Nonthaburi long-tail boat accident injures foreign tourists

[Netizen]

buses, vans, taxis, taxi motorbikes, trains, and now canal boat drivers??? <deleted>? this country seriously needs a refurbishment in the transportation department on how they are suppose to operate vehicles of all kinds!

Maybe they can import some Spanish train drivers and Italian bus drivers to train the locals.

I forgot the Captain of the cruise liner that sunk.

[Netizen]

buses, vans, taxis, taxi motorbikes, trains, and now canal boat drivers??? <deleted>? this country seriously needs a refurbishment in the transportation department on how they are suppose to operate vehicles of all kinds!

Maybe they can import some Spanish train drivers and Italian bus drivers to train the locals.

I forgot the Captain of the cruise liner that sunk.

Throw in a couple of South Korean pilots as well.

[3SoiDogNight]

Many of these boats are driven at breakneck speed with their huge diesel engines and the "drivers" often leave no margin for error when passing other vessels or bridges or canalworks. I have been terrified on occasion. On one occasion I got off an unlicensed "illegal" longtail boat way before I planned to as the driver appeared to be driving very dangerously, not caring about passenger safety. As always in Thailand routes are protected by thuggish gangs rather than regulated by bodies charged with enforcing safety standards. If you don't believe me, start up a rival longtail boat operation in Bangkok Noi and see how long before you are shot at.

Those engines aren't that big. They're only 3.0 liter Nissan engines. The purpose for these boats is speed and they're a lot of fun to ride on. Back in the US, my uncle used a Buick 455cu" 7.4 liter V8 for his boat.

That is what I'd consider a big engine.

Hope all recover from this accident.

Yes 3L but they're a lot more powerful than they used to be because the engines come from accident damaged pick-up trucks (of any brand) which these days are Turbo Diesels.

...and that's what makes these boats go fast which is the attraction. I was on one last month and didn't see a turbo charger. I wouldn't mind being on one with a turbo. The Chao Phyra river can be navigated at a high speed if the operator knows what he's doing. This was just an unfortunate incident.

Having a boat powered by a little 1.0 liter 3 cylinder would be no fun.

Glad these engines found new life after a truck accident.

[joepattaya1961]

Tire blew?

Brakes failed?

Driver made a runner?

Dam_n what's going on here........clicked one time "post" and my post appears 3 times............

Edited July 31, 2013 by joepattaya1961

[joepattaya1961]

Tire blew?

Brakes failed?

Driver made a runner?

Obviously, the driver was suffering from diabetes and fainted.......no joke!

[DekDaeng]

Many of these boats are driven at breakneck speed with their huge diesel engines and the "drivers" often leave no margin for error when passing other vessels or bridges or canalworks. I have been terrified on occasion. On one occasion I got off an unlicensed "illegal" longtail boat way before I planned to as the driver appeared to be driving very dangerously, not caring about passenger safety. As always in Thailand routes are protected by thuggish gangs rather than regulated by bodies charged with enforcing safety standards. If you don't believe me, start up a rival longtail boat operation in Bangkok Noi and see how long before you are shot at.

[Briggsy]

Nice clip, Dek Daeng

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

We will see if these long tail homemade Thai boats remain a big tourist attraction. Once tourists start reading how at risk they are on such Thai tours that appear to be just fun novelties but are big risks to tourists with no recourse.

Unfortunately, it's getting increasingly difficult to find ANY means of local transport in this country that isn't excessively dangerous to one's safety.

Tour buses, vans, trains, motorcycle taxis, ferry boats, speed boats, longtail boats, you name it!!!!

About the only thing that seems to be reasonably safe are the BTS and MRT transit lines in BKK -- at least thus far in their years of operating.

And it's been a few years since Thailand had a serious commercial airplane crash. Let's hope it's at least a few years more.

Other than that, the headlines lately have been bleeding with assorted reports of people injured in bus crashes, bus fires, speedboat wrecks, ferry fires, boat accidents, motorcycle crashes, van crashes, train derailments. Ahh, and the news report the other day about the supposed many double-decker tour buses that are dangerously over-height and with too narrow axels, making them prone to tipping over.

[melvinmelvin]

in my exp. most of these boats have 4 cylinder Isuzu diesels, about 110 hp,

some turbo charged, some not

and this type of longtail boats are NOT fast, below 20 knots or about 20 knots