Thai driver heavily criticized for eating while driving a bus

[mancub]

Doesn't look like he's wearing his seat belt either.....all the better for doing a runner !

[gp2002]

Better he was not drinking. This is very normal thing for drivers everywhere.

It's hard to tell in the photo. He might have his whiskey bottle between his legs under the snack box.

[MESmith]

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.. :>

Hands up all those who thought of Linford Christie when they read this.

[Sunderland]

I would just be happy that the driver was awake.

[tragickingdom]

Better criticise his boss for giving him too little time to reach his destination an hardly any time for a coffee and lunch break. But if eating while driving is scary than all the Mac Drive's should be forced too close too world wide. That would reduce diabetes too and we have less disgusting food.

[belg]

hub of 26.000 deaths on roads every year

[ginjag]

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

Another example, Jomptien-Swampy airport coach, 15th October, direct service-vip. Driver talking on the mobile for several kilometers, no speaker/earphones, as if he was on a motor cycle-as it's normal for them to drive 1 handed.

[Mitker]

I live in Korat and take interprovincial buses to Bangkok all the time. The drivers are always either eating or talking on the telephone driving with no shoes on all the time. I think this is the norm in Thailand. I think these buses are dangerous, but it's basically the only way I have to travel other than a train which is probably more dangerous given their record this yesr.

Barry

They are safer.

Because slower..

[Zumteufel]

The driver is now at risk of either being fined 200 baht, or if prosecuted for reckless driving (is there such an offense on the books here?) serving a 30 day suspended sentence. Is anyone in the Thai jails? Seems sentences are nearly always suspended. And why are the fines so low? I have seen 2,000 baht fines given to someone convicted of a serious assault. What is that? Seems like a fine that would be levied in 1890, not 2013. Why are the courts here so horribly incompetent? No wonder some people behave the way they do. Little in the way of a deterrent here.

Come on. 2000B for assault, 2000B for smoking in a place where it's prohibited. I'd say it's wonderfully balanced.

/sarcasm, if any doubt.

[NeverSure]

I love it that there is Facebook. Eventually it might give some Thais pause before they act. At least some farangs have cameras in their cars, and if bribed by the BiB could post it. How else to get this bus driver in trouble?

The Thais will lose face and it might hurt tourism, so they might do something to the driver. I don't think they actually give a rip that he was eating.

I honestly believe that if that happened in the US, the passengers would take that bus away from the driver and kick him out. Remember the UA flight 93 plane crash in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11 when some passengers rushed the Islamist pilots and caused the plane to crash in a field rather than let it crash in NY or DC? They had been hearing of the planes flying into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on the radio and cell phones and knew what they were facing. Remember "Let's Roll?"

The apathy of Thais amazes me.

Edited October 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[NeverSure]

Double post, sorry.

Edited October 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[bander]

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

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

The driver is now at risk of either being fined 200 baht, or if prosecuted for reckless driving (is there such an offense on the books here?) serving a 30 day suspended sentence. Is anyone in the Thai jails? Seems sentences are nearly always suspended. And why are the fines so low? I have seen 2,000 baht fines given to someone convicted of a serious assault. What is that? Seems like a fine that would be levied in 1890, not 2013. Why are the courts here so horribly incompetent? No wonder some people behave the way they do. Little in the way of a deterrent here.

The public prosecutors and the Courts are bound, like in your country, to and with laws.

And that includes the measure of fines, imprisonment and suspended punishments.

Best joke ever, I'm still laughing :-)

[Gummigalgen]

Was that the Pattaya - Ekkamai line? I stopped using it last year when a driver was doing 120 km/h (I was in the front row) and a cell.phone glued to his ear while rounding a curve in Sri Racha just before entering Bang Na Trat highway direction BKK.

Without being properly educated and what can happen with e.g. a tyre burst on a front tyre or a bearing problems. Two hands on the wheel in a bus and certainly not over 100 km/h. Bus tyres are not designed for it apart from being re-cut frequently here.

[timewilltell]

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

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

The driver is now at risk of either being fined 200 baht, or if prosecuted for reckless driving (is there such an offense on the books here?) serving a 30 day suspended sentence. Is anyone in the Thai jails? Seems sentences are nearly always suspended. And why are the fines so low? I have seen 2,000 baht fines given to someone convicted of a serious assault. What is that? Seems like a fine that would be levied in 1890, not 2013. Why are the courts here so horribly incompetent? No wonder some people behave the way they do. Little in the way of a deterrent here.

It is not the courts that are incompetent so much as the laws which are archaic and lack people who can write them comprehensibly together with an administration they is so bent on feeding their own faces that updating anything is too much trouble.

The judges can only pass sentences within the confines that legislation provides. That is why the whole system needs complete and wholesale overhaul.

[beautifulthailand99]

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

With all these talismans and spirit houses around you world have thought they had the spirit angle sorted. The same however can't be said for the other sort of spirits that must surely be a major source of accidents.

[wellred]

A certain Facebook poster posted a post. Haha

[techboy]

NYAHAHAHA!! they said what?? "An inspection will made in order to find out what was really happening " ............ that's right they don't know what is happening..... maybe they all go back to Kindergarten and learn how to recognize pictures and learn how to learn the ABC.

I've seen many thai bus drivers who are eating breakfast, lunch and dinner while driving and sometimes they are drinking too (while driving) "Amazing Thailand and Only in Thailand and The Land of Smiles" because when they met an accident they just....SMILE! like this -->

I believe that the bus company was correct to issue a statement that an inspection would be conducted. It was their best course of short term action. Suddenly someone sticks an out of focus Facebook photo under their noses and they know nothing else so they should immediately hang the driver out to dry? No. They say that they are going to check things out.

The photo looks incriminating but anyone that knows their "ABC's" also knows that a photograph can be taken out of context. I do not defend the bus driver's actions but you are annoying in your response because you remind me of a dumb schoolboy who thinks that he is going to impress the rest of the students by making a lot of noise to demonstrate that he understands something that is not really very difficult. Yes Mr. pcgeekz05, if someone steps in poop their shoes are going to stink. Dah!

Also I have never in almost fourteen years of bus travel in this country seen a bus driver drinking alcohol while driving. You did not say alcohol but that was the semantic lie that your statement implies. As to what you have actually witnessed I would be on the safe side betting that you have exaggerated.