Pattaya tourists enter bike showroom - in their car

[webfact]

Pattaya tourists enter bike showroom - in their car



PATTAYA: -- A French tourist went into a South Pattaya motorcycle showroom with his wife on Tuesday - unfortunately they were still in their car!

And they caused 500,000 damage to bikes and the front window.

The tourists - aged 71 and 67- were uninjured as their Toyota Vios mounted the footpath and smashed into the front of the Mitr Yon showroom.

Michel Budons (sic) and his Thai wife Apawan had been out shopping in North Pattaya and were returning to their hotel. The Frenchman told police he was turning when he lost control and went up the footpath.

Instead of braking he hit the accellerator in a panic ploughing into the bikes out front and going through the glass frontage. Initial estimates put the damage at half a million baht.

Fortunately no one was injured.


-- 2016-04-13

[BuaBS]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

[Suradit69]

Several years ago I stopped driving because I accepted that my vision, hearing and reaction times were no longer what they were when I was younger. Have an excellent Thai driver who navigates the chaotic traffic with ease and knows the city and surrounding area, as the saying goes, like the back of his hand.

Sometimes you have to admit that age takes its toll and consider the potential consequences of not accepting your limitations. In this case it was just property damage, but it could easily have resulted in injuries or worse to people in his unintended path.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Suradit69

[jacko45k]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

Why, are you thinking they are particularly worse than the locals?

[Muhendis]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

[mihalis]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

Happens all to often in Australia, few people being killed...

[emilymat]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

[KittenKong]

If having reflexes was a requirement then few Thais would ever get a driving licence. They mostly seem to be entirely disconnected from what is happening around them. So in that respect this decrepit old Frenchman should feel right at home.

[SOTIRIOS]

....an apology should cover it......

...wanna bet.....???

[nuananddon]

I'm going on 68 years old and my driving skills are not at all demenished from age. I was born and raised on a farm and I've been driving tractors, trucks ,cars and motorcycles since I was 12 years old and I can still out drive any of you young bucks that think you're Mario Anderetii. When I do realize that I'm a hazard on the road I'll get ahold of some youngster to chauffeur me around.

[ChrisY1]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Pedals have the same configuration whichever side you drive on......clutch-brake-throttle.

[Muhendis]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Pedals have the same configuration whichever side you drive on......clutch-brake-throttle.

Yep! You're absolutely right but it is still confusing when you reach for the hand brake and find the window winder instead. In other words. If you've been driving for fifty or more years in a "normal" left hand drive car, switching over for a few days to a right hand drive will be confusion/panic big time in an emergency.

[buythisdashcam]

For sure you are the one who can say it ! Take a test with me and start walking because you are of course wrong like all older people like my Mom who keep lying to themselves that they still are 40...

I'm going on 68 years old and my driving skills are not at all demenished from age. I was born and raised on a farm and I've been driving tractors, trucks ,cars and motorcycles since I was 12 years old and I can still out drive any of you young bucks that think you're Mario Anderetii. When I do realize that I'm a hazard on the road I'll get ahold of some youngster to chauffeur me around.

[shunter]

BuaBSpost # 2

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

They, or perhaps just him had probably studied the locals driving techniques for an hour or two and then emulated them in the rented car, the only exception to the examples seen was there was no apparent ''fleeing from the scene incident""

[uwe_rayong]

First I had a chuckle when I've seen the French gentlemen but lets face it, that can happen to everyone. In this case it was probably a combination of traffic on the "wrong side" and an automatic car.

My neighbor, a Thai lady in her late forties, made the same mistake a couple of years ago when she reversed out of her property. She wanted to brake gently, hit the wrong pedal, realized she accelerated then she wanted to brake harder=KICKDOWN. I was standing on my veranda, with a wide opened mouth....

Luckily she only hit only the opposite wall. Damage was not that big but she was shocked and embarrassed.

If you look at the insurance statics in Europe it is a lot cheaper to insure a 67 old male with 40 years of driving practice compared to a 18-20 years old male with 1-2 years experience.

Last time I've been to Germany in Hannover I used a Taxi and the driver was 83 years old - he drove just fine and didn't need to use the navigation system to find the airport.

