Bangkok Hit-and-Run driver charged, released from police custody

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Wrong.

I have a UK 'friend' who recently killed a motorcyclist whilst drunk and got off scot free.

I have a Thai friend who did the same and went to jail.

My comment above didn't address what happens to Thais or not.

It addressed what typically will happen to farangs in Thailand who get into that kind of scrape. And just because you know of one "friend" who managed to get off somehow, doesn't mean that most farangs in that situation would likewise manage to walk away. I suspect, most instead would be sitting in jail.

But I do agree about the reason you suggest, in that, most farangs living in Thailand aren't people of "influence."

Edited May 9, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Blackfox]

Why don't we set up a TV mercenary group to bring accountability to Thailand?

[ChaangNoi]

Why don't we set up a TV mercenary group to bring accountability to Thailand?

More mob violence is clearly the solution to solving mob violence.

[ableguy]

I don't know what happened on the crash/accident and I don't want to speculate. However giving a false name to a doctor or a "body snatcher" is something I might do. Who knows what they are going to bill you for.

Running away and getting a lawyer is something I might do as well. I've seen videos of Thai mob violence where someone who caused an accident was killed brutally in public and it was video taped by many. No one even tried to help. I don't want to go into too many details of the video but I very much understand why so many Thia's run when something like this happens. Staying in a locked truck until police arrive is not the safe way to do it evidently.

Somewhat related I was in a very small finder bender where it was clearly my fault. I was pulling over and was going to pay or have my insurance cover it. 5,000 Baht or less type scratch but the Thai driver just speed off, I found that odd. I would have paid for the damage. Wife said some people just don't want any trouble.

How many run aways have drugs or booze in their system, show up when clean sure as hell cuts their sentence down only if they are poor of course, hi So head for Singapore , Dubai also I hear.

[ChaangNoi]

I don't know what happened on the crash/accident and I don't want to speculate. However giving a false name to a doctor or a "body snatcher" is something I might do. Who knows what they are going to bill you for.

Running away and getting a lawyer is something I might do as well. I've seen videos of Thai mob violence where someone who caused an accident was killed brutally in public and it was video taped by many. No one even tried to help. I don't want to go into too many details of the video but I very much understand why so many Thia's run when something like this happens. Staying in a locked truck until police arrive is not the safe way to do it evidently.

Somewhat related I was in a very small finder bender where it was clearly my fault. I was pulling over and was going to pay or have my insurance cover it. 5,000 Baht or less type scratch but the Thai driver just speed off, I found that odd. I would have paid for the damage. Wife said some people just don't want any trouble.

How many run aways have drugs or booze in their system, show up when clean sure as hell cuts their sentence down only if they are poor of course, hi So head for Singapore , Dubai also I hear.

It sounds like the solution to this is to have the police get to the accident before a mob can form. We both know that will not happen so the smart thing is to run away, then again I'm not suicidal.

What is the response time for an accident? I know in some areas it is nothing, they do not come. Also in other areas I have seen cops just drive by!

Know the local way of doing things to avoid death. Also don't ride bicycles on highways...

[Tomtomtom69]

He'll probably be on his way to Singapore to join the other sleazebag by now.

I would think a sophisticated country like Singapore would refuse entry to such undesirable foreigners.

[Tomtomtom69]

I don't know what happened on the crash/accident and I don't want to speculate. However giving a false name to a doctor or a "body snatcher" is something I might do. Who knows what they are going to bill you for.

Running away and getting a lawyer is something I might do as well. I've seen videos of Thai mob violence where someone who caused an accident was killed brutally in public and it was video taped by many. No one even tried to help. I don't want to go into too many details of the video but I very much understand why so many Thia's run when something like this happens. Staying in a locked truck until police arrive is not the safe way to do it evidently.

Somewhat related I was in a very small finder bender where it was clearly my fault. I was pulling over and was going to pay or have my insurance cover it. 5,000 Baht or less type scratch but the Thai driver just speed off, I found that odd. I would have paid for the damage. Wife said some people just don't want any trouble.

How many run aways have drugs or booze in their system, show up when clean sure as hell cuts their sentence down only if they are poor of course, hi So head for Singapore , Dubai also I hear.

It sounds like the solution to this is to have the police get to the accident before a mob can form. We both know that will not happen so the smart thing is to run away, then again I'm not suicidal.

What is the response time for an accident? I know in some areas it is nothing, they do not come. Also in other areas I have seen cops just drive by!

Know the local way of doing things to avoid death. Also don't ride bicycles on highways...

