Speeding Van Falls Off Bangkok Expressway, Killing At Least Eight

[MikeyIdea]

Very sad and my condolences to the dead, the victims and their relatives. RIP to all except the driver

8 murders should be enough for the death sentence, had he survived

[random]

Very sad and my condolences to the dead, the victims and their relatives. RIP to all except the driver

8 murders should be enough for the death sentence, had he survived

my understanding is that the driver is one of the survivors, although badly burned.

[metisdead]

Very sad and my condolences to the dead, the victims and their relatives. RIP to all except the driver

8 murders should be enough for the death sentence, had he survived

my understanding is that the driver is one of the survivors, although badly burned.

From George's update, post #40:

The passengers with serious injuries included Viroj Pa-utha, 56, who was the driver and car owner. He suffered burns to his back and arms.

RIP to the victims. I have no sympathy for the driver.

[Thai at Heart]

Some people here proclaim that driving standards will improve here.

To which one should counter.

How and why?

Waiting for natural selection will take a bit too long I fear.

Very sorry affair.

[jhwest]

Well absolutely shocking and R.I.P and hope the survivors recover fully.

Same old anywhere in the World, but not too surprised or shocked that down to speeding and a normally the accidents are the ones, who have little regard to anyone else on the road.

Frankly am surprised there are not more accidents and yes I am a driver and I honestly think people it is fun to drive fast and much too close to cars in front of them.

Also overtaking on blind bends and people may say that they just do not think.

Hogwash, they do not care about anyone else on the road and if they want to travel up to 140 and more, then let them do it, but do you know what I notice several times, that they have children in their cars.

Yes totally irresponsible behaviour and I have been in a car, when the driver is speeding and has no control over the vehicle and then boasting look at my speed.

Totally disgraceful and you know what no one speaks up ie the wifes or girlfriends WHY!!!! Too frightened.

There is never any Police around with these and a substantial number, but never seen by the police or stopped.

[ilyelol]

Sad. Best way to avoid this is to educate children around age 2 about driving safely. It's not about speed really, mostly being aware. I see thais with their kids on those small electric car/bike for toddlers and they just run around cars while not even looking in front of them or stopping when a car approaches. Parents unconcerned.

Personally when my kid drives his (not even 2 and a half) i have taught him to always stop when a car is driving close, move on the side when he hears an engine and look ahead. Of course they are some lapses since hes young but when there are lapses, hes brought back in the house right away and gets a timeout punishment.

doesn't take much to make people better drivers.. you dont even need to be from a developed country. But then again, you can't watch your kid if the only reason you have them is to get your wife busy so u can hang with the mia nois and massage girls and you can't expect a woman to teach driving skills

[Bagwan]

 AN IMBECILE IS CLEARLY IN CHARGE OF ROAD SAFETY.

Take note of his handiwork on the northern section of 2nd Road in Pattaya. Sheer lunacy.

[ableguy]

A terrible waste of life, and condolences to the families. But in reality, with the way Thai drive, I'm surprised things like this don't happen more often.

I agree I live in Hua Hin and we have these mini that leave here for BKK every two hours to Victory Monument, they do the trip in two hours. I have driven this same route many times and if I can do it in two hours forty five min I think I have done well, needless to say they drive like maniacs flashing their headlights telling everyone to get out of their way as no doubt they think they are very important, they remind me of the kids around here who deliver pizza they think they have a special right to act as if they are on a race track. Needless to say the mini vans here have an apalling safety record. When freinds visit me I go to swampy and pick them up I would never let people close to me in one of these death traps.

[shiatsuman]

Sad indeed.

In my driving experiences in BKK, I've watched these minivans (and camry drivers it seems) being driven as if in an F1 race, with very dangerous maneuvers to gain little or no real progress in BKK's usual rolling gridlock. I can only guess its a machismo on Redbull thing, but no matter, they're senselessly endangering lives.

But before anyone assumes I'm Thai bashing, I see the same thing pretty much in every country & continent I've been in/on. Maybe these macho idiots are dumb enough to believe the car advertising telling them how safe & manly they are in their air-bagged, steel-caged splendour machines.

Solution: all minivans driven for hire should have their steering wheel airbag replaced with a fixed steel spike so the driver's the first to suffer for their idiotic risk taking. And random roadside drug testing for commercial license holders. Meth is evidently a big problem here. [off soapbox]

I believe that the more protection devices that are built into vehicle the more risk the driver takes. So the steel spike sticking out of steering wheel should be the the best way of reducing road deaths .