On the autobahn he managed to reach 130 km/h with his 25 years old DB W124 and I felt very safe with him and his old car.

[swerver]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

You are a Brit and do not know on which side of the road Australia drives????? And for that matter Kiwi land aka New Zealand. One of the Scandinavian countries until recent did drive on the left but being the odd man out they ultimately changed their habit left over from the days of horses and started driving on the RH side of the road, so now the whole Europe Continent (of which GB is not part off, just ask any Brit if you do not believe me) drives on the RH side.

Maybe you also do not know why England aka GREAT Britain drives on the left???

It is a left over from when the LORDS were going around on horses (that was before the motorcar) they rode on the left because their sward was hanging on their left side being predominantly right handed they would grab their sward with their right hand to pull it out of its scabbard and start hacking at whomever tried to interfere with them (riding on their left in the opposite direction). Of course to learn real history you have to come from a country were they do not have an ax to grind, as the saying goes.

[ResandePohm]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Pedals have the same configuration whichever side you drive on......clutch-brake-throttle.

Yep! You're absolutely right but it is still confusing when you reach for the hand brake and find the window winder instead. In other words. If you've been driving for fifty or more years in a "normal" left hand drive car, switching over for a few days to a right hand drive will be confusion/panic big time in an emergency.

Although I can see that this might be a problem for some it has been my experience that it is more difficult to change from an automatic transmission to manual or visa versa such as Americans being suddenly confronted with a gear stick (stick shift) when they have been brought up with automatics and similarly Europeans being confronted with a missing clutch petal and slamming the brake to the floor to change gear

I have found it is usually at night with little or no traffic that it is easy to make mistakes like drifting to the wrong side of the road or even going round a roundabout the wrong way.

[ResandePohm]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

You are a Brit and do not know on which side of the road Australia drives????? And for that matter Kiwi land aka New Zealand. One of the Scandinavian countries until recent did drive on the left but being the odd man out they ultimately changed their habit left over from the days of horses and started driving on the RH side of the road, so now the whole Europe Continent (of which GB is not part off, just ask any Brit if you do not believe me) drives on the RH side.

Maybe you also do not know why England aka GREAT Britain drives on the left???

It is a left over from when the LORDS were going around on horses (that was before the motorcar) they rode on the left because their sward was hanging on their left side being predominantly right handed they would grab their sward with their right hand to pull it out of its scabbard and start hacking at whomever tried to interfere with them (riding on their left in the opposite direction). Of course to learn real history you have to come from a country were they do not have an ax to grind, as the saying goes.

You are correct of course but it was not only Britain that rode on the left. At that time all Europe rode on the left for the same reason. It was Napoleon that caused the change to the right. When two columns of soldiers passed each other in opposite directions it was customary to dip their banners to the left so that they did not collide.Napoleon decided he wanted to be different and dip his banners to the right. To facilitate this he changed his armies to march on the right. Subsequently as he conquered half of Europe he caused this change to spread over his conquered countries. Later Germany added to these countries with their conquests leaving unoccupied Sweden still driving on the left. In Sweden nearly all cars were lefthand drive but driving on the left. Like a Frenchman driving in the UK. It was because of this and road safety that Sweden decided to conform with the rest of Europe and changed sides in 1967.

Edited April 13, 2016 by ResandePohm

[silent]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

You are a Brit and do not know on which side of the road Australia drives????? And for that matter Kiwi land aka New Zealand. One of the Scandinavian countries until recent did drive on the left but being the odd man out they ultimately changed their habit left over from the days of horses and started driving on the RH side of the road, so now the whole Europe Continent (of which GB is not part off, just ask any Brit if you do not believe me) drives on the RH side.

Maybe you also do not know why England aka GREAT Britain drives on the left???

It is a left over from when the LORDS were going around on horses (that was before the motorcar) they rode on the left because their sward was hanging on their left side being predominantly right handed they would grab their sward with their right hand to pull it out of its scabbard and start hacking at whomever tried to interfere with them (riding on their left in the opposite direction). Of course to learn real history you have to come from a country were they do not have an ax to grind, as the saying goes.

