Off road jeep tour accident in Samui kills one and injures six

[BigC]

The driver must take full responsibility

They should be extra careful with tourists not extra dangerous as I see them flying at me through the mountains

It is death by dangerous driving depends on what the penalty is for that

I don't know

Murder has to be premeditated

Unless the driver set out to kill these people then it is not murder but he is responsible I just hope the penalty he faces is a sentence equal to murder

[BigC]

I went on one of those 4x4 with 3 seats on top, I have to say I feel they do need regulating, I thought that at times they were being driven at times on rough terrain and in a manor that was close to being unsafe.

4x4.jpg

Seat belts, Just do not know if one of those vehicles over turned you just may be better of if you were flung clear.

How he hell did you get that selfy

[BigC]

Moan moan moan.

Thai Haters United.

Why moan? Much easier to leave and warn those that might wish to visit Lie Land!

Some of us like danger

[inzman]

Money number one!

[evadgib]

This happens at least once per year on the island, usually during northern hemisphere school summer holidays & usually involving families with children or toddlers. I'm not sure what's worse; the fact that it keeps happening or the fact that the parents/young adults lack the strength of character to take one look when they're picked up in the morning & say "We're not getting on THAT!"

(Stock photo-Fun when the right way up but a very different story when things go wrong)

[Jimlove]

I had some friends from the States who contacted me about coming here for their vacation, and they mentioned the Samui jungle treks like this one. I sent them some articles, and told them they were crazy to even think about it. Told them to go online and do some research about safety in Thailand. A month or so later they emailed me and said they had a wonderful time in Vietnam.

Good advice to your friends - I do the same to friends in my homecountry ... No need to risk your life here !

[Mudcrab]

They are a menace, drive to fast, drive to close, take unnecessary chances, Male Ego of the driver?

I saw 8 of the yesterday driving on the ring road in Menam, all driving very fast and close, with in 5 meters of each other.

I believe the bigger the thrill for the passengers the bigger the tip at the end of the trip, if they are around to pay it.

Evidently competent drivers are not available or to expensive. Proper drivers license checks should also be performed.

Is a special driver license needed to drive a public vehicle with passengers?

Since they carry passengers they should be required to have insurance to cover damage and injuries, Liability should be over 50 million Baht. To expensive charge the customer, raise the price.

Easier get careful and competent drivers.

Dear oh dear oh dear!

Perhaps a man walking in front carrying a red flag to warn the pedestrians as well.

The people are paying for the thrill.

Some pay the ultimate price.

That's the way of the world.

Nobody forces them to take the risk.

[spidermike007]

seeing as it involves chinese it might get interesting, legally

Interesting point indeed. Nothing that is done by the authorities, ever happens on Samui, because it is the right thing to do, or to prevent things like this from happening, or to keep the public safe. It happens only in a knee jerk manner, after the fact. Samui has to be one of the most poorly run places I have ever been to. There is no leadership here, and the lack of pride on the part of the local people is astonishing. So few local people seem to really care about Samui. It always feels like the primary consideration on Samui is cash.

[sscsamui]

Nobody monitors these morons or the paths they take, and no punishment for the driver or the company.... Samui is a lawless Island that should have a tidal wave wipe it out and start all over... I know it is cynical but i hate the way it is now... It Was such a beautiful Island and a great place to live...

[islandguy]

I had some friends from the States who contacted me about coming here for their vacation, and they mentioned the Samui jungle treks like this one. I sent them some articles, and told them they were crazy to even think about it. Told them to go online and do some research about safety in Thailand. A month or so later they emailed me and said they had a wonderful time in Vietnam.

Yes, Vietnam roads and traffic is of course a lot safer than Thailand...

murricans....

[islandguy]

So are you saying, Mole, that in Vietnam everybody would have died, so lucky they were on Samui instead?

Your comments are sometimes acerbic, I have no problem with that, but this one seems to either be American bashing or an extremely weak defense of what happened with this accident.

[Basil B]

So are you saying, Mole, that in Vietnam everybody would have died, so lucky they were on Samui instead?

