Safety Warnings

[cloudhopper]

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?

Quite possibly. I enjoy storm watching from my roof terrace in Pai but make sure I sit on a plastic chair with my feet off the ground when the lightning is close.

[cloudhopper]

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.

The OP described someone being electrocuted while wading through floodwater which was apparently realistic enough in Pattaya.

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

Having done both (the former while flying a glider up into a cumulonimbus cloud and the latter probably many times diving here in LOS) I can only say - me too Dustoff, me too!

[egg6447]

whenever lightning is mentioned/discussed, the average joe is talking about the flash, ie current flow. lightnig is cuased by the build up of electron flow. dissapate the electron flow, with a lightning conductor, no lightning, however there is not a conductor large enough to download a strike. if your on your balcony wrapped in a condom, if your building gets struck you your plastic chair, you and your plastic flipflops will vapourise, ie atomise. nothing to say you were even there, well maybe an oil slick.lol. if your in the vicinity of a electon flow to earth the actual path is often vapourised and very misterious things happen. my expieriances of this read like a ghost story. some of the stories are unbelievable.

[Dustoff]

The OP described someone being electrocuted while wading through floodwater which was apparently realistic enough in Pattaya.

Having done both (the former while flying a glider up into a cumulonimbus cloud and the latter probably many times diving here in LOS) I can only say - me too Dustoff, me too!

"Stupid is as stupid does" and I am certainly not the 'shapest pencil in the box' in that regard.

I flew into a thunderstorm in a helicopter long ago and took a horrendous shot that knocked out all instruments/radios and split the fuel cell which fortunately did not ignite. In spite of being half blind and totally deafened, I somehow managed to get the ship safely on the ground but the smell of burned hair didn't go away for a week or more.

Another brilliant move on my part was landing on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico barely ahead of a storm and, in spite of the sizzling sounds all around me, I went to tie down the blades to protect the ship and all I remember is the snap !!

That was some thirty years ago and I think I have fully recovered but you will have to judge for yourself from my posts about electricity...

Get off the roof, you nitwit...!

I grew up (well, not really) in Mystic CT and my stepfather taught me the 'Mystic River Stroke' which involved sideways strokes of the arms to sweep away the turds...

Edited June 23, 2008 by Dustoff

[Captain Haddock]

Shocking stuff indeed...

[Dustoff]

Shocking stuff indeed...

Hi there, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, you handsome cod, you!

Didn't we meet and have an electrifying experience in the Atlantic some time ago?

I agree but the real shocking thing is that anyone could possibly imagine that any of this actually relates to Thailand..!

So, want to get together again or do you still smell like fish...?

[MSingh]

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?!?

Grow up...

[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?!?

Grow up...

Gee, then I could perhaps be like you..

I think I will take a pass...

[Captain Haddock]

Shocking stuff indeed...

Hi there, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, you handsome cod, you!

Didn't we meet and have an electrifying experience in the Atlantic some time ago?

I agree but the real shocking thing is that anyone could possibly imagine that any of this actually relates to Thailand..!

So, want to get together again or do you still smell like fish...?

Billions of blue blistering barnacles and ten thousand thundering typhoons! So it was you!

Alas, while the Earth moved for you I was just one of a skool, just drifting in the (Gulf) stream...

But I was the one that got away!

I remember not long back of the report of a kid that was electrocuted by drinking water from a hospital/mall water dispenser - anyone remember that?

And not too far ago I was minding my own business walking along the street. I had to look down to avoid a coupla dogs but was promptly smacked in the head by a 'trickery cable. Got quite a Potter scar now...

I remember when... (enuff -Ed)

[Sakeopete]

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.

As it is the same old song from those who defend all that is Thai through their thick rose colored glass. Maybe the forum admin should add a rule that any observations relating to Thailand or Thai people that may be seen as negative is not allowed on the forum, oops I forgot that rule already exists. Let go back to a more PC America bashing I sure that will always be allowed to spare the "DEFENDERS OF ALL THINGS THAI" from being stressed out.

[OlRedEyes]

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?!?

Yea, these:

"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..." /quote Dustoff

You the leader of the fantasy brigade?

[lardy]

Gee 2 pages of replies on electricity so thats it then settled only problems are swimming in water with electric attatched or driving down the roads!

[bonobo]

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.

As it is the same old song from those who defend all that is Thai through their thick rose colored glass. Maybe the forum admin should add a rule that any observations relating to Thailand or Thai people that may be seen as negative is not allowed on the forum, oops I forgot that rule already exists. Let go back to a more PC America bashing I sure that will always be allowed to spare the "DEFENDERS OF ALL THINGS THAI" from being stressed out.

I hardly am a "Defender of All Things Thai'" and while I love this country, things like traffic (drivers and the police who don't enforce traffic laws) and lax safety regulations are things I will discuss and criticize. However, this case, tragic as it is, could have happened anywhere. As a volunteer EMT in Virgina and Washington DC in my younger years, I saw freak accidents like this many times. Something like this could happen almost anywhere.

While I have never knowingly met another TV poster, I would have to agree with Dustoff on that it seems (to me, at least), that many posters here are expats who have brought a sense of anger or disappointment with them to Thailand and use TV as a means to vent that anger.

(And at the risk of being labeled a DOATT ("Defender of all Things Thai"), I always have to wonder why they are here if this is such a lousy place.)

[astral]

I have set three off topic posts to invisible.

Please keep on the subject of safety or I will have to take further action.

[Nignoy]

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.

Hi just apoint of interest ,the three photos below are probably the first RTA,s in thailand involving UK drivers mind you it was in 1964 Nignoy

[AFKAFSinLOS]

One of my favourites is certain large roads around Bangkok, where bicycles/motorcycles are not allowed. They show a picture of a bicycle/ motocycle, with the Thai word "haam" (=forbidden/ no..) written on the sign/next to it in Thai text.

This leaves enough of the country's population who don't read, as well as any non Thai-literate foreigners clueless. Not to mentioned those who don't bother reading the signs and prefer comic books and pictures to reading...