A Foreigner and 5 five other passengers trapped inside bus after crash

[ginjag]

I travel NCA between Surin and Bkk regularly. One thing I like is that they change drivers 1/2 way through the trip.

Problem now is that they have to change the buses 1/2 way through the trip.

[laolover88]

I just drove 4 days from Issan to Chiang Mai. 1 bus crash, no one hurt, 2 pickup crashes...pickups flattened,...1 in the canal on the Khon Khaen Highway bridge...traffic jam due to crowds come to gawp and take photos, 10.00 a.m ..1 was 4 feet up a tree in Nongbualamphu, How? I could not imagine... 7 people dead.........15.00....several hair raising incidents of cars overtaking at speed on blind hill corners where there were double yellow lines....3rd deadliest roads in the world. If they want to kill each other "up to them", but please leave me out of it!

[soi41]

Things are certainly not improving on the Roads and Rails of LOS, figures compiled by the World Health Org. in 2010, showed Thailand at 38.1 reported road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants, With the USA at 10.4. Australia at 6.6. France at 6.4. Germany at 4.7 Sweden at 3.0 and the UK at 2.75.

Much room for improvement, especially in the passenger transport areas.

Ofcourse those numbers are an important indicator, but a more correct way to measure it would be fatalities/travelled kilometers.

And with the very high number of buses on Thailands roads at any given time, I am not so sure, that Thailand is much worse than any other country.

Tried to look for statistics, but couldn't find any for buses only.

Sure there is a lot of not roadworthy buses on the road here, a few high/drunk drivers, but my gut feeling is, if you measured travelled km's and accident rate, Thailand is not doing so badly!

I am only talking buses here!

[bangkokstick]

I travel NCA between Surin and Bkk regularly. One thing I like is that they change drivers 1/2 way through the trip.

Be careful, sometimes it happens that we win when we plays the lottery regularly...

[sawadee1947]

...did the police check his blood? Alcohol? Drugs?

[sz1a]

I'd like to add that the bus driver might have also been undertrained in bus driving. There are safe ways of averting sudden obstacles without flipping a bus over. If it flipped it might have been going too fast and reducing reaction times.

Let me give a farang scooter driving analogy: By looking at the amount of farangs injured in scooter accidents and crashes, one might think scooter driving is inherently dangerous. The truth however is that the farangs don't know what the <deleted> they are doing and have never been on a motorcycle before or own a license or know how to operate one safely for that matter. Locking the front brakes in a sand covered turn seem especially popular.

Back on topic: I think the issue is the low standard for obtaining driver's licenses for various vehicles that are the culprit for the many accidents. There are safe ways of operating a vehicle in any country where you can reduce the risk to extreme outside factors and mitigate the rest of them. One way of being safe when approaching intersections where you risk being crosscut is obviously to slow down.

[AndyFarang]

But why has the rescue worker (?) at the front of the bus got his arse hanging out....??!!

[Robby nz]

Read the road death stats from last year and of the 26,800 + road deaths less than 1% involved buses and other heavy vehicles.

74% involved motorbikes or other 2 or 3 wheel vehicles.

I noted the word "involved" which would indicate that not all deaths that involved buses were people in the buses.

Could easily be that more than one class of vehicle was involved in any one death, IE, bus and motorbike.

I note also that most of the bus accidents seem to involve tour buses and not regular route buses.

Possibly the tour bus drivers have less idea of where they are going and of road conditions.

[tingtongfarang]

Things are certainly not improving on the Roads and Rails of LOS, figures compiled by the World Health Org. in 2010, showed Thailand at 38.1 reported road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants, With the USA at 10.4. Australia at 6.6. France at 6.4. Germany at 4.7 Sweden at 3.0 and the UK at 2.75.

Much room for improvement, especially in the passenger transport areas.

Ofcourse those numbers are an important indicator, but a more correct way to measure it would be fatalities/travelled kilometers.

And with the very high number of buses on Thailands roads at any given time, I am not so sure, that Thailand is much worse than any other country.

Tried to look for statistics, but couldn't find any for buses only.

Sure there is a lot of not roadworthy buses on the road here, a few high/drunk drivers, but my gut feeling is, if you measured travelled km's and accident rate, Thailand is not doing so badly!

I am only talking buses here!

But the stats trucker joe gave for thailand are the fugged figures, the true number could be close to double,

I think it would be fair if they showed a video to tourists before arrival warning them of the dangers of traveling in thailand, and the dangers which await them concerning all forms of transport within thailand,

I,m sure the average tourist has no idea.

[johnlandy]

TAT should force better safety standards (not only on the road, in train travel also).

TAT ?? It's really nothing to do with TAT, you can't expect a nation to care nothing for the safety of it's own people but make changes for the sake of visitors...can you ??

But that is the problem Thais do not care about their fellow countrymen (unless they're family)

[Emdog]

as long as there were no time share or insurance salesmen among the group, I would expect a rapid recovery for those trapped.

[jsflynn603]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

[tingtongfarang]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

i just noticed that too

[Munger]

Things are certainly not improving on the Roads and Rails of LOS, figures compiled by the World Health Org. in 2010, showed Thailand at 38.1 reported road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants, With the USA at 10.4. Australia at 6.6. France at 6.4. Germany at 4.7 Sweden at 3.0 and the UK at 2.75.

Much room for improvement, especially in the passenger transport areas.

And with the very high number of buses on Thailands roads at any given time, I am not so sure, that Thailand is much worse than any other country.

Thailand is not doing so badly!

WHAT, are you serious ?. You thai apologists are pathetic.