Will it happen ? in your dreams ...... what will the manafacturers and the SUV drivers and the whole massive "safety lobby" think of that one ?

[thaimate]

Some time ago we hired one of these vans so the whole familly could go away for the weekend,instead of taking 3 cars ,the driver was so bad we all refused to go back home with him and another van had to be despatched to take us home ,the driver was crazy and refused to slow down . mad.

[richieudon]

Terrible accident and very sad for the families of the victims. My sincere condolences for their loss, with one exception... the driver. It is tragic to see innocent lives lost because of one man's irresponsibility.

I drive on this expressway every week day and encounter a lot of terrible drivers, not just those high speed morons, but also those uncertain about what it is they are supposed to be doing or where they are going. These van drivers are a different breed of bad driver. The emergency shoulder is an entire car lane wide, then there is the retaining wall and the reinforced railing which is about a meter high all told. You would have to be deliberately stupid to get up enough speed to get a van over all that.

I hate to say it, but there should be a way to get all these arrogant, ignorant and reckless drivers out from behind the wheel and under them.

Nothing will ever change the driving habits of Thais as so long as you can "buy" a license for 1000 baht.

That's without taking a test which by the way is an absolute joke.

There's no testing if someone is competent on the roads. You just have to drive around a few old tyres and reverse into a space.

I was driving somewhere the other day and traffic came to a stand still so I left a gap between myself and the car in front so oncoming cars could turn right into a soi.

Everyone in the car called me "jai dee". Doesn't that tell you something about the state of play on the roads?

[ilyelol]

Terrible accident and very sad for the families of the victims. My sincere condolences for their loss, with one exception... the driver. It is tragic to see innocent lives lost because of one man's irresponsibility.

I drive on this expressway every week day and encounter a lot of terrible drivers, not just those high speed morons, but also those uncertain about what it is they are supposed to be doing or where they are going. These van drivers are a different breed of bad driver. The emergency shoulder is an entire car lane wide, then there is the retaining wall and the reinforced railing which is about a meter high all told. You would have to be deliberately stupid to get up enough speed to get a van over all that.

I hate to say it, but there should be a way to get all these arrogant, ignorant and reckless drivers out from behind the wheel and under them.

Nothing will ever change the driving habits of Thais as so long as you can "buy" a license for 1000 baht.

That's without taking a test which by the way is an absolute joke.

There's no testing if someone is competent on the roads. You just have to drive around a few old tyres and reverse into a space.

I was driving somewhere the other day and traffic came to a stand still so I left a gap between myself and the car in front so oncoming cars could turn right into a soi.

Everyone in the car called me "jai dee". Doesn't that tell you something about the state of play on the roads?

Last night it was raining hard. Accident on the main intersection.

Right before the light there's a spot to uturn and to turn into a small very used soi. Every big consutrction truck stopped in the middle and left like 2meter of space for cars to turn in, i was on that soi trying to get out, i left the nose end of my car in the lane but didnt go in cause i would block incoming traffic and we would have to wait at least 8-9 green lights before getting out of the intersection. Well a kia minivan decided to move cm by cm untill it came to about 3cm from my car just to make sure he'd go in front of me, blocking cars for about 10mins. (of course 20mins later i was way ahead of him in the traffic)

when i got through the light, traffic was still crazy. Ambulance came. I saw cars SPEEDING in almost stopped traffic to block the ambulance from going in front of them, not just a few mins. THE WHOLE time to the accident. and that was in the slow left lane.

[featography]

I often catch the mini-bus from Victory Monument down to Hua Hin and back,but try to make sure that its the early morning bus that I catch as really you just do not know how many trips some of these drivers are doing a day!Of course you can have the best driver in the world but that doesn't mean to say it guarantees' your safety on these roads as we all know!

Good point. Also in your travels between VM and Hua Hin, how often do you see 4 to 6 double deckers in a convoy, in the fast lane, appearing to race each other, near bumper to bumper at 110kph? I see this every day on Rama 2, If cars get between any 2 buses, its veer over one lane, pass the car, cut back into the fast lane, followed by the buses behind them. It's like, what kind of race do you call this?!?!?! Then when they approach a stop and take a break filling station, the lead bus moves lane to lane to the left to make the turn in, followed by the rest of the buses, veering lane to lane irregardless of other vehicles in their way. It looks like they are all daisy chained together. And in 4 yrs living out here, I have seen 5 double decker accidents, and they weren't minor. Bigger=heavier=more mayhem when their luck runs out. BTW, when passing through Mahachai, Samut Sakohn, waive hello to me, with all 5 fingers please.