I once saw an accident unfold right in front of me in Lampang on my way from Phitsanulok to Chiang Mai. It was the bypass road coming from Den Chai and going to Chiang Mai. This accident occurred in September 2011 from what I can remember. So I was driving along the then single lane in each direction road (I'm not sure if it's since been widened, I suspect not yet, but it could be only a matter of time before it is) and then on my left I saw a grey Honda CRV, with a local Lampang number plate being driven by a lady who appeared to be in her early 30s. At first I couldn't tell who the driver was, but as you will shortly be able to tell, I'll get to that.

So right in front of me there was a motorcycle with a sidecar being driven by a 50 something local man. He appeared to be carrying some sort of goods in the sidecar. The driver of the CRV, without looking pulled into his lane (yes she came to the end of the merging lane but rather than wait and look, she just pulled over, not even gradually but suddenly). This forceful action caused her to plow into the motorcycle, causing the most spectacular (in a bad way) upward movement of the man's body into the air, before he came crashing down to the ground. All of this happened right in front of me and unfortunately I didn't have a dashcam, although back in those days they weren't nearly as common as they seem to be becoming now. If I did have a dashcam, that footage would be on Youtube right now and would be a contender for the golden prize of "world's craziest road accidents" or "world's wildest police videos" or similar.

Anyway, so I pulled over, along with about 3-4 other vehicles to see if the victim was OK. The driver of the CRV stopped, took out her phone to call for assistance from her insurance I presume (and maybe the police also), while the driver of the motorcycle lay on the roadside. He appeared to be alive, but probably badly injured, at least suffering broken bones such as broken legs. Another driver called an ambulance and within 5 minutes one arrived and took the injured person to the nearest hospital. I stayed to make sure everything was OK before I continued my journey. Once the injured victim was taken away I left. Looking behind me in my rear view mirror, I could see the lady still there, waiting for her insurance (and possibly the police to arrive). But, either because this was an accident (even though she was clearly 100% at fault in my opinion), it was in a relatively unpopulated part of town or because the whole "mob" thing only happens when a completely crazy driver causes an accident, there was no mob. It was all orderly and well handled. I feel for the injured motorcyclist and the lady who caused the accident was just an idiot - but hey, this kind of bad driving that leads to accidents is not uncommon in Thailand. I do hope that the victim made a full recovery though and that the person who was responsible for this accident learned something from it. Everyone was very lucky - although, without being able to follow up and not knowing the extent of the motorcycle rider's injuries, there is no way of knowing how he ended up.

[Tomtomtom69]

Wrong.

I have a UK 'friend' who recently killed a motorcyclist whilst drunk and got off scot free.

I have a Thai friend who did the same and went to jail.

My comment above didn't address what happens to Thais or not.

It addressed what typically will happen to farangs in Thailand who get into that kind of scrape. And just because you know of one "friend" who managed to get off somehow, doesn't mean that most farangs in that situation would likewise manage to walk away. I suspect, most instead would be sitting in jail.

But I do agree about the reason you suggest, in that, most farangs living in Thailand aren't people of "influence."

I disagree. That is simply hearsay. It all depends how much money you have. If you can negotiate a settlement you can probably buy your way out of jail just like all the rich Thais do. Unless of course you're either a "piss-poor farang" or one who doesn't pay "bribes" or "facilitation fees" out of principle, as many "farangs" seem to have a "problem" with this system.

The key is however, not to let it get too high up, a lot also depends on the attitude of the foreigner involved, the locals involved, who was deemed to be at fault, the extent of the damages, injuries etc.

In some cases you probably want to avoid getting the police involved at all.

I would never want to end up in a bad sort of situation, but speaking from experience when I did end up accidentally hitting a child while driving along the Mekong in Nong Khai province back in 2007, the outcome was very favourable for both parties. Not only was the family very understanding of the situation (they didn't even know if it was me or my Thai friend driving, nor did they care because as far as Thais are concerned, everyone in the whole car is equally involved if an accident occurs and must deal with the consequences not merely the driver, unless it's a public transport vehicle in which case you can't assume that the passengers will in any way back up the driver - I guess this thinking must come from the fact that in a private car, you clearly know all the occupants whereas in a public bus you don't).

We took the injured child to a local hospital to get checked out but in the end had to drive 90km to Nong Khai to a better hospital as the local hospital didn't have working x-ray equipment. Long story short the kid suffered no serious injuries or other consequences, insurance paid, we paid a small sum of money (300 baht) for the family to take their child back to the hospital for wound dressing and the cost of one night hotel stay for the family, which I think may have been reimbursed by the insurance as well. After the child was released from the hospital the next day we drove the family back to their village, had a meal somewhere along the way, which we paid for, stayed in contact by calling up and asking how the child was doing for the next few weeks (answer was: fine) and everyone was happy.