You are correct of course but it was not only Britain that rode on the left. At that time all Europe rode on the left for the same reason. It was Napoleon that caused the change to the right. When two columns of soldiers passed each other in opposite directions it was customary to dip their banners to the left so that they did not collide.Napoleon decided he wanted to be different and dip his banners to the right. To facilitate this he changed his armies to march on the right. Subsequently as he conquered half of Europe he caused this change to spread over his conquered countries. Later Germany added to these countries with their conquests leaving unoccupied Sweden still driving on the left. In Sweden nearly all cars were lefthand drive but driving on the left. Like a Frenchman driving in the UK. It was because of this and road safety that Sweden decided to conform with the rest of Europe and changed sides in 1967.

If you're not driving on the right side, you're driving on the wrong side and that's all there is to it.

[colinneil]

Maybe the steps were too steep for them to climb.

[Scouse Twoccer]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

I suspect that you're being a bit sarcastic but the pedals are in exactly the same position in relation to the driver, i.e. directly under his feet, accelerator to the right and brake to it's left.

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

Your congratulating him on his "excellent observation" is laughable. Do you actually have any knowledge of cars and their pedal layout?

[luckyman]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

Why, are you thinking they are particularly worse than the locals?

Well, if you READ the article, it does not seem like a stupid question, does it?

[Scouse Twoccer]

First I had a chuckle when I've seen the French gentlemen but lets face it, that can happen to everyone. In this case it was probably a combination of traffic on the "wrong side" and an automatic car.

My neighbor, a Thai lady in her late forties, made the same mistake a couple of years ago when she reversed out of her property. She wanted to brake gently, hit the wrong pedal, realized she accelerated then she wanted to brake harder=KICKDOWN. I was standing on my veranda, with a wide opened mouth....

Luckily she only hit only the opposite wall. Damage was not that big but she was shocked and embarrassed.

If you look at the insurance statics in Europe it is a lot cheaper to insure a 67 old male with 40 years of driving practice compared to a 18-20 years old male with 1-2 years experience.

Last time I've been to Germany in Hannover I used a Taxi and the driver was 83 years old - he drove just fine and didn't need to use the navigation system to find the airport.

On the autobahn he managed to reach 130 km/h with his 25 years old DB W124 and I felt very safe with him and his old car.

"She wanted to brake gently, hit the wrong pedal, realized she accelerated then she wanted to brake harder=KICKDOWN."

Why do some posters report such nonsense and expect us to believe their embellished fairy tales? What did she kickdown to when in reverse, R2? Do you know what kickdown is designed to do?

"On the autobahn he managed to reach 130 km/h with his 25 years old DB W124..."

130kph? Wow, all of 88mph in a Merc, hardly surprised you felt safe.

And a local taxi driver who knew the way to the airport. Amazing. That wouldn't happen in many places.

[rixalex]

Half a million seems a bit steep by the look of the damage.

[tropo]

I'm going on 68 years old and my driving skills are not at all demenished from age. I was born and raised on a farm and I've been driving tractors, trucks ,cars and motorcycles since I was 12 years old and I can still out drive any of you young bucks that think you're Mario Anderetii. When I do realize that I'm a hazard on the road I'll get ahold of some youngster to chauffeur me around.

This sounds a bit like how drunk drivers view their driving abilities. Overconfidence is dangerous on the road.

[tropo]

Age doesn't come into it. Being French however..........pedals are on the wrong side of the car

Excellent observation, I think you're right. I've always said that being a Brit has it's advantages in that we have been raised on driving on the left. (Is Australia the same?).

I also think there is a difference between a long term resident and a two week holiday driver. Nowt to do with age, but over the years here you learn to drive with eyes in the back of your head so to speak and expect dogs etc to jump out in front of you, for example.

Hope the guy has insurance.

You are a Brit and do not know on which side of the road Australia drives????? And for that matter Kiwi land aka New Zealand. One of the Scandinavian countries until recent did drive on the left but being the odd man out they ultimately changed their habit left over from the days of horses and started driving on the RH side of the road, so now the whole Europe Continent (of which GB is not part off, just ask any Brit if you do not believe me) drives on the RH side.

