Thai driver heavily criticized for eating while driving a bus

[ratcatcher]

after the recent comments on poor foreign drivers... I look forward to being taught how to drive properly in the Thai style ... Not texting at the same time ?

eyes , specks of sawdust and planks spring to mind ..

for what it is worth it looks like cow pat moo to me :-)

This is cow pat moo.

[bangon04]

"This offense was said to be illegal in the Thai driving rules."

I bet they obey the rest of the driving rules..

They said it was illegal, they never said it was going to be enforced.....

[DGIE]

how about singing while driving? Maybe it depends on what song he is singing

[happysanook]

An inspection will made in order to find out what was really happening.

Yeah, need to know if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner and then if it was appetizers, main course or dessert.

It's almost painful to read what the Thai officials say. "technically he was breaking the law"... LOL... "let's see what was really happening"...with a big plate of food in front of him and the driver munching away. Truly amazing.

[kannot]

I feel for te passenger who clearly felt left out that the driver was not sharing this food around the bus and thus was not being a true Thai..............this is the real reason for posting on facebook.

Suggest authorities ban facebook and all mobile camera phones which should alleviate the problem.

[BuriramRes]

Poor bloke. He must have been in his second 8 hour shift, without a break.

Suffering from sugar deprivation.

[mca]

I think the driver should be commended for his responsibility and dedication to passenger safety. He was obviously trying to soak up the effects of the bottle of Lao Kao he'd sunk half an hour before getting behind the wheel.

[kannot]

They may investigate....... they may even bring charges against the driver [though doubtful]

but when questioned by the investigators, I was led to believe that he answered them with a retort of a recent US President

Q ?Mr. President did you smoke that joint???

A But I didn't inhale

Driver answered ala Ms Lewinsky

A I ate but I didn't swallow

No your mistaken Bill said "Monica sack my cook" a verbal misunderstanding.

[exalll]

To be fair, it's little wonder that driving habits are so bad, 95% of the population are 2nd generation rice farmers.

2 generations ago they had nothing but buffalo and cart, now they can get big powerful pick-ups on credit and take to the road without any sort of knowledge or sense of what is going on.

This guy will be sacked, then when the story is forgotten in a week's time either hired by the same company or some other that want a stooge to drive their clapped out intercity bus 30 days a month for 6,000b. Getting around the minimum wage by offering sleeping quarters next to the engine.

I presume you mean that their grandparents were rice farmers. One of my grandfathers was a church warden who never learnt to drive. The other grandfather was actually a tram driver but never had a car of his own. Neither of my grandmothers ever learnt to drive. Not so different!

[Emdog]

You got it all wrong! Guy drives with his stomach so as to keep hands available for important tasks, like sms, nose picking and other critical tasks. He was in danger of losing weight, which would result in smaller stomach and thus losing control of the steering wheel, which could result in a crash. So he was doing it for the safety of his precious passengers! It is part of the Thai bus drivers instruction program. You could look it up.

[JoeThePoster]

An inspection will made in order to find out what was really happening.

Yeah, need to know if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner and then if it was appetizers, main course or dessert.

It's almost painful to read what the Thai officials say. "technically he was breaking the law"... LOL... "let's see what was really happening"...with a big plate of food in front of him and the driver munching away. Truly amazing.

Maybe the whole pic was photoshopped. Maybe the driver was just digging his nose and talking on his phone like all other good drivers.

[yooper2001]

This is just 1 reason that Thailand is now # 6 in the world in traffic deaths 29,000 and counting

[biplanebluey]

He should be immediately suspended, charged and prosecuted by Thai authorities. If guilty of negligence and risk to human life he should be terminated, jailed, fined and prohibited from working as a driver again.

Nah-------- a good talking to from the boss is what he deserves

[lostmark]

I too would be very surprised if I saw a tour bus eating, as buses don't usually eat. I would expect them to drink diesel. I can understand that. But EAT - No, that would really surprise me if I saw that!

[lostmark]

I too would be very surprised if I saw a tour bus eating, as buses don't usually eat. I would expect them to drink diesel. I can understand that. But EAT - No, that would really surprise me if I saw that!

In the title "became frightened after they saw their tour bus eating"

[gtm2k]

a case of distracted driving - although the picture gives "distracted" a completely new meaning !

I am sure in the west this would invite severe penalties ? Meanwhile, life goes on in LoS

[Songhua]

Never mind my responsibility to my passengers.My food comes first.

Food takes priority. When it's meal time. it's meal time. Doesn't matter whether you're landing a 747, catching someone on a trapeze or only driving a bus.

[Jim walker]

A good heavy criticizing is just what he needs I am sure he or no one else will ever attempt anything so stupid again while driving on Thai roads safety is our first priority.

