Tour Of Thailand Official Slams Into Power Pole During Phuket Storm

[webfact]

Tour of Thailand official slams into power pole during Phuket storm
Phuket Gazette

PHUKET: -- An official of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Cup Tour of Thailand 2013 cycling event, whose riders were in Phuket earlier this week (story here), was injured when his pickup truck slid off the road during the storm yesterday afternoon and slammed into a power pole.

Surasak Ritphirat, 39, suffered a head wound in the impact and was rushed to Thalang Hospital.

“The accident happened at about 4:15pm,” Tah Chat Chai Police duty officer Watcharin Jiratikarnwiwat told the Phuket Gazette this morning.

“Mr Surasak was driving back to Bangkok after the competition finished. He lost control of his pickup about 500 meters north of the Tah Chat Chai police checkpoint and slammed into a power pole by the side of the road,” he added.

“We believe the accident was caused by the road being slippery since it was raining hard yesterday afternoon,” Lt Col Watcharin explained.

Mr Surasak was pinned inside the vehicle, requiring rescue workers to use “jaws of life” hydraulic cutting equipment to free him from the wreck.

“It took about 30 minutes for the equipment to be brought from Phuket Town. After it arrived, the rescue workers took about 10 minutes to free him,” Col Watcharin said.

Mr Surasak suffered a cut on his head, but escaped serious injury, Thalang Hospital staff confirmed to the Gazette this morning.

“His condition is improving. He suffered a cut on his head and his right leg is still numb as it was pinned inside the car, but x-rays show that he did not suffer any serious injuries to any other parts of his body,” the staffer said.

“He will be kept under observation for another 24 hours,” she said.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Tour-of-Thailand-official-slams-into-power-pole-during-Phuket-storm-20756.html


-- Phuket Gazette 2013-04-11

[Boater]

And the crash had nothing to do with speed he was probably travelling ?

In heavy rain conditions, if you drive slowly you can easily handle any aquaplane situation

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Soupdragon]

And the crash had nothing to do with speed he was probably travelling ?

In heavy rain conditions, if you drive slowly you can easily handle any aquaplane situation

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Well I managed to drive that same stretch of road shortly after the accident and kept the vehicle on the road so it must be possible.

It was seriously slippery and very low visibility but still idiots were flying past me without lights on.

Som Nam Na.

[Yahooka]

And the crash had nothing to do with speed he was probably travelling ?

In heavy rain conditions, if you drive slowly you can easily handle any aquaplane situation

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

"aquaplane" is probably a farang invention.........no have that in Thailand !!

[JetsetBkk]

We believe the accident was caused by the road being slippery since it was raining hard yesterday afternoon, Lt Col Watcharin explained.

We believe you are talking nonsense and should be blaming the driver, not the road or rain.

[eezergood]

It wasnt my fault - the classic retort

[Payboy]

“We believe the accident was caused by the road being slippery since it was raining hard yesterday afternoon,” Lt Col Watcharin explained.

I mentioned it to Jeremy Clarkson and he agreed to put a "W" against Surasak's name.

[NamKangMan]

We believe the accident was caused by the road being slippery since it was raining hard yesterday afternoon, Lt Col Watcharin explained.

We believe you are talking nonsense and should be blaming the driver, not the road or rain.

You obviously didn't read where it said he was an "official" - that automatically made it the road and the rains fault, not his, and I'm sure if it wasn't raining, it would have been a brake failure.

Edited April 12, 2013 by NamKangMan

[lucjoker]

Did you look at the pictures ?

He must have done 120 km /h or more !

He blames the rain,because with no rain he would have been doing 170 km/h !

do this every day,make thailand safer !

[vijer]

And the crash had nothing to do with speed he was probably travelling ?

In heavy rain conditions, if you drive slowly you can easily handle any aquaplane situation

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Well yes and no, if the roads are designed correctly the water will not form puddles. But this is Thailand and there are no roads that are properly designed, so every road has deep puddles on it. Then if you are traveling on a stretch that is good and you are going an acceptable speed for the rain it could change in an instant when you encounter one of these puddles. You can drive all day long on roads in the US at high speed (140kph) and never have an issue, here in Thailand that is not the case. The Thai's are still experiencing fluid dynamics, but the problem is they never learn anything nor apply it during new construction.

[moonbarman]

what i"m more worried about is why it took 30mins for the jaws of life to arrive, surely they should be on emergency vehicles at all times.!!