I live in Phuket and have a visa run coming up to Penang - I am increasingly worried about getting in one of these with a moron with a death wish at the wheel.

Is this the same accident that I saw reported as a minivan on the way to Trat? Either way, it's awful, but these minivans are death traps.

I would say that the drivers of the Mini Vans turn them into death traps. A gun can kill nobody until it is picked up by a person. A Mini Van can kill no one without an incompetent driver. Many will say it was just an accident. Too many Mini Vans, and too many accidents then.

I'm just suprised I don't read this kind of story more often , even though it is quite frequent already. these guys drive like lunatics with no regard , they overtake on blind bends tail gate and don't even adjust their speed in the rain..

I always thought I was a nutter on there roads, but I keep my breaking distance and consider other traffic at least.

They should consider fitting speed limiters by law on the tour mini busses and vans or the tour operator should build in more time between journey so the driver isnt under so much pressure to meet a deadline...

if they just want to get their and go home early thats another worse issue that shouldnt be tollerated by police or tour company..

Sad news! Mini vans are bad mmmmmmmmmkay. or how about any 4 wheel and metal traveling at speeds that would cause injury or death.

This was a accident nothing more! TV poster's need more juice in their boring lives and have to comment on how bad mini vans are, how bad Thai women are, how bad Thai people are, the list goes on. You all need to get some love back for Thailand and the Thai people.

We're trying, hard. All the good intentions go out the window on a short ride on Thai roads real quick, though.

Very sad, but happens on a daily basis seemingly. Having been a reluctant passenger of minivans and tour buses in the distant past, what really gets me is the passengers who accept the outrageousely stupid driving as "normal", and who are just too meek to protest even when their lives are in obviously serious danger.

A message from me to any foreigner reading here and thinking about a holiday in the Land of Smiles.

''Stay away from these mini van types of transport''. .......................

I was travelling to Pattaya from Bangkok yesterday afternoon with my band to play music at a special event in a hotel. We travel to these shows in a hired minivan.

I'm constantly thinking that the driver should slow down, take more care and drive slower. The problem is that Thai drivers are usually late picking us up in Bangkok and they drive faster to make the time up.

After reading this, I'll get the driver to turn up earlier next time, so he doesn't have to rush.

R.I.P to the victims. What a tragic loss.

As someone already said : what a horrible way to go - truly unimaginable. I never had a minivan trip without at least one terrifying moment - usually a bunch of them - and i avoid them like the plague. RIP to the poor victims.

I ditched one at a rest stop near Kohn Kaen on a visa run coming back from Laos. The driver was trying to maintain 120 kph to keep up with the other two vans in the group (or that was his SOP or, more probably, get-home-itis). He was also doing some brain-dead tailgating and other scarey things. The freeway didn't look so good either, with only a shallow drainage ditch separating northbound lanes from southbound. Hitched a ride into Kohn Kaen with a traveling salesman and took an NCA bus into Bangkok. After that I was sold on NCA, BTW.

My condolences to the victims and friends and family.

deja vue

RIP.

Driver survived? Fled the scene?

well the drivers door is open, so he probably had more chance of escaping than his victims !

As someone said it is very difficult to exit these vans with only one sliding door for the rear passengers.

RIP.

Driver survived? Fled the scene?

well the drivers door is open, so he probably had more chance of escaping than his victims !

So, here's hoping the BiB will stop speculating about the cause and focus on tracking the driver for questioning.

RIP to the people.

Foreigner should gather to stop buying cheapest mini van trip but a safe mini van trip...

In those safe mini van trip , the mini vans will not follow each others each 10m at 130 km/h .

Thailand authorities have also a responsabilities on this matter because a huge % of the mini van trip are the consequence of the Thai Visa policy...

What 's the need of going out of Thailand for 30 minutes at Cambodia ?

For some really weird reason Thai minibus drivers are so deluded they think they are sitting in some magic high performance vehicle. They are the Thai equivalent to BMW drivers in England.

Words fail me.

All I can say is RiP to the victims.

Is this the same accident that I saw reported as a minivan on the way to Trat? Either way, it's awful, but these minivans are death traps.

\

so are the drivers!

What a horrible way to go.

RIP to the poor people.

agree - absolutely horrendous, RIP to all and condolences to their loved ones. I really wish better driving practices would start to be observed in Thailand - so many souls lost every year.

I am shocked this could take place in Thailand. Never happens here ;-)

It will never get better.

My condolences to the families of those killed in this usually preventable accident.

Nothing mentioned about the driver surviving and fleeing the scene. That's alright with me, if he took the place of one of the 3 survivors.

