Phuket speedboat captain distracted by plastic bag before accident
By Coconuts Bangkok


Photo: Ittipat Pinnarod

PHUKET: -- The operator of a speedboat which collided with a fishing vessel Sunday and left 32 injured and two lost at sea said the accident happened after he was distracted by retrieving a plastic bag from under his seat.

Captain Surat Matosot told Krabi police yesterday that he reached for a stray bag being blown by the wind to keep it from disturbing his passengers, despite having seen the fishing boat ahead of him.

“About 20 minutes after we departed from Maya Bay [on Koh Phi Phi] the sky got very dark, and a black plastic bag flew under my seat,” Surat said. “I was worried it would fly into the tourists, so I decided to pick it up.”

He said that when he looked up, it was too late to turn the speedboat and avoid the fishing vessel.

No one on the fishing boat was injured.

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co//2014/10/21/phuket-speedboat-captain-distracted-plastic-bag-accident


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-10-21

Rubbish!

that is absolute BullSh*t..he saw the fishing boat but still kept a coarse straight to it..anyone who drives a boat knows that you keep a distance from them incase there is unforeseen problems like wind,chop,rogue wave, any excuse to save face...still has to be charged with manslaughter

hope he goes to the klink

can you just imagine a tour bus driver with 80 passengers on board leaving his seat to retrieve a plastic bag what's, I wonder if they checked his phone records perhaps that might reveal the real reason for this (deleted) collision.

I wonder how much harder it is to hit a slow moving fishing boat in a speedboat than it is to miss it - the Thai sense of safe driving is almost infantile - watching idiots weaving in and out of cars with the bravado attitude "hey look at me" ....... splat

Like I have said on countless occasions Safery is a non starter in Thailand...

I have been on one of that Speed Boats and they drive like a bat,out of,hell...

Also no info was given on where the Lifejackets were located ???

Me being me, soon found them... Just incase

Plausible if you remember the British couple cycling through Bangkok being mowed down by a speeding truck whilst the idiot driver attempted to retrieve his cap which had fallen to the floor. Plausible but incredibly stupid.

And now the story has changed.

Last night on a Thai news channel the story was a piece of paper had blown onto the wind-shield of the speed-boat, and the driver leaned forward to remove it. When removed, it was too late to avoid ramming the fishing vessel.

The driver was more concerned about the plastic bag disturbing the passengers than the passengers wearing life-jackets ?

And what's absolutely incredible is we're supposed to believe this nonsense.

At least the excuse is unique, so what about the 100% life jacket compliance?

At least the excuse is unique, so what about the 100% life jacket compliance?

His dog ate the memo.

At least the excuse is unique, so what about the 100% life jacket compliance?

His dog ate the memo.

how on earth can you cram 40+ people onto a speedboat if they're all wearing bulky life jackets

At least he is conscious of the environment.

Wouldn't want that plastic bag blowing into the sea with the other 1 million of them.

Sent from my LG-D858

At least the excuse is unique, so what about the 100% life jacket compliance?

His dog ate the memo.

how on earth can you cram 40+ people onto a speedboat if they're all wearing bulky life jackets

You have obviously never seen the speedboats used for these trips.

Are there not 43 witnesses?

Apart from the obvious answer - that he was seeing if anything was in the bag, in case it was worth anything, for an operator to be distracted by a bag is farcical.

can you just imagine a tour bus driver with 80 passengers on board leaving his seat to retrieve a plastic bag what's, I wonder if they checked his phone records perhaps that might reveal the real reason for this (deleted) collision.

I wonder how much harder it is to hit a slow moving fishing boat in a speedboat than it is to miss it - the Thai sense of safe driving is almost infantile - watching idiots weaving in and out of cars with the bravado attitude "hey look at me" ....... splat

Imagine it?

Everyday occurrence, by all accounts.

It's plausible. I can remember as a young man, looking down to change the radio station while driving my car and when I looked up I was almost on top of the car in front of me. I had a better outcome than this guy as I was able to skid off the side of the road and only hurt someone's lawn. I can tell you that I never made that stupid mistake again.Too bad this guy and his passengers have learned the hard way through the death of others.

The fishing boat was a Burma one, sure ...Cannot be a thai one,

It's it fault, why it was on the path of that thai speedboat ?

At least the driver couldn't run away!!

