Honda Civic Plunges From Expressway, Killing Driver: Pathum Thani

[lensta]

Truck getting hit in the rear at 4:05am? Two thoughts, trucks mostly don't travel at the speed of cars and if a guy hits it with enough force to become airborne then fair chance he was speeding! Next issue would be was he heading anywhere specific, home or work, drunk, on drugs, went to sleep at the wheel? Final issue, yes the truck driver did a runner - standard practice for any large vehicle including BMA buses due to the 'big vehicle rule' meaning no matter what - the largest vehicle will be held responsible. Did the truck driver have a license? Was he illegally here, on any substances, or simply shit scared? If they got the footage then they should be able to identify the vehicle and its owner. Let time unravel the mysteries.

The 'big vehicle rule' no longer applies and hasn't for years. Just look at the mini van drivers that do a runner after an accident, they leave their passengers for dead. It just seems to be the Thai way.

[JanKlaasen]

Anyone noticed yet that at most dangerous intersections and curves the street lights are turned off?

I can name at least 10 of those in Chonburi province which I pass regulary and where the lights before and after the dangerous situations are on but off at the particular points.

Is this done to support those body snatchers.

[yourauntbob]

Actual driving tests, actual law enforcement

nuff said...

[telldem]

OK, I just learned something.

When someone hits you from behind, do a runner.

What kind of backwards logic is that?

Sent from my iPhone 4S using Thaivisa Connect App

[PoodMaiDai]

Trucks flee the scene because they are driven by poor people. If he was hit by the car he would have probably been worried that if he hung around the angry family of the dead boy would try and may be successful in suing him. You can't beat the culture here for passing the buck onto some poor schmuck.

This is what happens when you cannot rely on or have faith in the judiciary and law enforcement.

They also flee the scene because they are not sober.

[redroo]

That is a nasty looking smash. It seems as if it is Standard Operating Procedure [sOP's] for Thais to flee vehicle accidents as quickly as possible. Even if when it seems, in this incident, that the fleeing driver was not at fault.

The car registration book and a document from the Civil Aviation Training Center identified him as Manchukorn Namwichai, 25

Maybe the driver was using the expressway to practice take-offs and landings.

like it !!

and those that don't are boring.......

[webfact]

Driver dies in fiery plunge from expressway

The Nation

PATHUM THANI: -- A Honda Civic crashed into the rear of a six-wheel truck and then plunged from the Udon Ratthaya Expressway to a football field below and exploded in flames, killing the driver early yesterday morning in Pathum Thani's Muang district.

Police found the charred body of a man in the driver’s seat. The car registration book and a document from the Civil Aviation Training Centre identified him as Manchukorn Namwichai, 25.

Security footage captured the car crashing into the truck at 4.47am and then falling off the expressway while the truck fled.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has revealed 68 dangerous curves and 30 hazardous intersections for motorists to be aware of. There are also 18 notorious Y-shaped spots on elevated tollways where wrecks are likely to occur and cause vehicles to plunge from the road.

-- The Nation 2012-08-16

[Crazy chef 1]

Thai's and motorized vehicles-I think everything is said about this topic

[Woodcaulk]

There is one further reason they do runners that has been overlooked here......no added penalty for doing so. No one has ever been charged with "leaving the scene of an accident" in Thailand.....no law on the books.

[Kananga]

Trucks flee the scene because they are driven by poor people. If he was hit by the car he would have probably been worried that if he hung around the angry family of the dead boy would try and may be successful in suing him. You can't beat the culture here for passing the buck onto some poor schmuck.

This is what happens when you cannot rely on or have faith in the judiciary and law enforcement.

They also flee the scene because they are not sober.

I didnt think for a minute that anyone in this country was sober, except for election night and several high profile birthdays.

[SOEYCHANLOY]

Trucks flee the scene because they are driven by poor people. If he was hit by the car he would have probably been worried that if he hung around the angry family of the dead boy would try and may be successful in suing him. You can't beat the culture here for passing the buck onto some poor schmuck.

This is what happens when you cannot rely on or have faith in the judiciary and law enforcement.

So what you are saying is that it does not matter if you are guilty or innocent, the rule is to flee ?

Of course!

Sent from my GT-S5830T using Thaivisa Connect App

[samran]

A few things don't add up for me:

Was the truck stationary or was it moving? If it was the latter, the car could have only been tailgating, with this as the result.

Also, I've never driven a 10 wheeler, but I'd imagine a if a sh!tty honda civic crashed into the back of one of those, the driver wouldn't have even noticed? If he didn't, how coud it be fleeing the scene?

Or did he stop, get out, and then piss off?

Either way, at worst the driver can be accused of failing to help at the scene of an accident - assuming he could have helped at all. You don't get charged when someone runs into the back of you. But given the likelyhood he was a poor driver, he probably had no idea of his rights.