The family also remarked how nice it was of us not to flee the scene like many truck drivers have done in the past. Well, not that we would have fled, but just saying.

We were barely out of pocket in the end, because the only money that came out of our pocket was for 2 meals for the family and 300 Baht for minor wound washing expenses at the local hospital while they waited for the insurer to pay for their compensation, a process that would take 2-3 days.

In another case I watched on Youtube, a few months back a Myanmar worker in Nakorn Sawan, who briefly drove against the flow of traffic before moving across three lanes of traffic to do a u-turn to drive on the correct side of the road (note that the mere 20m or so she drove next to parked cars was NOT in any way connected to the accident she was about to be involved in) was hit by a speeding car (pickup truck) as she had reached the halfway point between the curb and the u-turn bay. Unfortunately many Thai motorcyclists, at least riders of scooters and small bikes less than about 150cc seem to be too scared to do the right thing and gradually move into the right lane before reaching the u-turn bay, fearing they'll be hit by a larger vehicle so they do the dumb thing and wait on the far left and check for oncoming vehicles before quickly moving across many lanes in a perpendicular direction to traffic flow.

This lady was hit and instantly killed. The Thai driver of the pickup truck probably barely received any punishment, but that wasn't mentioned in the news report. The reason it was on the news and on Thai chat shows was because the driver attended the funeral of this woman, who also happened to be pregnant at the time and gave a mere 1000 Baht as compensation in an envelope. The husband and his friends from the Myanmar community were disheartened and outraged, but as far as I'm aware that was the end of that story.

Life is cheap in Thailand, but it's cheaper for some than for others.

[Tomtomtom69]

someone asked what you have to do to get locked up ??

very simple:

Be a farong,

take a bottle of vodka, maybee red bull will be enough, away from a shop,

you will be locked up, deported and banned for 10 years !!

If you a Thai,

make a kneefall and say : sorry, forgot to pay , thats it !!

Therefore we like LOS, and

we are here for this kindness ??

Total rubbish. We as parang get off with a lot more than normal Thais.

If you mean farang, I agree with you. I'm amazed at the number of posters over the years that think farang get a rougher deal than the Thais. I get away with much more - for eg. I can talk my way out of a routine police extortion etc.

Mango66 is wrong. A normal Thai(ie no influence) will get locked up for theft faster than a foreigner unless they are a Pattaya dweller perhaps. The police don't like sexpats, well actually nobody really like them.

Exactly. I have talked my way nicely and kindly out of police attempts to get me to pay for a traffic infraction, which I may add they have every right to pull me over in the first place because in every case I was caught (which is very rare to begin with) they were quite right - yes I did exceed the speed limit and yes I did drive on red number plates at night but I did have a log book with me and wrote in it as I was supposed to.

So I disagree strongly with anyone who thinks that the Thai police are out to extort motorists. That is absolute baloney as the police almost always have a legitimate reason to pull you over that's IF they even have the incentive to do so, because the road rules here are barely enforced at the best of times. There are so few police checkpoints (or ones where the police actually do anything) that there is very little reason to worry about anything, unless you happen to have been drinking and it's late at night, then you are counting your luck. Otherwise, there is little chance you will get caught for speeding, undertaking, dangerous overtaking, driving in the right lane when not overtaking/passing, not wearing a helmet if riding a motorcycle or similar. And even if you do you can generally talk your way out of it, with some "offences" being easier to deal with than others. For example, not wearing a helmet is considered more serious than speeding. So talking your way out of a speeding fine is much easier than talking your way out of not wearing a helmet even if the latter only yields a "slap on the wrist" 200 Baht fine anyway. But as I drive a car 99.5% of the time rather than my motorcycle, most of my experience comes from driving cars and not motorcycles.

Nevertheless, anytime I have ever been stopped by police I have almost always been allowed to proceed after a 1-2 min friendly discussion within the last few years (I am fluent in Thai BTW and that helps). No fines, no bribes, nothing paid. Even the sternest police officers have only ever managed to get about 100-200 Baht out of me, and that was for an official fine with receipt. I didn't even know this, but as of at least 2013 the police even has the power to issue fines to your mailing address and you get the fine that way! Wow, talk about catching up with the rest of the world. I was so confused by this that it took more than 5 minutes to understand that the 100 Baht ticket he was writing up didn't have to be paid at the station responsible for his precinct but it would be sent to the owner's vehicle registered address! And yes, it was and the fine was paid. I'm not sure if it was even worth sending that fine notice, given the cost of postage, but in the end it was paid and that was that.