Safety Warnings

[ianh68h]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

[mrt273nva]

the lack of safety in this country is sometimes shocking

[BusyBee123]

these sort of stories make my hair stand on end

[ruddick]

Can you imagine what it is going to be like, if or when Thailand has a nuclear power station.

No safety culture

[Mosha]

Lead lined bamboo.

[johna]

No one is ever held responsible for the poor work that causes these accident's

[mijan24]

Can you imagine what it is going to be like, if or when Thailand has a nuclear power station.

No safety culture

No one is ever held responsible for the poor work that causes these accident's

Firstly Thoughts for the unfortunate guy on holidays poor bugger.

Secondly with the above in mind how can the first world ensure that if they (LoS) actually go ahead with a NPS in the future that all safety possible is implemented and maintaines?

[mrt273nva]

Secondly with the above in mind how can the first world ensure that if they (LoS) actually go ahead with a NPS in the future that all safety possible is implemented and maintaines?

if people start glowing then they know that they might need to fix the leak that is draining into the river. bubble gum usually works i've been told.

[Galong]

Can you imagine what it is going to be like, if or when Thailand has a nuclear power station.

No safety culture

Not to worry, I'm sure they'd get Burmese laborers to do all of the work.

[ianh68h]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

[mrt273nva]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

how can we report on hazards that we are unaware of?

[mijan24]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

It might help if you explained the WE are you talking Govt Org, Pvt Coy, ???

[Dustoff]

Oh goodie.. another Thai bashing thread.

Health and safety hazards exist everywhere in the world. If there are specifics that we should know about, perhaps they would be appropriate on TV but this is ridiculous.

Moderators?!?

[Briggsy]

I have the pleasure to work on occasion with some of the MEA's electrical engineers, a surprisingly erudite bunch.

Just the other day, we were talking about the cables sagging to head level or lower. They told me the lowest cables are communication cables (TOT, AIS, etc). Above that are 2 or 4 low voltage cables and above that are 2 or 4 high voltage cables. They added if the high voltage cables are sagging, touching the ground or even broken, never go near them as sometimes the breakers don't work properly. His colleague then told them to shut up.

[ianh68h]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

how can we report on hazards that we are unaware of?

We report hazards we think others might be unaware of. I was certainly unaware of the dangers of electrocution until I read that article. Only trying to help, you know.

[ianh68h]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

It might help if you explained the WE are you talking Govt Org, Pvt Coy, ???

Sorry, I'm just an average Joe retired farang. I've been here nearly a year and I'm learning all the time. This death shocked me and it was only to try and help prevent further tragedies that I wrote in. So I suppose "we" is people like me, ordinary farangs. Why is everybody being so hostile? I really don't understand it.

[roygsd]

the lack of safety in this country is sometimes shocking

you retards a young guy has just died arseh@les

Ditto

roy gs d

[roygsd]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

It might help if you explained the WE are you talking Govt Org, Pvt Coy, ???

Sorry, I'm just an average Joe retired farang. I've been here nearly a year and I'm learning all the time. This death shocked me and it was only to try and help prevent further tragedies that I wrote in. So I suppose "we" is people like me, ordinary farangs. Why is everybody being so hostile? I really don't understand it.

Sorry Ian,

Some just want to take the wee out of people,

you post was clear so dont worry about it

Roy gsd

[lardy]

It's easy to get blase about the lack of Health and Safety precautions in this country. Now and again a story pops up that rocks you on your heels. Fri 20 Jun Daily Xpres (p7) is a good example:

"Six hours of heavy rain on Wednesday left Pattaya City in Chon Buri flooded. A British tourist was electrocuted while wading to his hotel in knee-deep water on a South Pattaya street. He has been identified as Scott Mitchinfow, 32."

Those trailing electric cables we see everywhere can be lethal. Watch out!

ianh68h

The reason I started this post was primarily to get people to report any other hazards they think we might be unaware of. A sort of safety check list for the unwary. Has anyone got other examples?

ianh68h

Sure drive down any motorway and observe how they close a lane!! No warnings just an arrow where it acually is closed (if your'e lucky), in the Uk you wll get a sign a few hundred metres telling you beforehand.

