Thai Police hunt driver who fled fatal school bus crash

[webfact]

Police hunt driver who fled fatal school bus crash
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- Police are seeking an arrest warrant for the driver who fled the scene of an accident which killed 15 people Thursday.

Sompong sae Bae, 30, was driving a chartered, double-decker bus loaded with students on a school when it collided with a large truck before smashing into a tree in Prachin Buri province. He ran away from the scene of the accident and failed to show up to answer questions at a police station yesterday.

Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident.

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/03/03/police-hunt-driver-who-fled-fatal-school-bus-crash


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-03-03

[Confuscious]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

[yang123]

Which reminds me - what happened to that poor little Red Bull heir bairn who was so poorly in Singapore he couldn't return to face trial?

[Patje]

In order to become a bus driver in Thailand you must do a test at a track and field to see how fast you can run away from a crash ....

[Gsxrnz]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

The prison poulation in Thailand is 381/100,000 population and ranked 18th highest in the world.

With all these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out as claimed by many TV'ers, one can't help wonder how the prison population rate got so high.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

[Local Drunk]

It's a no brainer... unless you are the Police.

[gemini81]

Which reminds me - what happened to that poor little Red Bull heir bairn who was so poorly in Singapore he couldn't return to face trial?

He appears to have paid it off and/or gotten away with it.

There will be less fleeing when the law exhibits enforcement of serious consequences. Until that time, this will continue unfortunately. It is, after all, a developing country as these examples certainly show.

[Local Drunk]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

The prison poulation in Thailand is 381/100,000 population and ranked 18th highest in the world.

With all these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out as claimed by many TV'ers, one can't help wonder how the prison population rate got so high.

800px-Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

Perhaps they will build new prisons after they finish the police stations... It isn't going to happen.

[clockman]

Accountability, and responsilibilty. Not in Thailand!

[assayer]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

The prison poulation in Thailand is 381/100,000 population and ranked 18th highest in the world.

With all these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out as claimed by many TV'ers, one can't help wonder how the prison population rate got so high.

800px-Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

If not for these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out, maybe Thailand could leapfrog to the number one spot!

[Local Drunk]

Actually a bribe to the police is better and much cheaper when one considers how many Thais should be in prison. Anyone for a 2.2 trillion baht prison?

[noitom]

The first Thai news stories of this tragic accident only mentioned that the driver didn't have a commercial license, according to the police quoted in the story. The Thai news never mentioned in the early notices of the story that the Thai driver fled again. Thailand must be starting to become ashamed of this fleeing accidents as commonplace. The news press should be equally ashamed of not reporting this earlier and campaigning for Thais to be responsible in the event of an accident and try to help others.

[Local Drunk]

The first Thai news stories of this tragic accident only mentioned that the driver didn't have a commercial license, according to the police quoted in the story. The Thai news never mentioned in the early notices of the story that the Thai driver fled again. Thailand must be starting to become ashamed of this fleeing accidents as commonplace. The news press should be equally ashamed of not reporting this earlier and campaigning for Thais to be responsible in the event of an accident and try to help others.

The sad truth is they aren't ashamed to flee an accident...They are more afraid of being caught.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Local Drunk

[Curt1591]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

A bus driver isn't likely to be from privileged roots. He will have to face the charges.

[darrendsd]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

Makes you wonder why they have prisons here if every crime results in a 500 Baht fine

Do you really believe what you posted? Do you really think the relatives of the people killed would accept that?

Edited March 3, 2014 by darrendsd

[bigbamboo]

Utterly contemptible behavior from the driver. There were injured kids on that bus and he ran away?

Edited March 3, 2014 by bigbamboo

[Cricketnut]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

Did they forget to mention that he doesn't have a license to drive such a vehicle? Or is that losing to much face.... Barstard.

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE 8.2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[nong38]

Utterly contemptible behavior from the driver. There were injured kids on that bus and he ran away?

It does seem par for the course though, if anything goes wrong run off. I dont know if the driver owned the bus or he worked for the bus owners but surely the bus owners should check that the driver is competent as well? Well maybe not then.

[Tomtomtom69]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

The prison poulation in Thailand is 381/100,000 population and ranked 18th highest in the world.

