Trashed Pickups

[Valentine]

Has anyone seen the two trashed pickups at the car repair shop on Chao Fa West just down from Central? They are completely totaled & look like something has been dropped on them. I notice the white Isuzu has a teddy bear on the front which makes me think a child has died but surely anyone in either of these two vehicles when the accident(s) happened would have been killed. I am wondering why these vehicles are sitting at the car repair shop as they really belong in the scrap yard & it would be beyond belief if anyone was thinking about repairing & putting them back on the road although I thought nothing would surprise me anymore in this country.

[amyb]

i've seen them...horrific looking...no idea what happened and why they aren't at a scrap yard...

[petercallen]

3 years ago i took a friend to a public hospital on the way to Ranong for a special eye test because none of the hospitals in Phuket had the equipment to do it.

Just inside the entrance to the hospital was a completely wrecked ambulance which had been there a long time.

makes me think twice before using the ambulance service here, no one gives way to them.

[katabeachbum]

just looked briefly at the white Izu while passing by. not seen such major impact in years. probably been under a 18 wheeler.

I bet it will be repaired, since a new one is 7-900k baht. take a note of the VIN and see if its still registered 2 years from now

[petercallen]

just looked briefly at the white Izu while passing by. not seen such major impact in years. probably been under a 18 wheeler.

I bet it will be repaired, since a new one is 7-900k baht. take a note of the VIN and see if its still registered 2 years from now

You are probably right, they could buy a compete new body and transfer everything over to it.

I new a panel beater in Aust who did the same thing, he would buy top of the range insurance write offs

like Range Rovers etc and made a good income doing it..

[pmgthailand]

Pick up trucks nowdays drive and feel like cars when you are inside driving them. I recently got a new truck, 3.0 litre turbo and it feels like you are driving a car and it is very, very powerful and fast. The only thing is that it doesn't handle like a car at high speed or when cornering, it is too high and light. Insurance companies have told me that these vehicles are designed to be driven with at least a half of it's rated load and they do not handle the same when they ar empty. Put this together with poor driving, inexperienced drivers, too much speed and it is a recipe for disaster. The major issue that concerns driving in Asia is this, in the West my grandfather drove a car and took us out in it, my parents owned numerous cars and drove us everywhere in them and I got my license when I was 16 in Canada and have driven ever since, in many different countries. That is 3 generations that have grown up with automobiles. Here in Asia, more and more people are only just starting to be able to afford cars, powerful, fast cars and trucks and they just don't have the experience of driving and the awareness of how dangerous driving can be if not taken seriously every time you get behind the wheel. It is not only Thailand, China has only 4% or 5% of the worlds roadways yet the are responsible for almost 20% of the worlds road accident fatalities. It is down to experience, in the West we grew up with automobiles. The traffic police used to come to our schools twice a year when I lived in Canada and made us aware at an early age how dangerous driving can be. I just don't feel that driving here is given the same respect as it is in the West. I recently sat my driving test for a motorbike license here in Phuket. I can tell you that the highway traffic code is very similar to the UK's, they only problem here is the total lack of enforcement.

[mikebike]

Pick up trucks nowdays drive and feel like cars when you are inside driving them. I recently got a new truck, 3.0 litre turbo and it feels like you are driving a car and it is very, very powerful and fast. The only thing is that it doesn't handle like a car at high speed or when cornering, it is too high and light. Insurance companies have told me that these vehicles are designed to be driven with at least a half of it's rated load and they do not handle the same when they ar empty. Put this together with poor driving, inexperienced drivers, too much speed and it is a recipe for disaster. The major issue that concerns driving in Asia is this, in the West my grandfather drove a car and took us out in it, my parents owned numerous cars and drove us everywhere in them and I got my license when I was 16 in Canada and have driven ever since, in many different countries. That is 3 generations that have grown up with automobiles. Here in Asia, more and more people are only just starting to be able to afford cars, powerful, fast cars and trucks and they just don't have the experience of driving and the awareness of how dangerous driving can be if not taken seriously every time you get behind the wheel. It is not only Thailand, China has only 4% or 5% of the worlds roadways yet the are responsible for almost 20% of the worlds road accident fatalities. It is down to experience, in the West we grew up with automobiles. The traffic police used to come to our schools twice a year when I lived in Canada and made us aware at an early age how dangerous driving can be. I just don't feel that driving here is given the same respect as it is in the West. I recently sat my driving test for a motorbike license here in Phuket. I can tell you that the highway traffic code is very similar to the UK's, they only problem here is the total lack of enforcement.

You've gotta be kidding, pmgt. I also hail from the true north and had a good friend in Montreal whose immigrant father never drove yet he became a very successful Can-Am road racer... Driving skills are biologically or genetically transfered...? That's just too whack for words.

Now since you have identified the main issue - the infancy of automobile culture in Asia, let's address that. Is there some reason why you believe that Asia should be able to instantly learn the road etiquette and maturity that it took the west a century to develop? Maybe you are too young to remember riding around in the back of the station wagon or pick-up in Canada in the sixties with no seatbelt and dad with more than a few cocktails under his belt at the wheel... In high school "booze-cruises" were de rigueur where I came from - piling six teenagers into the car with a two-four of 50, a bottle of Royal Reserve and rocketing around rural roads is what we did on Friday and Saturday nights... stupid yeah, but things have changed a lot in 35 years. Give the Asians a break - they will take the same amount of time to reach western levels of driving culture as we did.