So you are blatting down and all of a sudden with no warning you have to change lanes.

[Dustoff]

Sorry, I'm just an average Joe retired farang. I've been here nearly a year and I'm learning all the time. This death shocked me and it was only to try and help prevent further tragedies that I wrote in. So I suppose "we" is people like me, ordinary farangs. Why is everybody being so hostile? I really don't understand it.

I can totally relate and sympathize.

My post about 'another Thai bashing thread' was not so much about your original post but the responses.

There are a huge number of members of TV and, seemingly, a very high percentage of expats who brought their miserable attitudes with them from their own countries and take every opportunity to vent their hostility and anger on these forums.

Many of us have had similar experiences in Thailand, myself included. I witnessed two young Thais crushed to death due to the actions of nitwit Songkran Thais blasting them off their motorbike with buckets of water from their pickup and have participated in threads about the disgusting death rate during this festival.

This is a bit different however from what you wrote in that storms and floods and such take lives everywhere, even today in the Philippines and America, through drowning, electrocution, disease, et al. and your own personal experience, while understandably disturbing, is merely an invitation for lame/thoughtless responses rather than an effective warning for people in Thailand overall.

Between traffic accidents, tsunamis, storms, floods, idiots with guns and those who choose to aggrevate them, sexually transmitted diseases, stress (please lord take a few of these hostile jerks), etc., a person zzapped by an electric wire during a flood is but a blip on the radar...

I appreciate your gentle humanity but be aware that posting on TV can often be the equivalent of taking a swim in the primal swamp...

[LooseCannon]

Sorry, I'm just an average Joe retired farang. I've been here nearly a year and I'm learning all the time. This death shocked me and it was only to try and help prevent further tragedies that I wrote in. So I suppose "we" is people like me, ordinary farangs. Why is everybody being so hostile? I really don't understand it.

I can totally relate and sympathize.

My post about 'another Thai bashing thread' was not so much about your original post but the responses.

There are a huge number of members of TV and, seemingly, a very high percentage of expats who brought their miserable attitudes with them from their own countries and take every opportunity to vent their hostility and anger on these forums.

Many of us have had similar experiences in Thailand, myself included. I witnessed two young Thais crushed to death due to the actions of nitwit Songkran Thais blasting them off their motorbike with buckets of water from their pickup and have participated in threads about the disgusting death rate during this festival.

This is a bit different however from what you wrote in that storms and floods and such take lives everywhere, even today in the Philippines and America, through drowning, electrocution, disease, et al. and your own personal experience, while understandably disturbing, is merely an invitation for lame/thoughtless responses rather than an effective warning for people in Thailand overall.

Between traffic accidents, tsunamis, storms, floods, idiots with guns and those who choose to aggrevate them, sexually transmitted diseases, stress (please lord take a few of these hostile jerks), etc., a person zzapped by an electric wire during a flood is but a blip on the radar...

I appreciate your gentle humanity but be aware that posting on TV can often be the equivalent of taking a swim in the primal swamp...

Unfortunately Thailand is littered with these clowns, this country is like a magnet for all the dysfunctional misfits of the western world. They all seem to have one thing in common & that is a chronic shortage of money. They have a short taste of 'paradise' on a 2 week holiday,which was totally divorced from reality, & eventually return in a delusional state thinking they can live the 'dream' for the rest of their lives.

Of course it enevitably comes crashing down around them & their inherent bitterness & resentment, temporaly surpressed during their 'golden year(s)' in Thailand, takes root again. As it slowly dawns on them, that having burnt all their bridges in the west, they cannot return home & the reality of having insufficient resources to live the life they so crave, the true nature of their predicament finally hits them like a brick between the eyes.

Their bleak & bitter existence manifests itself on TV by spiteful & malignant posts usually comprising of only a single sentence. This brevity of comment necessitated by their budget dial-up internet connection, which causes their rancorous bile to rise with every painfully slow refresh of the screen.