Maybe you also do not know why England aka GREAT Britain drives on the left???

It is a left over from when the LORDS were going around on horses (that was before the motorcar) they rode on the left because their sward was hanging on their left side being predominantly right handed they would grab their sward with their right hand to pull it out of its scabbard and start hacking at whomever tried to interfere with them (riding on their left in the opposite direction). Of course to learn real history you have to come from a country were they do not have an ax to grind, as the saying goes.

You are correct of course but it was not only Britain that rode on the left. At that time all Europe rode on the left for the same reason. It was Napoleon that caused the change to the right. When two columns of soldiers passed each other in opposite directions it was customary to dip their banners to the left so that they did not collide.Napoleon decided he wanted to be different and dip his banners to the right. To facilitate this he changed his armies to march on the right. Subsequently as he conquered half of Europe he caused this change to spread over his conquered countries. Later Germany added to these countries with their conquests leaving unoccupied Sweden still driving on the left. In Sweden nearly all cars were lefthand drive but driving on the left. Like a Frenchman driving in the UK. It was because of this and road safety that Sweden decided to conform with the rest of Europe and changed sides in 1967.

It was probably a bit safer to drive on the left and have the left hand on the stick shift while right hand was on the steering wheel, back in the days when cars were all manual gear shift... except for left handed people of course.

[chasntong]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

Don't old tourists drive elsewhere, are you saying if they were 71 year old expats driving through the showroom window that would be okay

[uwe_rayong]

First I had a chuckle when I've seen the French gentlemen but lets face it, that can happen to everyone. In this case it was probably a combination of traffic on the "wrong side" and an automatic car.

My neighbor, a Thai lady in her late forties, made the same mistake a couple of years ago when she reversed out of her property. She wanted to brake gently, hit the wrong pedal, realized she accelerated then she wanted to brake harder=KICKDOWN. I was standing on my veranda, with a wide opened mouth....

Luckily she only hit only the opposite wall. Damage was not that big but she was shocked and embarrassed.

If you look at the insurance statics in Europe it is a lot cheaper to insure a 67 old male with 40 years of driving practice compared to a 18-20 years old male with 1-2 years experience.

Last time I've been to Germany in Hannover I used a Taxi and the driver was 83 years old - he drove just fine and didn't need to use the navigation system to find the airport.

On the autobahn he managed to reach 130 km/h with his 25 years old DB W124 and I felt very safe with him and his old car.

"She wanted to brake gently, hit the wrong pedal, realized she accelerated then she wanted to brake harder=KICKDOWN."

Why do some posters report such nonsense and expect us to believe their embellished fairy tales? What did she kickdown to when in reverse, R2? Do you know what kickdown is designed to do?

"On the autobahn he managed to reach 130 km/h with his 25 years old DB W124..."

130kph? Wow, all of 88mph in a Merc, hardly surprised you felt safe.

And a local taxi driver who knew the way to the airport. Amazing. That wouldn't happen in many places.

Ok you are right. "Kickdown" was only to describe that she floored the fucing pedal. I know that most passenger cars doesn`t have a second return gear but there is a kickdown position anyway, regardless it is possible to downshift or not.

And regarding the "130 km/h is not fast in a old Mercedes" on a German Autobahn, that is true also.

But in most Countries it is already above the speed limit - which means your Gouvernement has the opinion that it is unsafe to drive that fast.

Reason I mentioned it was only because I wanted to describe that the 83 years old guy was perfectly capable of doing the job.

The French guy here is just 67 years old and some people wrote, he is too old for driving etc.

67 years is certainly not too old for the majority of road users to drive a car.

The woman next door made the same mistake, she is not 50... They both mixed up the pedals, nothing more. That can happen to everyone especially if one changes car from manual to auto transmisson.

[cat handler]

Should such old TOURISTS be driving in Thailand ? Expat have experience , but tourists ?

Thai wife, I dare say he has probably driven in Thailand more than you. It's amazing that someone can confuse pedals when there are only 2 to chose from.

[jesimps]

After living in France for several years I'd be hard pressed to say who were the better drivers, the French or the Thais.