[kotsak]

Songhua, on 21 Oct 2013 - 13:39, said:

Songhua, on 21 Oct 2013 - 13:39, said:

Never mind my responsibility to my passengers.My food comes first.

Food takes priority. When it's meal time. it's meal time. Doesn't matter whether you're landing a 747, catching someone on a trapeze or only driving a bus.

Hahahaaa.. This reminds me the time when I was still back in Hong Kong. While walking around Wanchai with a friend of mine, we saw a hooker standing and eating from a lunch box while at the same time soliciting her services to some guys.. :>

[Torrens54]

For Starters, how about getting story straight?

The opening paragraph clearly states the the "tour bus was eating" is this correct? If so,we need to investigate the reason for the BUS eating, before we even worry about what the driver was doing.

Heaven forbid!!! Monster Bus on EATING BINGE.

Who writes this rubbish?

Edited October 21, 2013 by Torrens54

[rjcampbe]

Did I read this right? Did this article actually say that someone claimed that this was a violation of Thai Driving Rules? There are Thai Driving Rules???

Can anyone actually verify that there is such a thing as Thai driving rules? I don't believe they exist any more than leprechauns and unicorns.

No Thai I have ever asked has ever seen them, let alone read them, or been tested on their knowledge of them. I'm pretty sure that none of the BIB has ever seen them either, and I'd wager that most of them lack the education to be ABLE to read and comprehend them if they did exist. In any event, they have certainly never KNOWINGLY enforced any of them.

On a related note, I drove to Issan over the weekend to see my wife's family. I can't begin to relate the horror, madness, and mayhem that I witnessed on the trip up and back from Bangkok. I would estimate that I could drive nonstop from coast to coast in the US for over a month without seeing a tiny fraction of the accidents, flipped cars, trucks, buses and vans, vehicles smashed by tractor trucks and buses, absolute INSANITY in driving practices, excessive speed, weaving in and out of cars, trucks with tires shredding as they drove down the highway, and all manner of chaos. (Not to mention the obvious poor vehicle maintenance... like brakes and lights for starters...)

I thought driving myself would be preferable to trusting my life to one of those yaba cowboys with too many marigolds hanging from his rearview mirror, but now I realize that I'm just as much at risk just being on the road. Honestly, I feel lucky to be alive.

Life is cheap here... Not sure how to constructively tackle a problem as big as this, but I'm fairly sure it starts with education...

[beautifulthailand99]

Who said men can't multitask.

[Ulic]

Thailand, where driving rules are considered recommendations.

[casindonet]

Multitasking....Thai style When an accident happen....blame it on the faulty brakes or spirits

[4u2mad]

So long as he doesn't take a nap after his meal......

[Procrastinator]

Lmao.

Seven people on a moped.

Hungry rails on small trucks to stop folk falling out.

Smoking, drinking and mobile phone use by bike riders.... And this is an outrage.

Every western society has drive thru burger places... And worse... Alcohol places.

Hands up all those saints who haven't answered a phone whilst driving... Eaten a meal while driving, or opened a bevy for the consumption of its contents.

And yes... It's also illegal in western societies.

You guy crack me up

[DrTuner]

Food takes priority. When it's meal time. it's meal time. Doesn't matter whether you're landing a 747, catching someone on a trapeze or only driving a bus.

Has to. According to my observations Thais loose the capacity to use their brains if they don't munch on rice about every 15 mins. Consequently all activity and plans are limited to 15 min time spans, with very little connection to past events. No wonder they like the pandas, who spend all of their waking hours eating.

Switching to higher yield foods doesn't work either. If they chew on, let's say German foods, the result is complete shutdown of bodily systems for hours, evidenced by Thais sleeping on their feet after such feasts.

I believe the only solution would be a controlled intravenous feed. Of course they'd spike it with all sorts of funny stuff, so probably no go there either.

[petedk]

One time when I was on the bus from Pattaya to Bangkok I noticed the driver was talking on the mobile for a long time.

I thought about how dangerous it was as he wasn't concentrating on driving.

After he put the phone away I felt quite relieved ......... for the first two or three minutes because after that he started to dose off and swing all over the place.

So those people who saw the driver eating must be thankful that he was awake.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[lee b]

he was only eating , the worse would have been eating and talking on the phone in the same time ....

And also drinking beer with his meal !!

[mca]

Who writes this rubbish?

It's the Pattaya Daily News. Doing their utmost to dispel the myth about western inhabitants of Pattaya being socially inadequate, chronically alcoholic whore meisters by writing articles worthy of a Pulitzer. That's the Pulitzer Prize for "Publication Most Likely To Not Know The Difference Between An Indefinite And Definite Article And In Some Cases Thinking <deleted> It I Won't Even Bother Using One At All".