Speeding drivers of smashed passenger vans escape serious injury
Eakkapop Thongtub

PHUKET: One man is being treated for 'minor injuries' at Thalang Hospital after he lost control of the passenger van he was driving, scraped two other vehicles and finally rolled over onto the busy highway en route to Phuket airport this morning (May 23).

Mr Wichet Singkul, 48, had reportedly lost control of his white passenger van after suddenly breaking when another passenger van ahead of him lost control and smashed into an electric pole on the side of the road.

The incident happened at a bend in the road about 1 kilometre west of the Thalang Technical College.

For much of this morning, traffic on the east bound lane of route 4026 backed up, as large vehicles coming from the direction of the airport could not pass due to Mr Wichet's van obstructing the way.

Both van drivers were reportedly on their way to the airport to pick up tourists, as were the other two passenger vehicles – a green-plate taxi of a black-Chevorlet make, and a yellow-plate passenger van – that sustained minor scrapes in the incident.

The driver of the grey van that smashed into the electric pole, named as 29-year-old Mr Chalermpon Intharit, did not suffer any injuries and did not require hospitalisation.

As their were no serious injuries caused from the incident, no one was detained though Mr Chalermpon has been summoned to answer to a charge of reckless driving, police said.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/speeding-drivers-of-smashed-passenger-vans-escape-serious-injury-52447.php

-- Phuket News 2015-05-23

I have noticed an almost Jekyll & Hyde like behaviour from these drivers ranging from speeding & dangerous to very polite. I always wonder if blame can be laid on the owners as the drivers really have to push to meet deadlines & are under a lot of pressure.

wet road, slippery and drivers going too fast and not being able to control the vehicle when it started to slide, good possibility tyres are balding as well. Unfortunately no many thai drivers are capable of controlling any vehicle once it gets into trouble and probably just hit the brakes when they started to slide due to speed/surface on the corner that makes it a lot worse to control

Had one of these boneheads about run me over in the Chalong circle as he did not heed already in circle etiquette and came blasting through. I leaned on my horn and the guy stopped (in the circle!) and looked like he was getting out (with gun?) as I gassed my motorcycle out of there.

Consistently see poor driving from these vans, speeding, bigger vehicle wins attitude, etc....

Thai drivers have no perception of changing weather conditions and cannot adapt their driving to suit. That''s why they are No: 2 in the world for road traffic accidents/deaths. The lack of education and common sense.

Because of lack of transparency, i suspect they are No1 in the world!

2 flipped mini-buses in 1 accident.

Whatever next ??

1. Electric road-side pole 2. Sudden breaking 3. Two Thai drivers racing to collect passengers from airport.

Recipe for disaster, and the disaster happened.

Next !!

.......glad to see the 'van control measures' are having great results....

...escape serious injury. Is this a new trend of escape regarding road accidents?

Scourge of the road are these mini buses. They pull out ,come towards you lights flashing ,race each other oh and go through red lights , no thought to any passengers. VIP ....that would be the ********** driver.

Same old, same old!!!!!

Same old, same old!!!!!

"Same old, same old!!!!!" - until it's you. or one of your friends or family.

Same old, same old!!!!!

Agreed, another typical 'groundhog day' in Thailand. It would seem that social media is one of the few effective tools that seems to spur the government into action, then promptly dropped after all the 'hoo-haa' dies down.

No one was hurt because no one was in the van but the driver. They drive the same crazy way with or without passengers!! When will the van owners and Thais in general ever learn SPEED KILLS!!!!!!!!!!

No one was hurt because no one was in the van but the driver. They drive the same crazy way with or without passengers!! When will the van owners and Thais in general ever learn SPEED KILLS!!!!!!!!!!

Or as Stirling Moss once said,

It's not actually speed that kills, it's lack of driver ability under the conditions at the time.

A good point mentioned above. The mini bus on its side only contained the driver ( good ) what would be the accident tally if there were10 others on board not wearing seat belts. A different story I fear .

You'd think natural selection would take its toll on these numb-skulls. In this case unfortunately not.