DANGEROUS CONSTRUCTION ZONE: Debris hits 30 cars in single day

Police receive record complaints about Bang Na expressway contractor

BANGKOK: -- More than 30 motorists filed police complaints yesterday that their cars were damaged by falling debris from a construction zone on the Bang Na-Bang Pakong expressway extension.

This marks the most complaints received in one day against the contractor since the S1 phase construction began, said Lt-Colonel Yuthana Pruksarungruang, a senior investigator at the Expressway 1 police station. The station has received an average of one to two complaints a day until yesterday.

Yesterday’s complaints mostly concerned damage to vehicles caused by falling asphalt and cement as motorists drove under the elevated structure late Tuesday evening.

Cholarat Onketphol, a representative of the contractor, Vichitbhan Construction Co Ltd, met yesterday with angry motorists at the police station and offered to pay for the damage to their cars.

Yuthana said police could only impose a fine of Bt1,000 and issue a warning. The power to suspend construction rests with authorised agencies, such as the Expressway and Rapid Transit Authority.

However, some of the motorists were not satisfied and complained about the construction company’s “substandard work”.

“It’s the responsibility of the contractor to ensure that there is no falling debris during construction. The responsible authorities should start scrutinising the company’s work before a serious incident happens, such as a beam falling and killing someone,” said motorist Pornchai Vatcharasunthara.

Posaya Thongpreecha, another motorist whose car was damaged, said she hoped the company would be more careful in the future.

The S1 phase construction of the extension project, which began in September 2003, has plagued commuters since it started.

More than 10,000 commuters have called the Traffic Police Radio Station to complain about falling concrete, with 4,315 motorists reporting that their cars have been damaged by stones, cement, sparks or other materials.

--The Nation 2005-06-02

I work in Bangna and commute from & to town on Bangna-Trad every day. A few weeks ago "something" landed on the roof of my car as I was doing about 80 kph or so on the approach to the toll gates just after BITEC. After passing through the toll a mk 1 eyeball inspection revealed a dent roughly the same diameter of a coffee mug and a crease right through the paint to the bare metal in the roof. I'd guess a lump of concrete about the size of a mans fist did it. Imagine if it had landed on the windscreen....

The cops at the toll directed me to the expressway police station at the Kasem Rat (Port turn off) toll junction. Desk sergeant was not at all surprised and produced an incident report for me in 15 minutes or so. Insurance guy came the next day and guess what - the car had to be completely resprayed as well as having the roof pushed back out! Must be getting expensive for the expressway contractor by now?

Quite a few of the Thais at my work will not commute on Bangna-Trad anymore, too scared of incidents like this. They go around on the ring road instead.

Best to use the ring road anyway instead of waiting hours to go through the toll booth.