Eight Killed In Chiang Mai Road Accident

[housepainter]

Roads are not dangerous.

Speed is.

The Thais remain untrained, ill of judgement, poor of eyesight and fearsomely fast. They can not drive a bend. They can floor it on any straight.

Accidents like this one are the result.

We see these lunatics constantly threatening us and all other road users.

Nothing will change. And if it ever could where on earth would start with Thailand? The reckless road deaths would actually be well down the list of what's wrong in the Land of Smiles aka the place for innane grins and lack of understanding.

[23423981]

Accident is the third most cause of death among men after heart disease and cancer.

Real tragic. I just hope they did not have to suffer for a long period of time before their deaths.

[Thongkorn]

Bad driving bad maintenance and not reinforced driving laws, also busses have high gears thats why the struggle up hills and the opposite when they go down , The breaks get hot and you get brake fade , if the air goes the brakes come on, but if they are to hot they do nothing. The driver should know that feathering the breaks allow them to cool a Little between braking. Also it should be mandatory to have a maxi ret system , it is a system that has no actual touching parts, You have an Electro magnetic magnet around the prop shaft to slow the vehicle down , many busses in Europe have them so why not Thailand. But then again maybe the driver had a heart attack and it was beoned his control, we will never know now but a tragic loss of life,

[thelinguist]

Really, what is the point in any 'media coverage' to outline the dangers and problems affiliated with driving in Thailand.

It's a nationwide case of monkey see, monkey do! You can't teach 10s of millions of motorists all at the same time to 'drive safely'.

It all bares down to the fundamentals of driving, patients (Which Thais have with everything bar driving), consideration for others/courtesy and common sense, all of which not a single person on the roads out here seems to have. I even find myself driving more and more like a maniac each day. No where near to the extent of your average local, but none-the-less, monkey see, monkey do!

They need to seriously revise what is required to obtain a license and stringently enforce the law for those who don't have one. Both of which require someone in the government to cook up an idea that doesn't involve.... Thailand BLAH BLAH BLAH, to be the hub of BLA BLA BLA for 2015. You get the point. Will it happen in my lifetime? Will it fuk! Politicians are too busy trying to find ways of making foreigners jump through hoops of fire. TIT! God I'm sick of saying that!

[hardy1943]

From what I have seen over the past 20 years you would have to teach the Police first! They seem to run red lights with the best of them. Legislation and the enforcing of it aside I think it has to come down to educating the kids. Find someone that is capable (not the teachers) and teach them road safety and common sense starting with bicycles. Licenses are not worth much when you see what it actually entails. Even then some are bought. Teach the kids common sense and self preservation and there might be some hope in the future.

Common sense seems to be lacking in the general Thai attitude. I think you are talking about a culture change. Good luck on that one.

[Phatcharanan]

Tragic event and RIP to the victims.

Fact is though, every time there is an accident that results in carnage, the same posters come online bleating about the same standards of driving etc.

No one is interested in what farangs think, least of all the Thai authorities. So why bother? Your opinion is worthless here. Save your postings for ones of respect.

Only the Thais' themselves will figure it out eventually.

[TechnikaIII]

Tragic event and RIP to the victims.

Fact is though, every time there is an accident that results in carnage, the same posters come online bleating about the same standards of driving etc.

No one is interested in what farangs think, least of all the Thai authorities. So why bother? Your opinion is worthless here. Save your postings for ones of respect.

Only the Thais' themselves will figure it out eventually.

Only after a highly publicised campaign of meaningful punishment for driving offences will there be any change. Employers of offending drivers should also get hit, and hard. Here's another way to punish: Print a weekly mug-shot list with names, offence committed and fine imposed. Shame the offenders as well as fining them. And for the employers of drivers too, because they no doubt press their drivers to deliver as quickly as possible.

But to let the Thais just work it out for themselves? .. not in our life time.

In stead of charging us for retirement, residence and work visas, we should should be paid to bring our money, risking life and limb to live and spend here.

[TechnikaIII]

<snip>

I agree. Online I would say it differently. In private though, well, ..yeah. You take the words right out of my mouth ;-)

For what it's worth, and I am actually glad now that my ex gf, really is my ex. At 150 kmp in the Toyota she can't really afford, let alone drive, she can kill the guy she now has. (Whilst in Europe working for the funds to fix up her house, to be our home once married, she impatiently dumped me and went online for a higher bidder, offering "love" to the first jerk who would promise to support her. ) I was planning to buy a car too, but I think I will stick to rail transport as much as possible, and locally ... the bicycle suits me fine.