Where's the crackdown?

Two gas tanks fitted inside the van? What kind of idiot would do this?

Errrr ... that would be idiot. I suspect most, if not all, gas-to-CNG conversions place the high-pressure (3000-3600 psi) tanks in the trunk/boot or cargo space, probably the only practical place if maintaining a dual-fuel vehicle (and maybe even if not).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_vehicle

I know nothing about the safety aspects, but it strikes me that the lines running from the tanks to the engine are subject to rupture, or the fittings, even if the CNG tanks did not rupture. For safety, one would think there would be high-flow-rate check valves at the tanks. I invite an SME to comment.

Sad news! Mini vans are bad mmmmmmmmmkay. or how about any 4 wheel and metal traveling at speeds that would cause injury or death.

This was a accident nothing more! TV poster's need more juice in their boring lives and have to comment on how bad mini vans are, how bad Thai women are, how bad Thai people are, the list goes on. You all need to get some love back for Thailand and the Thai people.

Fairly naive generalisation there MILT. Thai Visa posters have boring lives, TV posters don't have a love for Thailand and implying that Minibus accidents are just standard events.

Have you ever been in a minibus? witnessed how a fair % of them drive like maniacs? no issue there?

When was the last time you saw anybody asking for the safest, most leisurely trip to do a border run or visa run?

Pretty much all the messages need to be read in a Liam Neeson voice - "Quickly! Quickly! There's no time!" "What's the fastest and cheapest way to do my run because for some reason I can't be away for more than 15 milliseconds"

As long as there's frantic customers there'll be lunatic drivers. It's not necessarily only the latter, to blame for encouraging these morons.

Surprised more didn't get out if it wasn't such a big hit. Wouldn't die for the sake of a few cuts.

I went to Cambodia few days ago and near the border I had to shout at the driver as he was sleeping....he said to my Thai companion to don't worry that he only close the eyes few seconds every time because he was at his second shift and he didn't sleep so he was really tired! How is it possible a retard like this is driving minivan?

The return trip I took a taxy from Trat to Pattaya and won't put foot on those death traps ever again.

RIP to the victims.

Rent a car to do your visa run if you want to stay alive.

Near bira , some big holes in the highwAy ....

This is also the danger, road Seems perfect and atracts speeding....

And then, a hole .....and a topheavy van, .....Loaded with 10 times 80 kg = 800 kg.moverloaded .....

Rip

Two gas tanks fitted inside the van? What kind of idiot would do this?

Hard to believe anyone could first fit gas tanks inside the vehicle and second operate such a death trap.

The owner of the vehicle and the installer of the fuel system should be sued for everything.

One would hope that would happen, but the operators of these mobile death traps seem to be able to evade any responsibility. I haven't ridden in once now for over three years, one trip with a lunatic from Kanachanburi to Bangkok was enough to put me off for good. So sad that this has happened again though, how many more will it take for the authorities to crack down on it.

Oh, you can be sure there'll be "crackdowns"... Thailand is very good at "crackdowns". Lots & lots & lots of "crackdowns".

And somehow, things never change...

The mototaxi drivers are no better. They come out of nowhere, at insane speeds, dodging & weaving like every ride was an emergency. I can never decide whether it's safer to be on one, or a pedestrian trying not to be run over by one.

To try to put some perspective on this though, traffic is so bad in so many places so much of the time, that all these drivers probably have a strong financial incentive of some sort most of the time to get where they're going as quickly as possible, and safe driving, or even reasonable driving, just isn't a priority.

I caught the train down to Hua Hin and got the mini van back to victory monument BKK . Never Never again those drivers are fxxxxx crazy, maybe they have to run to a time sheet, but better 10 min late then dead on time. Have any of you TV members got the Thai licence? I have and seen the test they do, no wonder so many fatals over here.

Very sad, but happens on a daily basis seemingly. Having been a reluctant passenger of minivans and tour buses in the distant past, what really gets me is the passengers who accept the outrageousely stupid driving as "normal", and who are just too meek to protest even when their lives are in obviously serious danger.

So true. Thai people do get upset but will not say anything. I don't use minivans, I would rather hire a car for the day at 800 baht.

We have been living in Udon for a couple of years and I thought the driving there was a bit iffy, just come back to Pattaya for a while

and the standard of driving here is awful. Not just Thai's, the farang's on scooter are totally stupid.

I know the idea of a driving licence for Thai's depends on where you live but people who are on holiday should have the appropriate

licence.

Come on you lot, lets get the message out there. WE can save lives HERE.