Edited November 1, 2010 by featography

[rufanuf]

Well knowone is "Thai Bashing" well sorry to say but in regards to road safety that is exactly what the Thais need, in 3 years of driving here I have seen more death on the roads than in my entire life as driver in the UK both as a saleperson and a taxi driver! The authorities ought be ashamed of themselves for allowing people with no training whatsoever to be set loose in a car in one of the busiest cities in the world.

[richieudon]

The whole problem of speeding, reckless driving stems from the culture of "lack of responsibility". Road safety begin from infancy upwards with four children to a motorcycle and 18/20 children on the rear ot the pick-up used for school transport. Plus of course that does not count the ones sitting on the roof. Who is responsible for this "teaching"?

Bye-the-bye; Have you ever seen any police checking speed on BKK expressways?

Yes! I got 1000 baht fine for doing 110kmh, but I was just going with the traffic flow. Problem is, I am a farang ...

[rufanuf]

The whole problem of speeding, reckless driving stems from the culture of "lack of responsibility". Road safety begin from infancy upwards with four children to a motorcycle and 18/20 children on the rear ot the pick-up used for school transport. Plus of course that does not count the ones sitting on the roof. Who is responsible for this "teaching"?

Bye-the-bye; Have you ever seen any police checking speed on BKK expressways?

Yes! I got 1000 baht fine for doing 110kmh, but I was just going with the traffic flow. Problem is, I am a farang ...

The culture sure does have a lot to do with it, as I say to many of my friends who only visit Thailand for a holiday, you cant have "one without the other". That being the lovely, happy go lucky nature, with the reckless abandon of an out of control adolescence. This truly is a "young" country in far more ways than occassional visitors realise.

[random]

I just read in the Bangkok Post about another accident on this expressway the following morning, 5 students returning from a night out at Ekkamai were coming off the expressway onto Chaeng Wattana Road, driving too fast, lost control, 4 dead 3rd year uni students and one girl survived.

[random]

If vehicles are going to start hurtling down towards us from the skies, I guess we need a new Green Cross Code, Look Left, Look Right, Look Up

[scorecard]

Several years back my car was in for repairs, and I needed to do a quick trip to Pattaya, so I went to a small bus operator who's office i'd noticed many times before, opposite the side of the Indra Regent hotel (Bkk).

The bus picked up tourists from all over the area until totally full then departed for Pattaya, and within a few minutes it was obvious that the driver was a total maniac, driving at times over 150 Km per hour and even at that speed weaving in and out of the traffic and throwing the passengers from side to side. And talking and laughing on his mobile all of the time.

Everybody was terrified, and especially two parents who had two small children with them. Many of the passengers screamed at the driver, in English, to slow down and to stop, and I did the same in Thai. He just refused to listen. Within a very short time we were at Chonburi City, the driver stopped at a service station so that he could go to the toilet.

I noticed another empty minibus quite near so I quickly asked the driver if he was available to take the whole group to Pattaya and very quickly explained why. He agreed and offered a very low price, and said 'get into my van very quickly so that I can go before the other driver sees us'. All the other passengers quickly agreed, there was a very fast transfer and we had a pleasant and sensible speed trip the rest of the way.

The next day I went back to the depot in Bkk, discovered that the Thai owner spoke perfect english, I explained what had happened the previous day. He was concerned and apologised, then used his phone. A few minutes later the driver appeared, so did two thugs. They proceeded to beat him up, and they did it well.

I'm not condoning violenece, but the driver did deserve some form of punishment. Later the same day one of the tourists called me and said the minibus owner had called all the pick up hotels in Bkk and tried to get details of the destination hotels in Pattya for all the passengers. The owner had spoken to those he could contact and apologized and offered to bring them back to Bangkok free and with a different driver.

Edited November 1, 2010 by scorecard

[Arkady]

A tragic waste of young life. The report I read indicated the passengers and the driver were all Thammasat university students heading home to Rangsit from a night of Halloween reveling. The explosion of the van on impact causing third degree burn injuries may say something about the safety of all the cheapo LPG tanks fitted by unqualified mechanics all over Thailand.

[random]

A tragic waste of young life. The report I read indicated the passengers and the driver were all Thammasat university students heading home to Rangsit from a night of Halloween reveling. The explosion of the van on impact causing third degree burn injuries may say something about the safety of all the cheapo LPG tanks fitted by unqualified mechanics all over Thailand.