On a side note I still believe every western car driver should be forced by graduated licensing to ride a motorbike for a year before they can apply for a automobile license. In the west it teaches you to be much more aware of your own vulnerability and the potentially dangerous actions of vehicles around you... a lesson many western drivers never learn as they drive around blissfully ensconced in their three ton SUVs barely registering others rights on the road. This DOES NOT apply to Asia where the scooter culture is a different beast altogether!

[katabeachbum]

You've gotta be kidding, pmgt. I also hail from the true north and had a good friend in Montreal whose immigrant father never drove yet he became a very successful Can-Am road racer... Driving skills are biologically or genetically transfered...? That's just too whack for words.

Now since you have identified the main issue - the infancy of automobile culture in Asia, let's address that. Is there some reason why you believe that Asia should be able to instantly learn the road etiquette and maturity that it took the west a century to develop? Maybe you are too young to remember riding around in the back of the station wagon or pick-up in Canada in the sixties with no seatbelt and dad with more than a few cocktails under his belt at the wheel... In high school "booze-cruises" were de rigueur where I came from - piling six teenagers into the car with a two-four of 50, a bottle of Royal Reserve and rocketing around rural roads is what we did on Friday and Saturday nights... stupid yeah, but things have changed a lot in 35 years. Give the Asians a break - they will take the same amount of time to reach western levels of driving culture as we did.

On a side note I still believe every western car driver should be forced by graduated licensing to ride a motorbike for a year before they can apply for a automobile license. In the west it teaches you to be much more aware of your own vulnerability and the potentially dangerous actions of vehicles around you... a lesson many western drivers never learn as they drive around blissfully ensconced in their three ton SUVs barely registering others rights on the road. This DOES NOT apply to Asia where the scooter culture is a different beast altogether!

agree with you mikebike, except cardriving in Phuket is only 2-3 decads, while it took the americans 6-7 decades to reach the level of driving culture we see in Phuket today

seems like Phuket car drivers have a steeper learning curve. Well done

[HDRIDER]

Hi

Not sure i agree, my friend have a driving school back home he got 4 cars and own track, Asian people have far more hours he tell me, worst is people from Pakistan he tell me, he call them hopeless, 20 hours just to drive straight even if it’s good money he don’t take them on anymore.

[katabeachbum]

Hi

Not sure i agree, my friend have a driving school back home he got 4 cars and own track, Asian people have far more hours he tell me, worst is people from Pakistan he tell me, he call them hopeless, 20 hours just to drive straight even if it's good money he don't take them on anymore.

drive straight? In Phuket no one drives straight. Constant change of lanes is the norm. You need to learn drive Phuket style HD:lol: :lol:

[HDRIDER]

drive straight? In Phuket no one drives straight. Constant change of lanes is the norm. You need to learn drive Phuket style HD:lol: :lol:

Ahhh, thats where i go wrong

[steelepulse]

drive straight? In Phuket no one drives straight. Constant change of lanes is the norm. You need to learn drive Phuket style HD:lol: :lol:

Ahhh, thats where i go wrong

Don't forget to straddle both lanes so you can make unexpected lane changes when it suits you, and by all means never use your turn indicator when making dangerous lane changes .

[Valentine]

Don't forget to straddle both lanes so you can make unexpected lane changes when it suits you, and by all means never use your turn indicator when making dangerous lane changes .

Recently on the back road from PSU through to the Honda dealer I was forced to speed up & straddle the lanes when I saw a Fortuner bearing down behind me & had to be very cagey when coming to the main road so he could not beat me to the U turn.

Ah but we digress from the subject of the trashed pickups. The ones in question must certainly have been involved in a spectacular but most likely a sad & tragic accident as surely no one inside could have survived. Did not appear to make any of the news channels though.

[pmgthailand]

You've gotta be kidding, pmgt. I also hail from the true north and had a good friend in Montreal whose immigrant father never drove yet he became a very successful Can-Am road racer... Driving skills are biologically or genetically transfered...? That's just too whack for words.

Now since you have identified the main issue - the infancy of automobile culture in Asia, let's address that. Is there some reason why you believe that Asia should be able to instantly learn the road etiquette and maturity that it took the west a century to develop? Maybe you are too young to remember riding around in the back of the station wagon or pick-up in Canada in the sixties with no seatbelt and dad with more than a few cocktails under his belt at the wheel... In high school "booze-cruises" were de rigueur where I came from - piling six teenagers into the car with a two-four of 50, a bottle of Royal Reserve and rocketing around rural roads is what we did on Friday and Saturday nights... stupid yeah, but things have changed a lot in 35 years. Give the Asians a break - they will take the same amount of time to reach western levels of driving culture as we did.

On a side note I still believe every western car driver should be forced by graduated licensing to ride a motorbike for a year before they can apply for a automobile license. In the west it teaches you to be much more aware of your own vulnerability and the potentially dangerous actions of vehicles around you... a lesson many western drivers never learn as they drive around blissfully ensconced in their three ton SUVs barely registering others rights on the road. This DOES NOT apply to Asia where the scooter culture is a different beast altogether!

I am not saying that Asia should learn to drive instantly, I am only stating my opinion as to why road safety seems to me to lag behind the West.