Edited June 29, 2011 by craigt3365
Inappropriate Comment Removed

[NowImEasy]

While reading the op, it stated that the ovetaking vehicle couldn't get back into the travel lane in time. If the overtaken vehicle refused to allow the truck to pull in, then that driver is at fault. If this is the way it happened, then it is a case of road rage, or "mans' inhumanity to man". This is a human condition, and not exclusively Thai. People do things inside of vehicles that they would never do if they were walking down the street and could look at their fellow man eye to eye. Some do, but most do not.

My hope for any sense of this tragedy is that there will be lessons learned, as previous posters have mentioned.

[GM1955]

You can bet your life that bad driving caused yet another 8 losses of life on the roads of Thailand. .

There will be over 40,000 deaths on the roads in USA this year, is that down to good driving ?

Edited June 28, 2011 by GM1955

[GM1955]

<snip>

Over 40,000 people die in road traffic accidents per year in USA, many are alcohol related accidents, terrible, or is it different because it involves Farangs ?

Edited June 29, 2011 by craigt3365
Inappropriate Comment Removed

[Thighlander]

Sometimes life seems to cheap in Thailand--especially when vehicles are involved. I think folks are a lot safer on construction sites, which seem to have the safety records of the West. RIP everyone. Most horrible item I have read today.

I am a big advocate of living where you don't have to put yourself in harm's way. A walkable neighborhood in BKK, near the BTS and some pedestrian overpasses seems to be a very safe choice.

[chaoyang]

Tragic event and RIP to the victims.

Fact is though, every time there is an accident that results in carnage, the same posters come online bleating about the same standards of driving etc.

<snip>

The same "bleating" comes in response to the same insane behavior that causes almost unbelievable carnage. In my time in Chiang Mai I saw about 20 people killed on the roads (either witnessed directly or arrived shortly after it happened). In the end, the daily gauntlet of driving to work and back played a big role in my decision to leave. It's a &lt;deleted&gt;' nightmare, and it ain't gonna change.

[webfact]

Head-on truck smash kills eight at Chiang Mai

By The Nation

Police blame heavy rain and poor judgement for a collision between two heavy vehicles - a transport truck and a 10wheeler - in Chiang Mai's Doi Saket district in which eight passengers died and three were injured yesterday.

The accident took place at about 7.30am on Doi SaketChiang Rai Road. Police said the transport truck was running downhill and overtook another vehicle but couldn't get back to its original lane in time before colliding with the oncoming 10wheel truck.

Police found four male bodies - including the driver of the 10wheel truck - and four female bodies at the scene and took the three injured men, including the other truck driver Nattapong Kaewsukham, 21, to Doi Saket Hospital. Their injuries were so critical that they were later transferred to the betterequipped Nakhon Ping and Lanna hospitals.

The deceased were transported to Maharaj Nakhon Chiang Mai Hospital's forensic department for identification, as some did not carry identity cards.

Police suspected poor visibility from heavy rainfall at the time contributed to the accident, combined with the transporttruck driver's poor judgement.

-- The Nation 2011-06-29

[jackr]

It is the lack of speed, that creates all these accidents !

Rubbish! Those drivers are one aspect, but the overwhelming cause is speed and crap driving. Was almost wiped out by a moron going h3ll for leather couple months back. It is actually a decent stretch of road, but the problem is Thais don't do single lanes and corners so well.

over the 10 plus years staying up north i had many time drove up - and recently been going more offen cos my wife love to soak her leg at the hot spring .

Ta, there's a short cut to the hot springs, going through Doi Saket town and then a left... have a look on G maps.

[virtualtraveller]

Anyone who's driven that stretch of road will realise, it's twisting and hilly and busy, but the thing you notice the most is how many drivers routinely overtake on blind corners, crossing yellow lines, whizzing past a line of half a dozen cars stuck prudently behind a slow truck. It's the reason I aways use the Fang road to drive to Chiang Rai.

Sounds like this accident happened at the point where the road emerges into the Chiang Mai valley.

I play this game in the car when I'm bored driving about town, how many traffic infringements I can spot in 60 seconds - it's usually 4 or 5, often including at least one policeman/women. Driving among Thais is dreadful, and I notice that foreigners living here tend to become ill-disciplined too.

[MILT]

Sad state of affairs all round - a lot of grieving families tonight - When will the Highway Police actually be Highway Police instead of taking money for overloaded pickups with Burmese in - bout time they stopped a few more trucks along the way - its crazy on them there roads

VERY SAD!

Very sad and unnecessary lost of life. In regards to the Highway Patrol it is a farce at best.

