30 Hong Kong tourists injured in Thai bus accident

BANGKOK: -- Thirty Hong Kong tourists have been injured in a bus accident in Thailand, police said Saturday.

The tourists, half of them women, plus two Thai drivers and a conductor were injured when their bus hit a traffic island while heading to the resort city of Pattaya at noon (0300 GMT) on Friday, police said.

Highway police said they believed the accident was caused by a slippery road.

The injuries were not considered serious.

Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said 393 people had been killed in road accidents in the eight days leading up to the Thai new year holidays. Almost 5,000 people had been injured.

--The Nation/Agence France-Presse 2006-04-15

Surely they can't be serious?

"... they believed the accident was caused by a slippery road."

Water on roads does not cause accidents. Unsafe driving (leading to hydroplaning and loss of control of vehicle) does.

I'm willing to be that the driver thought he was superman and was driving too fast. (Has anyone ever been on a bus here whose driver was actually driving safely?)

Roads can be dry and slippery...................

perhaps bald or poorly inflated tyres.........

then with "speedy Somchai" at the wheel, anything can happen.

Surely they can't be serious?

"... they believed the accident was caused by a slippery road."

Water on roads does not cause accidents. Unsafe driving (leading to hydroplaning and loss of control of vehicle) does.

I'm willing to be that the driver thought he was superman and was driving too fast. (Has anyone ever been on a bus here whose driver was actually driving safely?)

word for word exactly my thoughts

we've been on a mini bus in the driving rain, and started to aquaplane and i swear the driver was exited and having fun without thinking about the consequences.

Obviously driving too fast and not taking into consideration the weather conditions.......Thirty injuries through lack of care by the driver..

what is a tyre?

Seriously ... with traffic in Pattaya over the weekend .... he had to be going to fast to stop when he hit a jam ....

I fail to understand why they always use things like ".....not considered serious." Anytime you have buses involved in accidents it's serious and bus drivers need to have special safety training. Absolutely pathetic. And why were there 2 drivers, one to steer and the other to hold down the accelerator!

We were in Hong Kong for Songkran and this was big news over there - front page photos on many of the Chinese language papers but not such big coverage in the South China Morning Post (didn't see other English language papers). This is likely to have a negative effect on the numbers of tourists coming from Hong Kong to Thailand...

Surely they can't be serious?

"... they believed the accident was caused by a slippery road."

Water on roads does not cause accidents. Unsafe driving (leading to hydroplaning and loss of control of vehicle) does.

I'm willing to be that the driver thought he was superman and was driving too fast. (Has anyone ever been on a bus here whose driver was actually driving safely?)

Let me add a bit more information that you can put under your comment "Surely they can't be serious?" - The newspaper said besides the slippery road, the reason for the accident was that the driver was new to the route!

Update:

HK: 17 injured travelers back from Thailand

HONG KONG: -- Seventeen of the 30 travelers injured in a bus accident in Thailand returned to Hong Kong Saturday night, according to a spokesman from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

The rest 13 travelers are still in Thailand and five of them remain in the local hospital, said the spokesman.

He said 11 of the 17 travelers who have returned were sent to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Kowloon for further check.

The accident occurred near the southern resort of Pattaya Friday afternoon when it was raining. All the 30 passengers were injured and most of them suffered fracture and strains. A 77-year-old woman and the 38-year-old tour guide were seriously injured.

The Security Bureau of Hong Kong has been following the case to offer all possible assistance to the Hong Kong citizens on the tour, arranged by Hong Tai Travel. The bureau is liaising with theChinese Embassy in Thailand and the travel agency concerned for further information. The Chinese embassy staff has visited the injured in Thailand to offer help.

--Xinhua.net 2006-04-16

This is likely to have a negative effect on the numbers of tourists coming from Hong Kong to Thailand...

The appreciation of Thai baht is, not this kind of TA in my opinion.