Edited August 16, 2012 by samran

[carra]

Not seen any video but does anyone know if the truck stopped and then drove away.

the reason I ask is it is possible he did not even know her had been hit, depending on the size of the truck and how hard the impact. Did the driver clip the truck and his speed took him into the barrier or was he lifted by a heavy impact with the truck?

[jimbeam1]

Can we get a list of the Related News about the unsafe areas revealed by the Bangkok Police?

Sorry far to many?

jb1

[ratcatcher]

A few things don't add up for me:

Was the truck stationary or was it moving? If it was the latter, the car could have only been tailgating, with this as the result.

Also, I've never driven a 10 wheeler, but I'd imagine a if a sh!tty honda civic crashed into the back of one of those, the driver wouldn't have even noticed? If he didn't, how coud it be fleeing the scene?

Or did he stop, get out, and then piss off?

Either way, at worst the driver can be accused of failing to help at the scene of an accident - assuming he could have helped at all. You don't get charged when someone runs into the back of you. But given the likelyhood he was a poor driver, he probably had no idea of his rights.

Your point about the "sh!tty Honda Civic" crashing into the back of the truck is interesting.

If the small car was traveling at high speed, clipped the truck and somehow became airborne, leaping the barrier and plunging 10 metres or so to the ground below, it is possible that the truck driver maybe felt something, slowed to a stop, got out saying something like " What the hell was that" and not seeing another vehicle, he proceeds on his way.

But then there would be a few dents in the back of the truck surely?

Another needless death on Thailand's roads.

[orosee]

Lots of English speaking friends on his FB page. One can only hope they don't come across this topic and see the inhumane comments here, not to mention the disrespectful comments on Thais in general. If someone would post a link...

[SuneeTH]

Another killer Civic.

Remember the last killer civic that kills 9 by an underage hi-so girl call Paewa?

Go check the log of the smart phone in the car.

Edited August 16, 2012 by SuneeTH

[ratcatcher]

Another killer Civic.

Remember the last killer civic that kills 9 by an underage hi-so girl call Paewa?

Go check the log of the smart phone in the car.

It would have to have been a really smart phone to have endured the heat that destroyed virtually the entire car.

[cup-O-coffee]

Funny. A Norwegian man crashes and kills himself an his passenger and he is labeled as a fool, a drunk and a pedophile. In this case, not one ounce of ridicule towards the driver being out on the road at this time and the probable circumstances around those reasons for him piling into the back of a truck. It's not like he is foreign to these situation. He was Thai. He had been driving awhile in Thailand. He knew about this road. He knew about Thai road conditions. He knew about Thai driven trucks and those truck behaviors. And so on. It all adds up to him causing his own death by being impaired, because his environment is just exactly what it is and only he was changed in this situation.

[culicine]

At first I thought the car was a white 8th gen civic but turns out it was a modified RED 7th gen with a k20 dropped in it. That's a severe fire to turn a red car white.

And the front bumper is still intact suggesting the impact was not directly at the front. I wonder if he tired to avoid the truck and lost control somehow.

Edited August 16, 2012 by culicine

[vijer]

I'd certainly like to see the barrier he went over or through.

With reference to post #2, fair observation.

In the west, barriers are there to stop cars going thru them, and where there are barriers it is indeed difficult to go thru them.

If these kind of barriers were employed in Thailand on elevated roads then there would not be the amount of cars falling off elevated roads, if any (assuming they were built correctly, and not from sub-standard materials).

It does often make me wonder how safe I am when traversing or travelling along an elevated tollway or U-turn.

I wonder if we'll see the footage of what actually happened, and did he indeed 'take off' over a barrier?

-mel.

On a tollway I frequent they just resurfaced the road. In the States when they resurface a road they will scrape off about 3-4 inches of asphalt and then lay down new asphalt. This has the benefit of leveling out the road and smoothing the irregularities. Plus it keeps the height of the road bed where it was engineered to be. Here in Thailand they just lay down new asphalt on top of the old. Have you ever noticed how concrete crash barriers are shaped? This specific shape was developed in the normal world and followed extensive testing and was proven to cause a vehicle hitting the wall to be deflected back onto the road instead of up and over it. But because the Thai's keep adding asphalt on top of asphalt the road bed keeps getting higher, consequently the top of the crash barrier keeps getting lower and that slope in the barrier becomes smaller and smaller. So it is unlikely the crash barrier along this stretch of highway will have the designed effect, even now, and in a few more years, after subsequent resurfacings, the crash barrier will be about half a meter high and will do little in preventing a vehicle from leaving the road.

On another note, all the holes in the walls (you can't call them on/off ramps cause Thai's don't know what those are) where vehicles enter and exit the highway flood anytime it rains. It doesn't even have to rain for a long time. So all the vehicles have to slow to a crawl to enter or exit the highway. This is in a country where they should have extensive knowledge of they dynamics of water. Nope not here, just make a dip in the surface of the road between the highway and the surface street so the water can collect there whenever it rains.