[MILT]

Anyone who's driven that stretch of road will realise, it's twisting and hilly and busy, but the thing you notice the most is how many drivers routinely overtake on blind corners, crossing yellow lines, whizzing past a line of half a dozen cars stuck prudently behind a slow truck. It's the reason I aways use the Fang road to drive to Chiang Rai.

Sounds like this accident happened at the point where the road emerges into the Chiang Mai valley.

I play this game in the car when I'm bored driving about town, how many traffic infringements I can spot in 60 seconds - it's usually 4 or 5, often including at least one policeman/women. Driving among Thais is dreadful, and I notice that foreigners living here tend to become ill-disciplined too.

You are right, but one has to become a ill-disciplined driver here or else take the chance of a multitude of accidents and injuries to the locals. I have been driving here for a long time and realized on the first day that I better not drive correctly or people (motorcycles) mostly will get hurt. It's like controlled chaos to drive safely here.

[craigt3365]

An inappropriate comment has been removed. Keep it civil please, along with less foul language. :jap:

[MILT]

<snip>

I agree. Online I would say it differently. In private though, well, ..yeah. You take the words right out of my mouth ;-)

For what it's worth, and I am actually glad now that my ex gf, really is my ex. At 150 kmp in the Toyota she can't really afford, let alone drive, she can kill the guy she now has. (Whilst in Europe working for the funds to fix up her house, to be our home once married, she impatiently dumped me and went online for a higher bidder, offering "love" to the first jerk who would promise to support her. ) I was planning to buy a car too, but I think I will stick to rail transport as much as possible, and locally ... the bicycle suits me fine.

You got out easy my friend. Trust me on this. She could have bled you dry before moving on to the next.

[KKK]

Almost 4,000 people are killed on the world's roads every day. Most of them not in Thailand. So please don't be too hard on the Thais. Other countries are just as bad or worse.

http://www.roadpeace.org/remembering/world_day_of_remembrance/

Edited June 29, 2011 by KKK

[canuckamuck]

I am a frequent driver on this stretch of road and I consider it a dangerous place. Not because of how the road is designed, but because of the variety of drivers and vehicles that drive there. You have the new truck/car cowboys who believe they have a God given right to the entire road and everyone else is a trespasser. These guys are generally driving their vehicles at max possible speed. You have the transport trucks and buses that are underpowered and over loaded going up, and making up the time on the way down. You have the small truck transporters that either have a massive load well beyond safe limits, or they are empty and making their way through the corners like Mario Andretti. And there are the people who just simply drive slow for no reason at all. There are also the mini buses, half of which seem to have a death wish.

You put all of this together and what you get is continual passing. But here in Thailand when someone is behind you they don't exist. So instead of simply pulling over a little when conditions permit, everyone hugs the center line, even if they are only doing 40 on a straight. A little bit of consideration would take the highway death toll down by a huge margin.

But here it is better to imagine you have face and act like an ass then to be a decent person in reality.

People get in a vehicle and jungle rules apply.

[lovetotravel]

Almost 4,000 people are killed on the world's roads every day. Most of them not in Thailand. So please don't be too hard on the Thais. Other countries are just as bad or worse.

http://www.roadpeace...of_remembrance/

I was in China during the SARS outbreak. My parents were frantic to get me out. Getting a flight out was incredibly hard. I told them the chances of dying from SARS was nothing compared to dying in a road accident there.

More than 89,000 killed on China's roads in 2006. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people age 45 and younger in China. In 2007, for instance, police logged 81,649 deaths, compared to 221,135 listed on death certificates, said the study, whose findings were released this week. The number of traffic fatalities may be more than double the number police have been reporting, a new study suggests.

[JeffreyMcCollum]

The roads should be better marked and signed with speed restrictions, and better policed. .. by police who do serious police work and don't take bribes, and who don't just target farangs.

If you remove the non seiouse Police, and the ones who take bribes, as well as the one who target farangs, does that leave any left ot inforce the laws ?

[ratcatcher]

The information regarding the trucks was confusing at first. A crash between two heavy vehicles. One was a 10 wheeler transport truck, the other a yellow Toyota Viggo converted into a songtaew to carry passengers. Many heavy transport trucks on Thai roads are running on tires that in most western countries would have been dumped in the shredder. .However, speed and poor judgement, given the terrain etc, were obviously the main reasons for the crash.

Sorry for the families of the dead .

