Dangerous Baht Buses In Pattaya Beware

[SteveJames]

I am just posting this topic because I believe people need to be aware of the increasing dangers on the baht buses around Pattaya I have witnessed over the last 3 years, its only a matter of time before somebody gets seriously injured and tonight made me want to voice my concerns.

I had to rush my GF to the Pattaya hospital this evening because she got a gash on her head from a loose hand rail fitting which could have been a lot worse luckily it didn't hit her forehead. She had to have 4 stitches and a tetanus shot and has to take the week off her job at a shop she manages. Fair enough the Baht Bus drivers paid the 900 baht for the hospital time and drove us home free of charge but thats not the point, probably nothing will be done to fix the handrail and other problems such as this.

This is not the first time I have seen lose fittings which are very dangerous on the Baht Buses either, one time I sat down only to have a screw protruding from one of the side advertisements prodding me in the back... that could have easily paralyzed some drunk who wasn't conscious of his surroundings. Not to mention light fittings with plastic bottles badly wired catching fire.... Anyway this probably won't make a difference but to highlight to others to be more careful

Edited January 10, 2016 by SteveJames

[Matej]

Thanks for the warning ...

[SteveJames]

Hi thanks Jess, yes some good ideas there, I didn't think about city hall or Pattaya news.. I'm not sure what can be down but if people get injured thats not going to help the tourist industry either so its in the councils interests to look into it

[WitawatWatawit]

Steve, I'm not being facetious - this is just part of the Pattaya "school of hard knocks" kind of thing, something you should be used to after 3 years, don't you think? Complain all you like, but once again, after 3 years you should know it will achieve nothing. Can't harm to keep posting these kind of pix, though, if it helps someone less tuned in. Glad the GF is not badly hurt.

[SteveJames]

Steve, I'm not being facetious - this is just part of the Pattaya "school of hard knocks" kind of thing, something you should be used to after 3 years, don't you think? Complain all you like, but once again, after 3 years you should know it will achieve nothing. Can't harm to keep posting these kind of pix, though, if it helps someone less tuned in. Glad the GF is not badly hurt.

Yeah I know it will not achieve anything... its just crazy isn't it.. I'm just worried it could have been worse she had blood streaming down her face and I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else...imagine if it was your GF... head injuries can kill

Edited January 10, 2016 by SteveJames

[phycokiller]

they have been annoying me lately, every time I go to cross a road or am half way across one will stop right where Im walking so I have to make my way round them. not as scary as the local dogs but close

[Basil B]

Unfortunately I doubt you will get anything done at City Hall...

Maybe a few posts like yours on Tripadvisor and other review sites may at least be warning to those thinking of coming to Pattaya.

Many of the Baht Buses need attention, that repair is a two minute job for a guy with a rivet gun, they could have a drive through repair shop for such repairs, Pattaya needs mobile inspectors out and about from the Road Transport department, Pulling BB's over, a 5,000B fine for 50B repair should soon see an improvement.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Basil B

[craigt3365]

I see these poor Russian tourists hanging on for dear life on the back of baht buses as they go from the Ambassador into Pattaya. Terrible way to treat your tourists. A proper bus would be sooooo easy to get going. Not much more expensive and for sure safer.

Hope your GF recovers quickly. A police report would be a good thing to do. She should also be compensated for lost income.

[TaaSaparot]

I see someone bang their head of a baht bus roof every day.

[PattayaPhom]

Still great value at 10 baht a ride, do we really want the likes of Samui and Phuket, 500 baht for a few hundred yards. Wishes to gf

[SteveJames]

I see these poor Russian tourists hanging on for dear life on the back of baht buses as they go from the Ambassador into Pattaya. Terrible way to treat your tourists. A proper bus would be sooooo easy to get going. Not much more expensive and for sure safer.

Hope your GF recovers quickly. A police report would be a good thing to do. She should also be compensated for lost income.

Thanks for everyones good wishes, shes not very happy this morning because shes not allowed to wash her hair for 2 weeks. I'm trying to pamper her a lot because I know I would be grumpy if I had a deep gash with stitches like this and yes she should be compensated for the lost money from time off work as well.

I police report may be a good idea but you know what its like, Ive got all the photos of which Baht Bus it is, I think the Baht bus owners think its enough to just push it back into place without securing it.... I'm a bit worried if I complain..its sometimes not a good idea to make to cause too make trouble if you know what I mean..I'll have to buy a car I think.

[Youaredoomed]

Worse still are low bog lintels. My ex is/was a tall lass for a Thai and she once half sparked herself out coming back from having a crunch once.

I ran into her last night rummily enough

Anyone know a good cure for love bites???

