I just want to warn anyone who plans to travel by car on the main road (the Friendship Highway) from Bangkok heading East towards Korat (or in the opposite direction) to be very careful, especially around the Chokchai Farm. Today we saw a serious accident right outside the Chokchai Farm and when we reported it to a member of staff at the farm, she told us it happens all the time.

The incident we saw involved a medium sized truck which was doing a u-turn (very slowly) using a u-turn point that is on a long bend (and hence cannot be seen from a distance by vehicles coming in the opposite direction), a car came around that bend (in the middle lane), tried to swerve to avoid the truck that was doing the u-turn, hit the central barrier, flipped / rolled and landed (the right way up but in the opposite direction) in the central reservation.

When we left the farm our driver (having seen the accident) was extremely careful when using the u-turn point (the next one along which is also on a bend) to exit. Even though we waited a very long time until the road was clear, we were still nearly involved in an accident ourselves as a car came around the bend at speed and had to brake sharply to avoid us (obviously beeped his horn and flashed his lights to inform us of his predicament).

The key issue here seems to be that this is is a very fast moving stretch of road but has many u-turn points, including some that are seemingly dangerously positioned and used heavily (mostly but not only by vehicles entering or leaving Chokchai Farm). Please drive carefully.

Thank you for your warning, I know what you mean, many years ago I used to drive almost every week in the night from Bangkok to Isaan and there was a lot of big transport trucks on the highway, also about u-turn you are right that have to be very careful, that is the reason I almost never make a u-turn , except stop for T-bone steak in ChokChai when drive in the day.

Thai U turns on these type of roads are a death toll waiting to happen, combined with the total lack of driving skills= certain death