One Dead, Two Critical Injured Following Phuket Horror Smash

[Just1Voice]

1) From Thaiwebsite.com : Way to many young people still die unnecessarily in Thailand due to car and (mostly) motorcycle accidents. The actual number of deaths on the road is reportedly around 30,000. Many more of course get maimed for live, or require expensive medical care (if they can afford it).

This statistic is from 2005, so if you increase that figure by 5% a year, that would mean that for 2010 there will be 38,200. But one of the key factors here is the word "reported".

2) I am of the belief that even the most sensible Thai turns into a complete idiot once they get on a motorbike, in a car or a truck. My theory is that there is something in the electro/magnetic waves coming from the electronics of whatever they are driving that completely shuts down the common sense area of their brains.

3) A few months ago we had a large family gathering. Before anyone arrived I used Microsoft Power Point to design 4 roads, which I printed out on separate pages. One showed a solid white line, one a broken white line, one a solid yellow line, and one a broken yellow line. Of the 18 people here, not a single one of them could tell me what the 4 lines meant.

4) I grew up on bikes. Mini bike at 8, trail bike at 10, dirt bike at 12, and then did some Junior Motorcross and dirt bike racing. But one of the things I learned, even on the mini bike was if I wasn't wearing a helmet, I wasn't allowed to ride. My father was adamant about that. Later in life I was lucky enough to spend a couple of years in the old SCCA racing circuit. As a result of the experiences on bikes and the SCCA racing, I consider myself a better than average driver, but to tell you the truth, sometimes driving in Thailand, whether it's in my car or on my bike, scares the hel_l out of me.

5) I wrote in another post some time back on a similar subject where I personally saw a woman send her son to the market to get something. The boy was 10 years old. He hopped on an old Honda Wave and shot out of a very narrow soi and turned RIGHT, which was against the traffic, which was headed left, and was immediately crushed by a pickup truck. The mother was devastated, to say the least, but tried to attack the driver of the truck, who had stopped. The police arrive almost immediate, as one had been a few hundred meters behind the tuck and saw what happened. A few minutes later more police arrived. After asking everyone about what they saw, I saw something I thought I would never see in Thailand. The ranking police officer started yelling at the mother, saying she was the one responsible for her son's death, not the driver of the truck, telling her that it was her fault for letting her 10 year old son drive a motorbike in the first place. So there are a few good BiB out there.

6) I am also a firm believer that when Thai see a yellow light, instead of them understanding that it means to slow down in anticipation of the light turning red, that it means to mash the gas and go as fast as you can, and that they have a 100 meter "clearance zone", which means that if they are within 100 meters of a light when it turns red, it's still ok to go through. I've counted as many as 8 cars/trucks go through a light well after it's turned red.

7) Last, about a year ago I saw an accident happen near the intersection where I live, which seems to happen on an almost weekly basis. I was going to stop to see if I could help. After 20 years in the military, with most of that spent in Recon, I know a little bit about treating trama injuries and first aid. As I started to slow down and pull over, my wife became frantic and told me "GO! DON'T STOP!" When I asked her why, she said that if I stopped, even though I was trying to help, I could be blamed for the accident because I'm falang. Even my insurance agent joking told me that if I'm in the car, and hit a motorbike, just keep going and get away as fast as I can.

The sad thing about all of this is that nothing will change, and the deaths will continue to mount.

Edited October 1, 2010 by Just1Voice

[jimbeam1]

Nobody cares , nothing will change dont even know why they bother reporting it, except of course an opportuniy to rubber neck the remains of someone, bring a camera have a picnic make a day of it "sick"

Sadly very true R.I.P

jb1

[normac44]

When I first came to Thailand and started riding motor bikes I thought the best way was to be an idiot like all of the locals but then I learnt that most of them have a death wish and don't really care about their own safety or the safety of others. Every time I go to Patong I seem to be stopped by the BIB on the Beach Rd 3 or 4 times a day for ID checks etc. There always seems to be a huge Police presence...where were they on this day?

I have seen many horrific accidents in Thailand and it is all down to shear stupidity. RIP to the young girl.

[chiang mai]

I have a theory why Thai drivers run away from the scene of fatal accidents and this is because they're afraid of mob rule at the scene and their own safety, if you look into to it you will often see that the driver in such an accident often turns him self into the police later. To support that I saw one minor accident some years ago where a motorbike rider struck a four year old boy who was crossing the street way behind his family and was acting erraticly, in no way shape or form did I think the bike rider was to blame. The kid bounced a bit, screamed a lot but was basically OK, the rider stopped and came back to the scene but kept a safe distance from the family who, after making sure the boy was OK, angrily chased after the bike rider who also then, not surprisingly, did a runner. It makes me wonder sometimes what might happen to a farang under similar circumstances!