That is a separate accident, I mention that one a few posts back,The uni students were in a car and crashed further up the expressway.

Edited November 1, 2010 by random

[Screws]

Several years back my car was in for repairs, and I needed to do a quick trip to Pattaya, so I went to a small bus operator who's office i'd noticed many times before, opposite the side of the Indra Regent hotel (Bkk).

The bus picked up tourists from all over the area until totally full then departed for Pattaya, and within a few minutes it was obvious that the driver was a total maniac, driving at times over 150 Km per hour and even at that speed weaving in and out of the traffic and throwing the passengers from side to side. And talking and laughing on his mobile all of the time.

Everybody was terrified, and especially two parents who had two small children with them. Many of the passengers screamed at the driver, in English, to slow down and to stop, and I did the same in Thai. He just refused to listen. Within a very short time we were at Chonburi City, the driver stopped at a service station so that he could go to the toilet.

I noticed another empty minibus quite near so I quickly asked the driver if he was available to take the whole group to Pattaya and very quickly explained why. He agreed and offered a very low price, and said 'get into my van very quickly so that I can go before the other driver sees us'. All the other passengers quickly agreed, there was a very fast transfer and we had a pleasant and sensible speed trip the rest of the way.

The next day I went back to the depot in Bkk, discovered that the Thai owner spoke perfect english, I explained what had happened the previous day. He was concerned and apologised, then used his phone. A few minutes later the driver appeared, so did two thugs. They proceeded to beat him up, and they did it well.

I'm not condoning violenece, but the driver did deserve some form of punishment. Later the same day one of the tourists called me and said the minibus owner had called all the pick up hotels in Bkk and tried to get details of the destination hotels in Pattya for all the passengers. The owner had spoken to those he could contact and apologized and offered to bring them back to Bangkok free and with a different driver.

Lovely story Scorecard. We need more of that boss.

[moskito]

stories about reckless driving with an outcome like that make it unfortunately not often enough to the news. There are dozens of ppl dying every single day on Thailands streets due to speeding, drunk driving or just brainless behaviour. I drove all over the world but NEVER met ppl more egoistic in traffic then Thaipeople are.

Time the government starts to educate drivers and if it is just by stopping them for speeding or drunk driving and bring them to jail or charge them a lot of money.

BTW Farangs are not better drivers while here in Thailand. They often think they can do whatever they want.....a lot of little Michael Schumachers specially atm on Phuket Roads. F.T.all

[midas]

The whole problem of speeding, reckless driving stems from the culture of "lack of responsibility". Road safety begin from infancy upwards with four children to a motorcycle and 18/20 children on the rear ot the pick-up used for school transport. Plus of course that does not count the ones sitting on the roof. Who is responsible for this "teaching"?

Bye-the-bye; Have you ever seen any police checking speed on BKK expressways?

Yes! I got 1000 baht fine for doing 110kmh, but I was just going with the traffic flow. Problem is, I am a farang ...

The culture sure does have a lot to do with it, as I say to many of my friends who only visit Thailand for a holiday, you cant have "one without the other". That being the lovely, happy go lucky nature, with the reckless abandon of an out of control adolescence. This truly is a "young" country in far more ways than occassional visitors realise.

but with an exponential growth in cars and motorbikes

- there comes a time when you better get really serious with traffic management.

A lacksadaisical attitude to enforcement is fine on the back roads of Isaan

but in rapidly growing cities, something has to give eventually

[tomyummer]

It doesn't surprise me. Not even thinking if alcohol or drugs were an issue, but when you have an additional make shift outside lane (normally a safety stop shoulder in the west) with cars ripping by at full speed and a ramp-like triangular (yellow and black painted concrete marker slanting upwards at bumper height) barrier at the beginning of the exit, and throw in a crazy van driver, you have the makings of a movie-like-stunt gone bad.

I can only imagine the horror at the instant of the accident and the fact that it plummeted from overhead. With the flames and all, I hope the victims went instantly. I heard the count was now 9 and the driver was alive. Any confirmation?

[Activo]

I have a suggestion - I don't know how effective it would be with the general lack of accountability here though.  -  Make it law that a call number be prominently marked on commercial vehicles so people can report to the owners of the vehicles incidents of dangerous driving.  Apart from the obvious tragedy of multiple loss of life, I'm sure the van owners wouldn't like it if they knew how recklessly their (expensive) vans get driven by these idiot drivers.  Maybe they (owners) can police their own drivers?  It wouldn't account for all bad driving incidents involving commercial vehicles, but it would cover a lot of them.