Hope your missus makes a speedy recovery pal.

[metisdead]

A post in ALL CAPS has been removed, please unlock your Caps Lock button when posting.

[onemorechang]

Op, hope she gets well soon.

Please don't misunderstand me , but the Baht bus driver did the right thing,

Paid the bill and drove you all home.

The bracket may have been ok at the start of his shift, he may not have been aware of it at all.

Maybe maybe not.

Give him a brake, he may get in a lot of DoDo over it if you go to City Hall.

Im not saying there are all Angels there not. im usually the second on TV to jump on there case.

The baht bus will never be a very safe form of transport, and you did board it at your own free will.

[SteveJames]

Op, hope she gets well soon.

Please don't misunderstand me , but the Baht bus driver did the right thing,

Paid the bill and drove you all home.

The bracket may have been ok at the start of his shift, he may not have been aware of it at all.

Maybe maybe not.

Give him a brake, he may get in a lot of DoDo over it if you go to City Hall.

Im not saying there are all Angels there not. im usually the second on TV to jump on there case.

The baht bus will never be a very safe form of transport, and you did board it at your own free will.

What happens when someone gets poked in the eye, those brackets are not secured properly in the first place, they are held in by screws when they should be welded...a lot of the fittings are botched jobs. Baht bus is a major form of transport around Pattaya so something should be done to make sure they are safe.

People will say things like you're taking a risk when you get on them etc etc but they won't say this when it happens to you or your Thai wife gets a scar across her forehead, plus she loses time off work and money.

Edited January 11, 2016 by SteveJames

[onemorechang]

Go to city hall, Mate.

One more time the Baht bus is not a very safe mode of transport .

Was on one 20 years ago and the seats collapsed on one side sending us all to the ground.

no one hurt, driver put pin back in the seat, we carried on, 20 years latter still the same.

Let us know how you get on.

[SteveJames]

Go to city hall, Mate.

One more time the Baht bus is not a very safe mode of transport .

Was on one 20 years ago and the seats collapsed on one side sending us all to the ground.

no one hurt, driver put pin back in the seat, we carried on, 20 years latter still the same.

Let us know how you get on.

OK mate, not sure what we're going to do, I'm just worried about other people...like you say lots of things are wrong with them. I know what you mean though about not being hard on the drivers they don't get paid alot

[onemorechang]

Maybe make a general complaint of state of the buses with out stating the driver or bus number.

Dont know what good it will do.

Good luck

Edited January 11, 2016 by onemorechang

[craigt3365]

Op, hope she gets well soon.

Please don't misunderstand me , but the Baht bus driver did the right thing,

Paid the bill and drove you all home.

The bracket may have been ok at the start of his shift, he may not have been aware of it at all.

Maybe maybe not.

Give him a brake, he may get in a lot of DoDo over it if you go to City Hall.

Im not saying there are all Angels there not. im usually the second on TV to jump on there case.

The baht bus will never be a very safe form of transport, and you did board it at your own free will.

That's one of the big problems here. Safety issues are ignored because if something goes wrong, the financial impact is minimal. No reason to do things the right way. If he had to pay her lost salary, pain and suffering, etc. Many the owner would make sure the bus was properly maintained.

I avoid baht buses at all costs.

[onemorechang]

Op, hope she gets well soon.

Please don't misunderstand me , but the Baht bus driver did the right thing,

Paid the bill and drove you all home.

The bracket may have been ok at the start of his shift, he may not have been aware of it at all.

Maybe maybe not.

Give him a brake, he may get in a lot of DoDo over it if you go to City Hall.

Im not saying there are all Angels there not. im usually the second on TV to jump on there case.

The baht bus will never be a very safe form of transport, and you did board it at your own free will.

That's one of the big problems here. Safety issues are ignored because if something goes wrong, the financial impact is minimal. No reason to do things the right way. If he had to pay her lost salary, pain and suffering, etc. Many the owner would make sure the bus was properly maintained.

I avoid baht buses at all costs.

I agree

Don't know what he can do, his angry and quite rightly so.

[petermik]

Steve

Sorry for the G/f,s mishap but as you posted you,ve been here for 3 years...........look all around you while walking down the street,safety is a complete bloody nightmare,complaining to the authorities will be like peeing into the wind I,m afraid move on and take more care of the girlfriend in future

[balo]

The best thing you could do is to upload a video that goes viral on Thai social media sites. That will normally get a lot of attention, Thais do like to gossip and complain about stupidity.

