Phuket Accident Causes Commuter Misery

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Phuket accident causes commuter misery

THOU SHALT NOT PASS: The scene on Thepkrasattri Road

southbound on Koh Kaew this morning.

PHUKET: -- A four-car collision on Thepkrasattri Road southbound in Phuket this morning caused a two-kilometer-long traffic tailback.

The accident, which occurred near near the Isuzu Showroom in Koh Kaew at about 10am, left a traffic tailback all the way to the Heroines Monument in Thalang.

Phuket City Police arrived at the scene, at the northernmost fringe of their jurisdiction, at 10:45am.

Fortunately nobody was injured in the accident, which could have been avoided if the drivers had kept safe braking distances between their vehicles.

Long traffic tailbacks are a common result of even minor accidents in Thailand, where motorists who can't agree on who was at fault keep their cars in place until police and insurance adjusters arrive.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-10-19

[Valentine]

Safe braking distance is almost unheard of here. Motorists arguing over who was at fault in almost 100% of all accidents, unless they are lying dead or badly injured. Police should be able to respond almost anywhere within 15 minutes, mark the road, record the vehicles & get them moved off to the side of the road asap. A big inconvenience to 100s of road users & especially so if an emergency vehicle had a critical patient trying to get past. Once you are stuck in a jam on this road there is no alternative route & this highlights once again the lack of good road planning along with a dearth of secondary roads.

[OzMick]

Not that hard a problem to overcome. Issue instruction to traffic police that the driver of any move-able vehicle not moved to the side of the road after an accident be charged with obstructing traffic and fined heavily. Police can decide fault, phone/camera evidence can assist.

[Spoonman]

lol @ safe braking distances.

I flew back in yesterday morning, on the motorway into Pattaya there was a total of 8 nose to tail accidents in the distance of less than 3 km's.... dumb asses dont even bother extending the distance to the car in front during heavy rain falls.

[ScubaBuddha]

Not that hard a problem to overcome. Issue instruction to traffic police that the driver of any move-able vehicle not moved to the side of the road after an accident be charged with obstructing traffic and fined heavily. Police can decide fault, phone/camera evidence can assist.

The problem is in Thailand the rule, written or unwritten, at least as I have been told, is to leave cars/bikes where they are even if it is a minor fender bender. It may be a law, I am not sure. Should be only in an injury accident IMO, like in the west.

[LivinLOS]

Not that hard a problem to overcome. Issue instruction to traffic police that the driver of any move-able vehicle not moved to the side of the road after an accident be charged with obstructing traffic and fined heavily. Police can decide fault, phone/camera evidence can assist.

The problem is in Thailand the rule, written or unwritten, at least as I have been told, is to leave cars/bikes where they are even if it is a minor fender bender. It may be a law, I am not sure. Should be only in an injury accident IMO, like in the west.

Yes, they desire you to simply step out of the vehicle and leave it to the police to decide.. Moving the vehicle (which I have no idea of if it is illegal or not) seems to at least hint at guilt.

[madmitch]

Yes, they desire you to simply step out of the vehicle and leave it to the police to decide.. Moving the vehicle (which I have no idea of if it is illegal or not) seems to at least hint at guilt.

Just by looking at the position of the vehicles is most cases not going to prove guilt for one party.

It's just one of those annoying laws that we have to accept as part of living in Thailand.