With all these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out as claimed by many TV'ers, one can't help wonder how the prison population rate got so high.

800px-Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

You're right, and I would think that especially in this case, he would be subject to the full weight of the law. I mean, he killed 15 people (unintentionally of course, but manslaughter is still a crime nonetheless), ran away from the scene (which made it a whole lot worse) and therefore once caught he can expect 20 years or something like that - you can't possibly bribe the police to get out of something like this.

[ginjag]

1-15pm today, the driver was being questioned at a police station. Thai TV ch-3

[jero]

The first Thai news stories of this tragic accident only mentioned that the driver didn't have a commercial license, according to the police quoted in the story. The Thai news never mentioned in the early notices of the story that the Thai driver fled again. Thailand must be starting to become ashamed of this fleeing accidents as commonplace. The news press should be equally ashamed of not reporting this earlier and campaigning for Thais to be responsible in the event of an accident and try to help others.

And who hired this driver? What's their responsibility in this avoidable tragedy?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Lingba]

and a good chanxce why he ran is because he was loaded on drugs....he fled to give the drugs a few days to flush out of his system...once done he will turn himself in, say he rean because he was scared and ask for forgiveness...will get it along with the usual slap on the wrist nothing fine and walk!....should sit well with the families who lost their kids

[WhizBang]

A good question might be, how many bus drivers have the proper license?

Ditto truck drivers, taxi drivers, limo drivers, minivan drivers, etc, etc, etc.

And even if someone holds the correct license, are they properly trained?

[belg]

thainess, you got to be thai to appreciate and understand

[ratcatcher]

The first Thai news stories of this tragic accident only mentioned that the driver didn't have a commercial license, according to the police quoted in the story. The Thai news never mentioned in the early notices of the story that the Thai driver fled again. Thailand must be starting to become ashamed of this fleeing accidents as commonplace. The news press should be equally ashamed of not reporting this earlier and campaigning for Thais to be responsible in the event of an accident and try to help others.

And who hired this driver? What's their responsibility in this avoidable tragedy?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The owner of the bus bears a large degree of culpability inasmuch as it was his responsibility to check that the driver was correctly licensed and capable of operating a passenger bus.

As most readers are aware, Thailand falls well behind others in the enforcement of safety rules.

IMO, the best drivers are usually the ones operating new semi trailer units hauling chemicals and petroleum etc. You don't get the keys to a 40,000 litre Shell or PTT tanker unless you've been through training school, and hazardous materials classes.

But, having said that, accidents (incidents) still happen.

[Lupatria]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

Poor guy on top of the 500 baht fine he will probably have to fork out 2000something to obtain a legal driving license to continue working as a "professional driver in public transport."

[cooked]

I drove past this horrifying wreck about 3 hours after it happened. The foto above doesn't do justice to what I saw, parts of the back of the bus were completely demolished, crushed flat. 33 young girls injured, 15 dead last time I looked.

I didn't like seeing that even though I didn't know about the casualties. What disturbed me more: in other countries, when you drive past something like that, you do notice that drivers are being a bit more careful for at least a mile or two.

Not the case here, the same truck drivers driving so that you couldn't get by on this narrow mountain road, the good old guys overtaking said trucks on the left, which wasn't reasonable in my opinion, or on blind bends and brows of hills.

I am still trying to work out what goes through the mind of these good old guys, maybe they bought an amulet that day?

[SOTIRIOS]

...his employer should be held accountable as well...

[moe666]

"Police said they'll charge Sompong with reckless driving resulting in death and fleeing the scene of an accident."

500 baht fine and a slap on the hand of they find him .........

The prison poulation in Thailand is 381/100,000 population and ranked 18th highest in the world.

With all these alleged 500 Baht fines and slaps on the hand being doled out as claimed by many TV'ers, one can't help wonder how the prison population rate got so high.

800px-Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

With a few here it is an automatic response

[malcolm1950]

What an absolute coward this man is, a real man would accept the consequences of his actions, if I was driving and this happened I would never expect to drive again, nor would I want to. Also what is the chance of his employers being convicted of being accessories in this accident as they saw fit to employ an unqualified driver and put him in charge of a deadly weapon, i.e. a large coach.