Phuket Roads: Napping Driver Crushed By 18-Wheeler

[Lite Beer]

Phuket Roads: Napping driver crushed by 18-wheeler

Phuket Gazette –

Phuket rescue workers needed to use two cranes to free the victim's body from beneath the 18-wheeler. Photo: Wichai Witthawat.

PHUKET: A truck driver taking a nap beneath his 18-wheeler was run over and killed when the rig's brake system failed at a hillside construction site in Phuket yesterday.

Kamala Police identified the deceased as 31-year-old Boonruam Lekyai, a resident of Thonburi district, Bangkok.

At about 12:30pm Kamala Police and rescue workers from the Kamala Ruam Katanyu Foundation were called to the scene, a construction site off Soi Nakalay in Kamala Village 6.

At the scene they found Mr Boonruam's body pinned beneath the flatbed trailer. He died of massive wounds to the midsection when the rig's wheels ran over him.

Witnesses said Mr Boonruam parked the rig on a hilly section of the dirt access road, then set up a makeshift hammock beneath the flatbed to take a nap while workers unloaded a shipment of 'rebar' (steel reinforcing rods for concrete) that he had just delivered from a factory in Bangkok.

When the truck's parking brakes failed, the rig ran about 100 meters downhill before coming to a stop in a roadside ditch.

Rescue workers needed to use two cranes at the site to remove Mr Boonruam's body from beneath the vehicle.

Kamala Police consigned Mr Boonruam's body to Kamala Ruam Katanyu Foundation workers for transport to Patong Hospital, where it will be held until it can be claimed by relatives.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2012/article12006.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-01-15

[Valentine]

He had probably done it on many occasions before. I once worked on a crew which maintained the railway line from an iron ore mine in Western Australia. There was a story going around about how the Thursday Islanders liked to take a nap under the huge wagons in the heat of the day until one of them had his legs chopped off when the train moved. I always used to be amazed by how Thai people I have known could just curl & sleep just about anywhere, anytime, even on a couple of 4 x 2s straddled across a couple of saw horses.

Will anyone else be held responsible for this poor man's death & at least make some restitution to his family. Here is another case of poor maintenance but in all of the horrific accidents in Thailand I do not recall any of the transport company owners ever being charged. There was talk of charging the gas tanker's owner after the horrific explosion in Bangkok but I don't think anything ever came of it.

[thaiIand]

he was parked in the hill, it will be deemed his fault.

[slapout]

At first glance, it would appear to be a case of the drive leaving the rig and his brain out of gear. At second glance, when parking a loaded rig on a hill, blocks are normally placed in between the drive/drag tires of the truck. This offsets the possibility of the driver not knowing up from downhill slope. To depend on air brakes while parked is not the mark of a 'truck driver'