Teenage Girl Dies After Being Hit By Train: Bangkok Asok-Phetchaburi Railroad Crossing

[Semper]

"Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the accident."

BF / GF issues?

...talking on the phone? RIP.

[sirchai]

Rest in Peace.......

[pedro01]

I cross there most days myself.

Unless, as someone mentioned, she had earphones plugged in & they were SERIOUSLY loud, it'd be hard to get hit by one of these trains accidentally.

The trains are slow, noisy and give the horn a lot of jabs when passing there. You could easily fall off the raised broken platform there but I think it's very unlucky to get accidentally hit by a train there.

[Time Traveller]

Sadly this happens all the time in Australia, both suicidal and accidental.

The difference is you don't hear about the 1000's of suicides that happen each year in Australia as the media is prohibited from reporting on it (for good reason)

RIP

Why are the media prohibited from reporting suicide?

[masuk]

I do not want to sound cold, or as if I have no compassion, but Thai people are simply not taught how to cross the road, or merge into traffic. I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

I have seen this in many parts of Asia.

If you do not look right and catch the person's eye on your right, then you are free of obligations and just go!

[belg]

maybe she was busy FB or twittering and did not pay attention ot anything else, possible no ?

[jambodave]

Another case for the Thai x files,for what ever reason she died my heart goes out to her family.

[Arkady]

I do not want to sound cold, or as if I have no compassion, but Thai people are simply not taught how to cross the road, or merge into traffic. I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

You may be right but the problem with the railway crossings in Bangkok is that they shouldn't be there at all. They are operated with no safety standards and block traffic. They should have been put underground 30 years ago but of course SRT has no budget for that. In fact SRT should have been disbanded or restructured years ago but governments never dare to do anything with it, except freeze its fairs to gain popularity with voters. Hint: due its large land holdings that are mismanaged and mainly let for peppercorn rents, SRT is a huge cash cow for certain people. SRT's powerful makes it the only state enterprise left that has resisted amalgamation into the Government Pension Fund and pensions are still unfunded entitlements of retired employees. Annual pension payments not only exceed current staff salaries but also exceed sales turnover. So where do you start in restructuring a business like that that has not been allowed to increase fares since 1981. No wonder there are no tunnels in Bkk and people continue to be mowed down in the streets by trains.

[rik072]

Sad sad story R.I.P young Lady .

[otherstuff1957]

Remember that most news stories here are written in Thai and then translated into English, or at least based on notes written in Thai. So, I would not be surprised if the word that they translate as 'stood in the' was อยู่ or something similar, which could also be translated as 'was in the'.

[tom21]

Sadly this happens all the time in Australia, both suicidal and accidental.

The difference is you don't hear about the 1000's of suicides that happen each year in Australia as the media is prohibited from reporting on it (for good reason)

RIP

Why are the media prohibited from reporting suicide?

do a google and there are lots of sites giving reasons. reading the replys here i can understand why

[Payboy]

Asok-Phetchaburi railroad crossing

Isn't that the same crossing where a train rammed in to a vehicle a couple of months ago.

[Colabamumbai]

The fail to report if she was on her cellphone at the time.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Colabamumbai

[tingtong]

Very tragic, sounds like it may be suicide.Not nice job for people having to scrape up her body.

same here.

but i think suicide has a more serious ring to it, and maybe more questions to ask for the police investigators...so, accident it is.

[ratcatcher]

I do not want to sound cold, or as if I have no compassion, but Thai people are simply not taught how to cross the road, or merge into traffic. I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

You may be right but the problem with the railway crossings in Bangkok is that they shouldn't be there at all. They are operated with no safety standards and block traffic. They should have been put underground 30 years ago but of course SRT has no budget for that. In fact SRT should have been disbanded or restructured years ago but governments never dare to do anything with it, except freeze its fairs to gain popularity with voters. Hint: due its large land holdings that are mismanaged and mainly let for peppercorn rents, SRT is a huge cash cow for certain people. SRT's powerful makes it the only state enterprise left that has resisted amalgamation into the Government Pension Fund and pensions are still unfunded entitlements of retired employees. Annual pension payments not only exceed current staff salaries but also exceed sales turnover. So where do you start in restructuring a business like that that has not been allowed to increase fares since 1981. No wonder there are no tunnels in Bkk and people continue to be mowed down in the streets by trains.

That's an interesting perspective, but like many other places in our world, the railway was there first, in fact almost 100 years ago, long before roads and cars. I agree the railway is, by western standards, rather antiquated, but nearly, if not all surface crossings are protected by gates, drop down cable barriers and / or guards.

The trains travel at restricted speed within Bangkok and most accidents are caused by stupidity on behalf of the public, people in too much of a hurry. In this instance, it was clearly a case of someone deliberately standing between the rails in front of an oncoming train.

Result, death for the young lady, grief for her family and friends and trauma for the train crew.

Blaming the railway for this is wrong, it was not the fault of the S.R.T.

If bridges OVER the tracks need to be built, it is the duty of Bangkok engineering department to sort out.

Blaming Thais for 'stupid behaviour seems to be common on these threads. This is quite unfair as plenty of stupid westerners have died racing the train and jumping under them.

In India they do it with more style:

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNTqfLOFt18[/media]

Edited May 21, 2012 by ratcatcher

[w11guy]

I do not want to sound cold, or as if I have no compassion, but Thai people are simply not taught how to cross the road, or merge into traffic. I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

All the Thai people I know are capable of crossing a road safely and merging into traffic. Pathetic comment. What happened, did you see one Thai person make a mistake and then assume the whole population is the same. Most Thai drivers don't have accidents. That is a fact.