Apparently two bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the speedboat in 40 meters of water.

you know I don't think this driver was distracted at all, he was being a smart ass and did a close drive by on purpose and didn't stupidly realise he would get tangled up in the nets behind the fishing boat

I'm not sure where the speedboat originally left Phuket, but I've seen them leaving Rawai and every time all the passengers have been wearing life jackets. No idea whether they wear them on the way back.

The plastic bag thing is stupid as an excuse. Now, if he had said that he was distracted by tourists wearing bikinis then he would have been on the same page as the General and the Koh Tao business people. I mean come on, if the excuse is provided, then use it for goodness sake.

More than likely the driver was distracted by texting his GF.

The plastic distracted him from his texting ..

Apparently It's a the most common cause of accidents on the roads nowadays .

Did that plastic bag have a bottle to Thai Whisky per chance?

Pretty original though, 1st choice would be run away from the accident, like truck drivers do, but OOPS, no land around.

A derogatory generalisation towards all Thai people has been removed.

At least the excuse is unique, so what about the 100% life jacket compliance?

His dog ate the memo.

how on earth can you cram 40+ people onto a speedboat if they're all wearing bulky life jackets

You have obviously never seen the speedboats used for these trips.

I have and been on them too.. quite often they are over loaded too many passengers not enough seats, life jackets would only make it harder to sit. I like going to the south and the islands but the speedboats not so much.

I paid for a ferry once (more expensive as the speedboat) as I was traveling with my parents and my mom was after a few trips on those overcrowded speed boats not so happy. So what happened.. we were put in an over crowded speed boat anyway as the ferry had broken down (sure).

They break the laws constantly with overloading.. im quite sure of it.

"A micro sleep can kill in seconds"

His dog ate the memo.

how on earth can you cram 40+ people onto a speedboat if they're all wearing bulky life jackets

You have obviously never seen the speedboats used for these trips.

I have and been on them too.. quite often they are over loaded too many passengers not enough seats, life jackets would only make it harder to sit. I like going to the south and the islands but the speedboats not so much.

I paid for a ferry once (more expensive as the speedboat) as I was traveling with my parents and my mom was after a few trips on those overcrowded speed boats not so happy. So what happened.. we were put in an over crowded speed boat anyway as the ferry had broken down (sure).

They break the laws constantly with overloading.. im quite sure of it.

So? The biggest of these speedboats take 80 plus people, so somebody asking 'how do you cram 40 on board' really does not know what he is talking about.

You have obviously never seen the speedboats used for these trips.

I have and been on them too.. quite often they are over loaded too many passengers not enough seats, life jackets would only make it harder to sit. I like going to the south and the islands but the speedboats not so much.

I paid for a ferry once (more expensive as the speedboat) as I was traveling with my parents and my mom was after a few trips on those overcrowded speed boats not so happy. So what happened.. we were put in an over crowded speed boat anyway as the ferry had broken down (sure).

They break the laws constantly with overloading.. im quite sure of it.

So? The biggest of these speedboats take 80 plus people, so somebody asking 'how do you cram 40 on board' really does not know what he is talking about.

So they often cram more people on boats like this then allowed, so his remark was right on spot. That there are bigger boats sure.. but was it a bigger boat that was used or not.

Surely you are not blind to how these boats are often loaded with too many people. (my experience is mainly with the speedboat ferries between the islands in the south not chartered trips)

You have obviously never seen the speedboats used for these trips.

I have and been on them too.. quite often they are over loaded too many passengers not enough seats, life jackets would only make it harder to sit. I like going to the south and the islands but the speedboats not so much.

I paid for a ferry once (more expensive as the speedboat) as I was traveling with my parents and my mom was after a few trips on those overcrowded speed boats not so happy. So what happened.. we were put in an over crowded speed boat anyway as the ferry had broken down (sure).

They break the laws constantly with overloading.. im quite sure of it.

So? The biggest of these speedboats take 80 plus people, so somebody asking 'how do you cram 40 on board' really does not know what he is talking about.

So they often cram more people on boats like this then allowed, so his remark was right on spot. That there are bigger boats sure.. but was it a bigger boat that was used or not.

Surely you are not blind to how these boats are often loaded with too many people. (my experience is mainly with the speedboat ferries between the islands in the south not chartered trips)

And now it is 'more than allowed'.

I won't get into an argument here, but will simply state again that anyone asking 'how do you cram 40 people on a speedboat' has no clue and has never seen these kind of speedboats used.