Your comments are sometimes acerbic, I have no problem with that, but this one seems to either be American bashing or an extremely weak defense of what happened with this accident.

Ranking, Country, Estimated road traffic death rate (per 100 000 population)

1 San Marino 0

2 Micronesia (Federated States of) 1.8

3 Maldives 1.9

4 Iceland 2.8

5 Sweden 3

6 Andorra 3.5

7 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 3.7

8 Malta 3.8

9 Netherlands 3.9

10 Norway 4.3

11 Switzerland 4.3

13 Denmark 4.7

14 Germany 4.7

15 Ireland 4.7

16 Israel 4.7

17 Finland 5.1

18 Singapore 5.1

19 Japan 5.2

20 Spain 5.4

23 Australia 6.1

25 Luxembourg 6.3

26 France 6.4

28 Austria 6.6

31 Canada 6.8

32 Italy 7.2

36 Cyprus 7.6

40 Belgium 8.1

43 New Zealand 9.1

44 Philippines 9.1

56 United States of America 11.4

61 Portugal 11.8

62 Turkey 12

63 Greece 12.2

89 Myanmar 15

114 Russian Federation 18.6

119 India 18.9

131 Lao People's Democratic Republic 20.4

132 China 20.5

160 Viet Nam 24.7

162 Malaysia 25

179 Thailand 38.1

181 Niue 68.3

Data from: WHO http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A997

These are the latest figures I can find, they are for the year 2010.

But clearly one has a greater risk of being killed on the roads of Thailand compared to Vietnam by a factor of 54%

Or compared to the UK that a staggering 929%...

Yes, certainly Vietnam was a more sensible option.

Edit PDF of spreadsheet I was trying to past data.pdf

[Mole]

I'm fine with those data from 2010. But this is 2015 and car ownership and especially motorbike ownership has gone dramatically up in Vietnam, so there are hell a lot more people on the road today than in 2010. I'm curious how the numbers are now today.

One can for example see clearly that in cities such as Saigon, there's a hell lot motorbikes on the streets than in Bangkok and they're certainly driving crazier than even in Bangkok.

Those murricans would probably have as good vacation here in Thailand as in Vietnam and I'm sure the risks of accident aren't that much different.

[evadgib]

[Birdman]

I had some friends from the States who contacted me about coming here for their vacation, and they mentioned the Samui jungle treks like this one. I sent them some articles, and told them they were crazy to even think about it. Told them to go online and do some research about safety in Thailand. A month or so later they emailed me and said they had a wonderful time in Vietnam.

they would have emailed that too, if they would have been in Thailand.

[Mole]

I would have stopped digging if that hole wasn't 5 year old....

Give me some current statistics and I'll certainly stop digging. But 5 year old road traffic statistics aren't gonna convince me, especially from what one can clearly see in REAL LIFE how bad the traffic is in cities like Saigon and Hanoi.

[Basil B]

They came from WHO and they were the latest I could find... may be there is more car ownership now in Vietnam, but the same could be said for Thailand...

Presume they have problems with countries filling their stats...

What I do not see is any real attempt by Thailand to reduce the number of accidents on the roads ...and off road as per the subject of this thread.

[cumgranosalum]

Every time Ui have visited samui over the last 15 years, I attempt to cross the island via the interior...it took several attempts before I finally made it right across. Still whenever I visit I like to go for an explore.........up until a couple of years ago, all the "off-road" experiences were in capable 4x4s adapted to take a few passengers in the back....I must admit when I saw these new 4x4 pickups with their ridiculous seats on the roof, I felt it was a recipe for disaster. I also noticed that the drivers were deliberately trying to make the ride "more exciting" by jerking and swinging the vehicles around. The customers seemed to be almost entirely Chinese, East european or Russian all of whom seem to have little instilled sense of danger or risk calculation.

the tracks over the island have got more "passable" over the last few years, but there are some horrendous gradients and many of the tracks are seriously eroded by rains and flood water....I think trying to navigate around the island with a do0zen or so passengers is just insane.

[samuijimmy]

last post removed as most of the information was nonsense.