[Jimi007]

When I first came to Thailand and started riding motor bikes I thought the best way was to be an idiot like all of the locals but then I learnt that most of them have a death wish and don't really care about their own safety or the safety of others. Every time I go to Patong I seem to be stopped by the BIB on the Beach Rd 3 or 4 times a day for ID checks etc. There always seems to be a huge Police presence...where were they on this day?

I have seen many horrific accidents in Thailand and it is all down to shear stupidity. RIP to the young girl.

The Kathu Police were in Patong stopping farangs on motorbikes trying to make money. Out by Tesco Lotus, I think it would be the Phuket Police. But they seem to be hiding somewhere. But what difference would it make? As I said before a large truck versus a motorbike, it's a never win for the motorbike. I was almost rear ended in my car today by a crazy driver approaching Chalong Circle. People in Phuket drive crazy! I was on my way to Phuket International Hospital for a check up. Guess what? My blood pressure was high!

[dude007]

That stretch of road from the airport to Central is a down-hill slope and the truck driver probably didn't want to lose his inertia by braking hard.

He would have known he wouldn't get there before the lights went red so he should have flashed his lights and sounded his horn - anything to stop people pulling out without looking.

RIP to the poor girl and condolences to everyone affected.

Do you know any truck driver here in Thailand that is willing "to lose his inertia by breaking hard"? This generation of drivers has gone since long... See how the public buses in Bangkok are behaving in the traffic: frightening, appalling, horrendous... and they transport passengers! It's the law enforcement that is lacking, nothing else... Feel so sorry for the victim and wish all the best for the critically injured. My thoughts are with them!

Edited October 1, 2010 by dude007

[Sabre]

Actually the beauty of statistics is that you can compare Swaziland to Thailand. That's the point.

It goes like this:

Thailand = 19.6 deaths / 100,000 people / year.

Swaziland = 26.3 deaths / 100,.000 people / year.

Thailand 19.6 / Swaziland 26.3

And yes, we could throw in the U.S.A. too and compare all three ...

Statistics. Helping us to compare.

My point being that you would even for a moment take what Thailand provides as fact, and use it as a comparison to a much more credible country as the US. That you would, in fact, believe these statistics, as provided by corrupt officials, and use it as a supportive argument to downplay what we all know as a situation far more serious than what these "statistics" show.

I submit that were Thailand to properly document and report each incident, on a case by case basis (as the US does), that the statistics would shoot off the chart. But I know this will never be so, because I know for a fact that to lie in this culture is not a criminal offense and is instead nurtured and downplayed, regardless of the consequences that the lie creates.

No way; absolutely no way of driving in the US for 29 years have I seen the absolute lunacy I see here, You can not tell me that Thailand is comparative to the US, in what I sense is information not being collected, or is being suppressed, or simply being ignored, through incompetence, a stubborn refusal to appear flawed and an overly adolescent mindset amongst the natives.

Nope! Never trust a green light in Thailand, and never trust any information unless you are there to see it for yourself, and verify with your own senses that it is so. To do so is to place yourself at a risk of loss, damage, or death.

Fight or flight, avoid or kill, stay and dominate, or pull a runner, and when in doubt, lie lie lie. Those are things foreigners learn very quickly if they hang around long enough. 19.6 road fatalities per 100,000 people per year my arse! Seems they forgot to insert the word "reported" after the 19.6. But go ahead and believe that this is a comprehensive report. No skin off my nose.

Incidentally, on the way home tonight from dinner, I could have easily taken out 10 motorcyclists were I not watching all my mirrors and the front screen. It really diminishes ones ability to feel sympathy for incessant, bestial behavior. 5 of these near misses were the <deleted> who come barreling out of a perpendicular side Soi and swing a quick left right into your lane without so much as slowing down or even casting one glance in the direction of oncoming traffic. Sheer lunacy!

Here is a statistic that is more comparable than your 19.6%. Whether it relates to what is seen daily, on the roads and Sois, is up to the reader to decide.

It's appropriate that you ended your argument with a reference to lemmings. In fact the notion that lemmings commit mass suicide - so prevalent in popular culture - is entirely erroneous. But like you said, believe what you like, it doesn't bother me.

[TAWP]

The stats compared are skewed since it should be accidents per car and accidents per mile driven that should be compared, not per capita, as the ratio of car ownership is different.