There are dozens of these unpleasant characters just waiting to misconstrue, distort & misunderstand your every comment & launch themselves into a vitriolic attack of unbridled spitefulness. Other than that this site can provide some great entertainment.

[Travel2003]

I believe we all agree about the fact that this country has its fair share of bad visitors.

As far as I can see, the topic is not about that.

Thailand, as many of its neighbour countries shows clear evidence that issues as Safety (and Environmental) are not on the top of the priority list.

This does not mean that people just ignore it.

All countries have a priority list of what to spend their budgets on.

Some countries have these days Security, some increase the spending in the Military, some spend more on Health, etc.

I have a feeling that Security and Military are the top priorities in Thailand.

Always funny to observe the faces of my friends (or family members) when they visit me here. Especially the electricians and the ones that work in construction.

[Maigo6]

There are a huge number of members of TV and, seemingly, a very high percentage of expats who brought their miserable attitudes with them from their own countries and take every opportunity to vent their hostility and anger on these forums.

Agreed.

It's the same old song, anything that happens to a Farang in Thailand happens to them just cos they are Farang.

When it happens to Thai people, is it cos they are Thai ?

When things happened to you in England, is it because you're English ????

Whinging Farangs are a very major part of any Thailand based forum.

[robblok]

It became a farang bashing threat by the likes of maigo6.

I dont understand what is wrong with pointing out some of the things that are wrong in this country. I complain about things in my former country too. I love it here i see more good things then bad but still you can say some things about the bad ones. But what you should not expect here is that it is a first world country.. it is not.. that is why many of us like it because you dont have the rules that were in the old country. I dont expect the same safety in thailand as in Holland.. i dont pay for it. But i can say it shockes me how that guy died. Its good to read about it, i already am real carefull in this country but it just reminds me to be a lil bit more carefull.

I dont feel that Thais are out to get me i have fine neighbours and some thai friends. Got more thai then farang friends. But i do believe there are enough thais taking advantage of the farangs. I have seen it you cant deny it. Farang using other farangs.. why not it happens in my home country why would it here be different. Just be carefull with your friends no mather what country they come from. Country / color ect doesnt mean a thing everyone can be bad or good.

Here on the markets where i live i dont get ripped of i get the same price the thais get. In tourist area's that is different. But even there thais get ripped off.. less of course then farangs.

[egg6447]

this is off topic i know. well sort of. as a electrical engineer, ive always taken a scientific approach to the subject. what i have never had explained to me is , if you have a body of water with a electrical supply to it, the supply is already earthed and somebody standing in the water must be like a bird on a circuit not in the circuit. any scientists out there . regards.

[Captain Haddock]

I don't get it either. If you are in a pool of water, why isn't all the water live eg a fresh water lake? Is the charge somehow dissipated the further you are from the electrical source?

Electrickery - I gladly pay somebody else to do it as I never understood it at skool...

[Dustoff]

this is off topic i know. well sort of. as a electrical engineer, ive always taken a scientific approach to the subject. what i have never had explained to me is , if you have a body of water with a electrical supply to it, the supply is already earthed and somebody standing in the water must be like a bird on a circuit not in the circuit. any scientists out there . regards.

You are correct. I didn't wish to challenge someone else's grief/belief but..

Being electrocuted by a wire hanging into floodwaters is no more possible than the same happening by a radio falling into your bathtub.

It just..doesn't..work that way.

So all those horror movies about flinging a hair dryer or radio into the wife's bath?

Nonsense. I know.. I tried..

One has to be between ground and the power source.

Wading thru water and grabbing a suspended hot wire for support however is a quick road to the smell of burned meat.

Your's.

Same with the bathtub/radio thing - back in the old days (Thailand) when circuit breakers were no protection whatsoever, adjusting your radio volume while sitting in the water was/is ill-advised.

Non-grounded electricity, you drip water onto the electrical device, ZZZZTTTT!!

Same-same hair dryer.. Wet hands, one on the running device, wetting the other in runniing water and the neighbors wonder why their electricity just went off.

As did you..