[SteveJames]

Steve

Sorry for the G/f,s mishap but as you posted you,ve been here for 3 years...........look all around you while walking down the street,safety is a complete bloody nightmare,complaining to the authorities will be like peeing into the wind I,m afraid move on and take more care of the girlfriend in future

Im constantly pulling her out of the road as it is when shes looking at her phone, I can't keep her on a leash...this wasn't anyones fault except the baht bus/local services authorities fault anyway because it was obscure, could happen to anyone

[Jingthing]

Over the years, I did have one minor bloody accident caused by a reckless baht bus driver and I was more motivated to get it taken care of rather than try to get the driver to pay. Although I'm pretty sure he would have paid if I had pushed it (would have been some bandaging items). I'm surprised I haven't seen MORE injuries. I've seen many close calls almost all that would be the fault of drunken passengers getting on or off MOVING buses, or playing dare foot games while hanging on the rear. I'm sure the OP is correct about some faulty items in the buses and I've seen some of those too. Haven't really thought about them until now so thanks to him for reporting this.

All that said, baht buses are MASSIVELY more safe than driving motorcycles!

Edited January 11, 2016 by Jingthing

[donnybay]

Happened to a friend of mine on his first night in Pattaya a couple of years ago, there was just a screw where the bell should have been, same thing, hospital, stitches and shots

[phycokiller]

Worse still are low bog lintels. My ex is/was a tall lass for a Thai and she once half sparked herself out coming back from having a crunch once.

I ran into her last night rummily enough

Anyone know a good cure for love bites???

Hope your missus makes a speedy recovery pal.

yeah, the 5'8" bathroom doors get me sometimes too

[Basil B]

Still great value at 10 baht a ride, do we really want the likes of Samui and Phuket, 500 baht for a few hundred yards. Wishes to gf

And you can get a taxi in Bangkok for 35B...

Fact that you get ripped off in Samui and Phuket does not make Pattaya BB's a good bargain, fact is the BB's could earn more money working less hours by working defined routes, more routes, restricting the number of BB's working each rout at different time of the day.

If you reduce the number of BB's working there will be fewer driving around empty, less fuel wasted, less wear and tear on the vehicles, less pollution, less traffic congestion.

If they stop overloading of BB's there will be less wear and tear on the vehicles, less damage to the roads... just think what caused this accident in the first place??? overloading of the BB's or fast driving where passengers have to hold on to the roof bars all the time, as a result the retaining cleats get broken.

[onemorechang]

Still great value at 10 baht a ride, do we really want the likes of Samui and Phuket, 500 baht for a few hundred yards. Wishes to gf

And you can get a taxi in Bangkok for 35B...

Fact that you get ripped off in Samui and Phuket does not make Pattaya BB's a good bargain, fact is the BB's could earn more money working less hours by working defined routes, more routes, restricting the number of BB's working each rout at different time of the day.

If you reduce the number of BB's working there will be fewer driving around empty, less fuel wasted, less wear and tear on the vehicles, less pollution, less traffic congestion.

If they stop overloading of BB's there will be less wear and tear on the vehicles, less damage to the roads... just think what caused this accident in the first place??? overloading of the BB's or fast driving where passengers have to hold on to the roof bars all the time, as a result the retaining cleats get broken.

i kind of understand you, but we cant put people out of work

what they supposed to do to support there family ? go on the rob ?

But we do need to raise the bar for safety reasons.

we also need to keep the guys in work

[digbeth]

They should really limit the number of buses, make a concession system or something, the mafias will be really happy if they can gouge the drivers for the right to drive their trucks too, win-win for all

[Basil B]

Still great value at 10 baht a ride, do we really want the likes of Samui and Phuket, 500 baht for a few hundred yards. Wishes to gf

And you can get a taxi in Bangkok for 35B...

Fact that you get ripped off in Samui and Phuket does not make Pattaya BB's a good bargain, fact is the BB's could earn more money working less hours by working defined routes, more routes, restricting the number of BB's working each rout at different time of the day.

If you reduce the number of BB's working there will be fewer driving around empty, less fuel wasted, less wear and tear on the vehicles, less pollution, less traffic congestion.

If they stop overloading of BB's there will be less wear and tear on the vehicles, less damage to the roads... just think what caused this accident in the first place??? overloading of the BB's or fast driving where passengers have to hold on to the roof bars all the time, as a result the retaining cleats get broken.

i kind of understand you, but we cant put people out of work

what they supposed to do to support there family ? go on the rob ?

But we do need to raise the bar for safety reasons.

we also need to keep the guys in work

The idea is was proposing was they work half the hours for the same income as half of them tend to drive round empty most of the time, so no one is out of work, plus if they were to introduce other routes there would be more income, enforcing safety standards would make more work for others.