[connda]

I think that lately all of these crashes which are appearing in the news papers etc, aren't necessarily just because Thai bus drivers are crashing more frequently. But rather, the newspapers are deciding to report on them more often now. Perhaps a new reporter in the Isaan area (Most of the crashes reported seem to be in isaan, particularly in/near RoiEt province), or maybe the bus companies haven't paid their usual fees to avoid the media spotlight?

My gf told me a while back that the train accidents might have increased because people are deliberately damaging the tracks in order to prompt the government to invest in the existing rail network (rather than just pumping billions of THB into the new Thailand/China rail connection when the current rail network isn't upto standard). Or perhaps it's the same accidents as usual, but more reporting.

As both train and bus accidents have been receiving a lot more attention lately, previously I think only the ones with multiple fatalities got into the media, now even accidents with just a few injuries get into the spotlight.

Hell they need to dump those billions into first world, limited access, super-highways. Then save a few more billion for the purchase of highway patrol vehicles, the training and pay of highway patrolmen, and the the lobbying and updating of archaic and unenforced traffic laws. Get the cops on the road pulling people over for moving violations, and a lot of the carnage will cease.

Annnnnnd now back to reality -- here's Somchai with the weather!

[slapout]

The mobil cabinet meetings would be a good way to bring awareness of the problems of bus travel, driving conditions in general to government officials. Here in CM it is common to see a single mini van with some government wannabe vip with a police escort.

Require those traveling to the mobil cabinet meeting. to do so by bus, without a police escort. The same with their frequent jaunts to other events, put them out on the fireing line, and let them see what a bulls eye feels like.

[Gandtee]

I feel sorry for all the passengers injured in this crash. If it had happened in January next year, poor old Klaus could have been forced to pay baht for the privilege of being in a bus crash. I repeat, the Thai tourist board should pay all incoming tourists baht 500 for risking their lives by seeking a holiday in Thailand.

[Gandtee]

Sorry , pay baht 500.

[yingyo]

I think the Emergency Worker recently ate plarah and let one rip moments before this photo was taken.

[tetleythedog]

Again? Road safety in Thailand is far below international standards. Dangerous to travel in this country. TAT should force better safety standards (not only on the road, in train travel also). Nearly every week derailments.

Too true !!! Vehicles not maintained and <deleted> drivers...........a lethal combination.

[umbanda]

Again? Road safety in Thailand is far below international standards. Dangerous to travel in this country. TAT should force better safety standards (not only on the road, in train travel also). Nearly every week derailments.

It gets better and better each year (less and les deaths per 100,000 people) but Thailand is still ranked 6th in the world for the number of deaths per 100,000 people. The biggest percentage, by far, is motorcycles.

I also believe that the ranking position is bad because is considering motorbikes accidents. Car and bus accidents are low considering the size of the country and its population. I will like to see what is the % considering also the number of cars on the roads and cities.That number is probably a lot higher than any European or American country.....and probably the numbers 1, 2,3, 4 and 5 on the ranking are Asian countries...

[endi11]

Klaus Peter Buhrig. How many nationalities could it possibly be?

I'll guess 3

a) German

b)Austrian

c)Swiss

[ramrod711]

I wonder if the driver was handicapped in some way, he didn't flee the scene like most of his compatriots. The company was also woefully slow in painting over their logo ala Thai airways.

[tingtongfarang]

Klaus Peter Buhrig. How many nationalities could it possibly be?

I'll guess 3

a) German

b)Austrian

c)Swiss

I have met both canadians and americans with german names.

[soi41]

Things are certainly not improving on the Roads and Rails of LOS, figures compiled by the World Health Org. in 2010, showed Thailand at 38.1 reported road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants, With the USA at 10.4. Australia at 6.6. France at 6.4. Germany at 4.7 Sweden at 3.0 and the UK at 2.75.

Much room for improvement, especially in the passenger transport areas.

And with the very high number of buses on Thailands roads at any given time, I am not so sure, that Thailand is much worse than any other country.

Thailand is not doing so badly!

WHAT, are you serious ?. You thai apologists are pathetic.

If you are going to quote my posts, please quote the whole post, instead of picking a word here and a line there!! Only to serve the purpose, of posting your own nonsense!

[Tywais]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

Major plumber's crack? It is odd and figure it must be an illusion but can't tell how.

[Mitker]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

i just noticed that too

Making your way through torn steel debris can achieve this result and probably that his priorities weren't exactly there at that moment. All merit to him and good for the victims.

But it makes for a surprising shot indeed...

[ginjag]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

i just noticed that too

Making your way through torn steel debris can achieve this result and probably that his priorities weren't exactly there at that moment. All merit to him and good for the victims.

But it makes for a surprising shot indeed...

I think it's a double cheek to show this, no underwear ? kinky. maybe it's a joke pair of trousers same as some T shirts.

[Halion]

When in the name of Gods green grass is some investigative journalist simply going to tabulate the bus/van and train accidents and statistics for this year alone and send a copy of his report to the heads of foreign news syndicates along with copies to each of the major foreign embassy's . It would be most interesting to see how TAT deals with such data.

This incidents are almost a daily event and they are a total disgrace on the reputations of both the administration and the police.

[Mitker]

Is it just me or....

Why is that man mooning the photographer?

i just noticed that too

Making your way through torn steel debris can achieve this result and probably that his priorities weren't exactly there at that moment. All merit to him and good for the victims.

But it makes for a surprising shot indeed...

I think it's a double cheek to show this, no underwear ? kinky. maybe it's a joke pair of trousers same as some T shirts.

could be. But I'd be surprised he would wear humorous pants on his way to road disasters..

well, anything possible here anyway