The key is being a conduit from hot-to-ground, especially when it passes thru your heart.

Years ago here I accidently touched 220v while bare-footed on a tile floor.

Holy <deleted> Whew..!

I can still hear the sound of my brain/body coming undone and am lucky to be alive.

Had I been wearing rubber flip-flops, no prob - a mere buzz would have been my only experience.

As we who have extensive experience in electronics/electricity say,

"It cannot hurt you unless you provide a 'path to ground'..."

Kinda sounds like 'real life', don't it? We choose every moment how soon we want to take the 'dirt nap'...

Edited June 22, 2008 by Dustoff

[cloudhopper]

this is off topic i know. well sort of. as a electrical engineer, ive always taken a scientific approach to the subject. what i have never had explained to me is , if you have a body of water with a electrical supply to it, the supply is already earthed and somebody standing in the water must be like a bird on a circuit not in the circuit. any scientists out there . regards.

You are correct. I didn't wish to challenge someone else's grief/belief but..

Being electrocuted by a wire hanging into floodwaters is no more possible than the same happening by a radio falling into your bathtub.

It just..doesn't..work that way.

So all those horror movies about flinging a hair dryer or radio into the wife's bath?

Nonsense. I know.. I tried..

One has to be between ground and the power source.

Wading thru water and grabbing a suspended hot wire for support however is a quick road to the smell of burned meat.

Your's.

Same with the bathtub/radio thing - back in the old days (Thailand) when circuit breakers were no protection whatsoever, adjusting your radio volume while sitting in the water was/is ill-advised.

Non-grounded electricity, you drip water onto the electrical device, ZZZZTTTT!!

Same-same hair dryer.. Wet hands, one on the running device, wetting the other in runniing water and the neighbors wonder why their electricity just went off.

As did you..

The key is being a conduit from hot-to-ground, especially when it passes thru your heart.

Years ago here I accidently touched 220v while bare-footed on a tile floor.

Holy <deleted> Whew..!

I can still hear the sound of my brain/body coming undone and am lucky to be alive.

Had I been wearing rubber flip-flops, no prob - a mere buzz would have been my only experience.

As we who have extensive experience in electronics/electricity say,

"It cannot hurt you unless you provide a 'path to ground'..."

Kinda sounds like 'real life', don't it? We choose every moment how soon we want to take the 'dirt nap'...

Actually, one does not have to be between a power source and ground to be electrocuted. Even totally immersed in seawater, for example swimming in a marina. The reason is that as the ground current spreads out in all directions there is a voltage gradient between points closer to and farther from the source, and if there is significant drop over a short distance it is still possible to get in the way of, and become part of the path of this so-called ground current. It takes only 40 milliamps to cause a fatal heart stoppage. This is the same way people near a tree struck by lightning die, even though they are not in the direct path of the bolt.

[Saiyan]

This is the same way people near a tree struck by lightning die, even though they are not in the direct path of the bolt.

So if they stand on one foot, they should be OK?

[Dustoff]

Actually, one does not have to be between a power source and ground to be electrocuted. Even totally immersed in seawater, for example swimming in a marina. The reason is that as the ground current spreads out in all directions there is a voltage gradient between points closer to and farther from the source, and if there is significant drop over a short distance it is still possible to get in the way of, and become part of the path of this so-called ground current. It takes only 40 milliamps to cause a fatal heart stoppage. This is the same way people near a tree struck by lightning die, even though they are not in the direct path of the bolt.

I hereby promise, no more swimming in a marina (which we have all certainly done) nor standing next to trees that are about to be struck by lightning.

Thanks for your response CH but you say one does not have to be between source and ground then go on at length to explain how, even in seawater, being in the path between source and ground can be deadly.

Whatever. The word current indicates movement. If you have placed yourself in the path of electrical movement, you are at risk. This thread hopefully is about realistic situations (tho it didn't start out that way) and it doesn't strike me (lightning?) that swimming in boat harbors fits here. I would actually be more concerned about yachts flushing their toilets into the water.

I would rather be hit by lightning than ingest other's feces...