have to save some of those trapped. The owners of this bus company should be sued into bankruptsy. The inspector(s) who 

kept this and other illegal buses on the road, should be sued and jailed for their role in the childres, and those 3 teachers deaths.

[tonypattaya]

A long prison sentence, no less, for manslaughter is appropriate for the directors of this company. 1. As a punishment for their misdeeds and, 2. as a deterrent to others.
It is understood that buses often get a "pass certificate" for a bribe to those issuing the certificate. These people also need to go to prison for the same, above reasons.

[Sydebolle]

The driver will, as in most cases, get the scapegoat ticket and that explains, why you read mostly "driver fled the scene" and the vehicle operator does not keep track of which driver is on the cash payroll and drove a said vehicle. 

[Peabody]

11 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Dear Mr Peabody 😂, I'm worn out but I'll post this photo for you. 

 

Above that big 'ole engine is an emergency exit door. 

Maybe you should get some sleep then. Different bus and that door is on the SIDE, not the rear.