[Spoonman]

I have a suggestion - I don't know how effective it would be with the general lack of accountability here though.

Make it law that a call number be prominently marked on commercial vehicles so people can report to the owners of the vehicles incidents of dangerous driving, Apart from the obvious tragedy of multiple loss of life.

I'm sure the van owners wouldn't like it if they knew how recklessly their (expensive) vans get driven by these idiot drivers.

Maybe they (owners) can police their own drivers?

It wouldn't account for all bad driving incidents involving commercial vehicles, but it would cover a lot of them.

That idea would not for owner/driver ones, infact a telephone call to the owner whom is driving might actually result in an accident..........

[Screws]

Several years back my car was in for repairs, and I needed to do a quick trip to Pattaya, so I went to a small bus operator who's office i'd noticed many times before, opposite the side of the Indra Regent hotel (Bkk).

The bus picked up tourists from all over the area until totally full then departed for Pattaya, and within a few minutes it was obvious that the driver was a total maniac, driving at times over 150 Km per hour and even at that speed weaving in and out of the traffic and throwing the passengers from side to side. And talking and laughing on his mobile all of the time.

Everybody was terrified, and especially two parents who had two small children with them. Many of the passengers screamed at the driver, in English, to slow down and to stop, and I did the same in Thai. He just refused to listen. Within a very short time we were at Chonburi City, the driver stopped at a service station so that he could go to the toilet.

I noticed another empty minibus quite near so I quickly asked the driver if he was available to take the whole group to Pattaya and very quickly explained why. He agreed and offered a very low price, and said 'get into my van very quickly so that I can go before the other driver sees us'. All the other passengers quickly agreed, there was a very fast transfer and we had a pleasant and sensible speed trip the rest of the way.

The next day I went back to the depot in Bkk, discovered that the Thai owner spoke perfect english, I explained what had happened the previous day. He was concerned and apologised, then used his phone. A few minutes later the driver appeared, so did two thugs. They proceeded to beat him up, and they did it well.

I'm not condoning violenece, but the driver did deserve some form of punishment. Later the same day one of the tourists called me and said the minibus owner had called all the pick up hotels in Bkk and tried to get details of the destination hotels in Pattya for all the passengers. The owner had spoken to those he could contact and apologized and offered to bring them back to Bangkok free and with a different driver.

Lovely story Scorecard. We need more of that boss.

Thinking further Scorecard, one of the few explanations for the drivers behaviour (against the screams of passengers) might be that he was racing - against the clock - for some sort of informal prize between the drivers. Or just bragging rights. Or drunk or drugged. Any of these possible?

[Flatouthruthefog]

I have a suggestion - I don't know how effective it would be with the general lack of accountability here though.  -  Make it law that a call number be prominently marked on commercial vehicles so people can report to the owners of the vehicles incidents of dangerous driving.  Apart from the obvious tragedy of multiple loss of life, I'm sure the van owners wouldn't like it if they knew how recklessly their (expensive) vans get driven by these idiot drivers.  Maybe they (owners) can police their own drivers?  It wouldn't account for all bad driving incidents involving commercial vehicles, but it would cover a lot of them.

dam_n good western idea. Like the signs on the back of trucks: "How am I driving? If you don't like it, call xxxxxxxxxx!"

Maybe some WESTERN company bosses here could order this (in Thai of course)? But I doubt that anyone would bother to call unless they were badly cut up - in more ways than one.

When this GOOD habit (from USA I am sure) began in UK it was - in my experience - a positive, if limited, initiative. Some fleet managers actually told me they had COMPLIMENTS over the phone from other drivers. These were passed on to the fleet drivers concerned and in one firm's case a bonus system evolved. Carrot, as well as stick, huh!

Just a note on semantics. Vans carry goods and so don't have windows behind the drivers seat. Mini buses have seats and carry people and have windows, okay? I know I am fighting Ameringlish on this one, but we invented it all and have a rather richer vocabulary to help people with their 'word pictures'.

Minivans were made ONLY by BMC in the 60's. They carried goods, not passengers, and didn't have windows. Clear? No need to thank me, and i know you'll never change, but i feel SO much better now.

[Frajuhe]

Often I think the most drivers win their license in a lottery. They drive to fast, to often drunk or under other drugs. Think first then drive. This will protect many lives.

RIP for the victims of these useless death.