[diehard60]

I passed the accident when they were salvaging the bodies. Although the truck was on the wrong side of the road, I was under the impression that two of its tires were blown out and it might have become uncontrollable. The truck was in pretty good shape though. The yellow passenger pick up was new too. It came off the road and landed 5 meters or so below near a water stream. It was completely flattened. only the motor was still visible. The people must have been trapped like sardines in a can. The roof had completely collapsed. Fact is that the authorities do not give a dam_n thing. Converted Pick-up trucks are simply not suitable for transporting 15-20 people at a time. The transport Mafia will always oppose decent buses. But micro buses are the way to go.

You can bet your life that bad driving caused yet another 8 losses of life on the roads of Thailand. . It doesn't matter what type of bus,minibus,micro bus or whatever bus you wish to choose, if they are not driven properly and safely by competant drivers then this sort of thing will always be the outcome. RIP the poor souls who perished and condolences to the bereaved.

For sure. But then again the MIB do not do their job correctly when it comes to driving laws. And oh yes Thailand has driving laws. But many Thais don'y know it.

[jhwest]

Only when the husband, wife, son, daughter of someone important is killed will anyone even THINK of doing something about the driving in Thailand. Until then, it's every man/woman for himself, and "rules of the road" simply don't exist.

What an awful tragedy.

RIP to all those unfortunate souls and also their Families.

Unfortunately every day when driving on the roads, one takes literally their live in theiri hands and speeding and closely following the car in front and trying to get past, just to get one car in front.

Also bike riders who whizz in and out of traffic and some deliberately crash so they can get a new bike.

Also drunk and drug driving, but the problem will not go away and people are getting more and more inconsiderate to others and not just talking on the roads either.

So many people are so selfish and never it seems are happy with what they have got.

[thailand49]

Bad driving bad maintenance and not reinforced driving laws, also busses have high gears thats why the struggle up hills and the opposite when they go down , The breaks get hot and you get brake fade , if the air goes the brakes come on, but if they are to hot they do nothing. The driver should know that feathering the breaks allow them to cool a Little between braking. Also it should be mandatory to have a maxi ret system , it is a system that has no actual touching parts, You have an Electro magnetic magnet around the prop shaft to slow the vehicle down , many busses in Europe have them so why not Thailand. But then again maybe the driver had a heart attack and it was beoned his control, we will never know now but a tragic loss of life,

The report on this accident was the driver was over taking a vehicle going downhill. He was unable to complete the overtaking because another vehicle was coming in the opposite direction the result the vehicles collided head on. There was no time for the breaks to get hot or to fade. The air would deplete if a driver use feathering technique as you noted in a vehicle with airbrakes this is a technique use in passenger cars but never in a commercial vheicle for the fact the air can't refill in the tank fast enough. This accident doesn't have anything to do with brakes the driver put himself and others in a position that only could result in a accident. As a commericail driver and trainer when driving and testing one of the rules of thumb is " Never create a situation to happen because it will sooner or later happen " there are never been a device created in the past or future that can counteract the wreakless behavior of a human which was the case here.

Based on the health makeup of Thais and with no control on checking by the government on driver of commerical vehicles many are driving with heart problems and high blood pressure. In the western world a license commericial driver must get a physical every two years which is non-existent in Thailand. This had nothing to do with signage, the road or its condition or how many people use this road and how, nothing to do with his health, nothing to do with the vehicle it is plain and simple like so many accidents in Thailand. IT WAS THE HUMAN! I have been there and if this guy had a heart attack who wouldn't? Tons of steel and no where to go and nothing one can do " there is no out " If I was the driver and did this the best thing was to die or have a heart attack so I wouldn't have to live and see &lt;deleted&gt; I did!

Edited June 29, 2011 by thailand49

[johncat1]

This is the normal way Thais drive all over Thailand it is not unique to this area.

Thais think if they flash their lights they will be ok even though they are in the wrong.

EVERY time I stop at traffic lights I see at least one car or bus, truck go through a red light at speed . of course they flash their lights so the people who are in the right must get out of their way or get killed.

Thais will never overtake when they can see the road ahead this is too simple and safe for them

They wait until they are near a bend or on a blind hill

I have often seen many big trucks or buses overtake at speed through a village where young children are playing by the roadside.

But it all comes down to good old Thai corruption where people can simply buy a driving license instead of learning to drive first and taking a driving test.

[californiabeachboy]

I don't think education is the answer - most know how to drive safely, they just don't do it. The reason is that 99 percent of the time, there are no consequences to dangerous driving. I believe the only solution to this terrible tragedy is to make people who are speeding, passing when they shouldn't etc., suffer some consequences for their behavior BEFORE they kill someone - that is a big fine by the police who are out there watching them. It just seems that there are no consequences until after they kill someone.