[monty1412]

Cursory read suggest suicide as others have alluded to . I get very sad to think of a person in such mental torment that suicide is the only solution. If there is an after life then young lady i hope you find glorious happiness. RIP.

[lensta]

I do not want to sound cold, or as if I have no compassion, but Thai people are simply not taught how to cross the road, or merge into traffic. I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

All the Thai people I know are capable of crossing a road safely and merging into traffic. Pathetic comment. What happened, did you see one Thai person make a mistake and then assume the whole population is the same. Most Thai drivers don't have accidents. That is a fact.

But they sure cause a few and thats a fact

[BlackArtemis]

Maybe she was listening to her iPod with her headphones on like 99% of teenagers seem to do and never heard the siren . Either way very sad .

That was my first assumption. MP3 and texting while walking. But the article does make one assume it was suicide.

[Stjohnm]

tragic, RIP

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[FOODLOVER]

Sad, rip young lady.

[OzMick]

Suicide by train is certainly not uncommon. My father was a train driver all his working life,and had 3 such instances. I understood that this was not an unusually high figure.

BTW these were not particularly disconcerting events, as the drivers understood there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. For the later 2 dad was given a month of stress leave, which was appreciated, but which is highly unlikely to happen here.

Some years ago I was in a local train about to depart Hualampong. As the train started to move, a drunk tried to lean on it, spun and fell under the wheels, cutting off one of his legs at the thigh. They wheeled his body the length of the train on a baggage trolley half-covered in newspaper, got the hoses out, and we were rolling again in less than 15 minutes.

Edited May 21, 2012 by OzMick

[TPI]

Sadly this happens all the time in Australia, both suicidal and accidental.

The difference is you don't hear about the 1000's of suicides that happen each year in Australia as the media is prohibited from reporting on it (for good reason)

RIP

Is that really true???? Prohibited from reporting? I never heard this before!

True! Believe it or not in Australia they actually frown on people committing suicide! People actually care.

[katana]

She was a freshman Communications Arts student at Chula. Police found she was still wearing headphones attached to the mobile phone in her shoulder bag, which presumably prevented her from hearing the on-coming train's warning whistle. A motorcycle taxi driver waiting for the train to pass said he saw her come out of the airport link station and walk along the tracks. The train came up behind her and sounded its horn a few times which she didn't appear to hear. It caught her bag which pulled her under the wheels to her death.

Police said she had a meeting at her uni at 8:00am that morning and had been on the phone telling a friend she was in a rush to not be late.

http://manager.co.th...D=9550000062483

http://www.khaosod.c...9PQ==&subcatid=

[FOODLOVER]

omg so sorry to the loved

[ratcatcher]

She was a freshman Communications Arts student at Chula. Police found she was still wearing headphones attached to the mobile phone in her shoulder bag, which presumably prevented her from hearing the on-coming train's warning whistle. A motorcycle taxi driver waiting for the train to pass said he saw her come out of the airport link station and walk along the tracks. The train came up behind her and sounded its horn a few times which she didn't appear to hear. It caught her bag which pulled her under the wheels to her death.

Police said she had a meeting at her uni at 8:00am that morning and had been on the phone telling a friend she was in a rush to not be late.

http://manager.co.th...D=9550000062483

http://www.khaosod.c...9PQ==&subcatid=

At last the truth seems to be coming out. Not a suicide, but sadly, someone walking around in Bangkok totally oblivious to their situation and any potential danger.

I've already expressed my condolences, maybe some of these wired people might think twice about the volume of noise coming from their toys and pay attention to where they are.

[travelmann]

....I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

Contrary to standard right-of-way laws in other countries and common sense, the merging traffic has right of way here in Thailand. Maybe the law was originally drafted to allow buffalo carts to ease onto tracks but nowadays, despite the fact that the only buffalo's you will encounter are behind the wheel, the same law still applies to main roads and motorways.

Id like to see that verified in the Thai Highway code pls??

[metisdead]

Posts of an insensitive and derogatory nature have been removed.

[khaowong1]

....I cannot tell you how many times I am driving on a main boulevard or main road, and someone merges into traffic and is not even looking my way. They simple drive into the road without looking. As if they are bulletproof. As if nothing in the world could hurt them. As if they could survive a passing cement truck, no problem. No concern for either their own well being, that of their passengers, or that of the person about to collide into them. What is up with that? Where are the driving skills in the LOS?

Contrary to standard right-of-way laws in other countries and common sense, the merging traffic has right of way here in Thailand. Maybe the law was originally drafted to allow buffalo carts to ease onto tracks but nowadays, despite the fact that the only buffalo's you will encounter are behind the wheel, the same law still applies to main roads and motorways.

Don't forget those buffalo's awaiting immediate medical help. :-)

[Time Traveller]

Sadly this happens all the time in Australia, both suicidal and accidental.

The difference is you don't hear about the 1000's of suicides that happen each year in Australia as the media is prohibited from reporting on it (for good reason)

RIP

Why are the media prohibited from reporting suicide?

do a google and there are lots of sites giving reasons. reading the replys here i can understand why

To prevent copycat suicides? I don't seem to understand why that would be prohibited. Do people really forget about it if you don't talk about it? Crazy Aussies.