One migrant worker dies, 8 were injured in road crash in Thailand

[webfact]

One migrant worker died and 8 were injured in road crash

BANGKOK: -- One Cambodian migrant worker was killed and eight others were injured after the pickup truck taking them back home after work crashed into a concrete barrier and overturned early on Tuesday.

The accident happened at 2 am today at Kilometre 49+500 on the motorway from Bang Lamung in Chonburi province back to Bang Pakong district of Chachoengsao province.

The Thai driver of the pickup truck Panya Udtha, 24, who was slightly injured admitted that he felt asleep as he drove the Cambodian migrant workers back to their living camp in Bang Pakong at about 1.30am after finishing work in Bang Lamung.

One male migrant worker died at the scene while eight others, five men and three women were injured.

Rescue workers and highway police later rushed all the injured workers to Bang Pakong hospital for treatment and booked the driver for recklessness driving that caused death and injuries to others.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/one-migrant-worker-died-8-injured-road-crash/


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-28

[Artisi]

The driver might have "felt" asleep, but was he?

[gandalf12]

It should be illegal to have people in the back of a pick-up. Most countries in the world ban this except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority.

[ratcatcher]

It should be illegal to have people in the back of a pick-up. Most countries in the world ban this except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority.

"....except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority."

That is the very reason they are still allowed to cram 20+ workers in to the back of a standard pickup truck. It is not yet a priority. There's plenty more where they come from.

Getting there, but not quite at the post. Meanwhile the other carnage via vans and buses continues due to bad driving habits including speeding when it is pouring with rain.

[Tomtomtom69]

"Driver fell asleep"? Come on, always the same excuse. Either he shouldn't have been driving at 2am and have been asleep, or for a 24 year old he has serious health issues. 2am is still the middle of the day for most 24-year olds, and assuming he was employed as a driver he shouldn't have had trouble staying awake, especially for what is not a very long journey in this case (maybe a 1 hour drive at that time of night).

[jamesbrock]

It should be illegal to have people in the back of a pick-up. Most countries in the world ban this except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority.

Yep, there are many more pressing issues to legislate against, such as making use of popular social media channels to share ones' opinions...

[SOTIRIOS]

...no compunction whatsoever....

[Tomtomtom69]

It should be illegal to have people in the back of a pick-up. Most countries in the world ban this except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority.

"....except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority."

That is the very reason they are still allowed to cram 20+ workers in to the back of a standard pickup truck. It is not yet a priority. There's plenty more where they come from.

Getting there, but not quite at the post. Meanwhile the other carnage via vans and buses continues due to bad driving habits including speeding when it is pouring with rain.

You know it's funny, but Vietnamese see people sitting at the back of pickup trucks and trucks as a very weird thing and that's unusual because at first you think wait a second, isn't Vietnam poorer and more chaotic than Thailand? Isn't Vietnam the country where motorcycles will carry other motorcycles at the back? Where 7-meter poles are carried? Pigs and ducks all by motorcycle?

But then you realize, hey actually they just don't carry people in the back of trucks there. I remember on a Phnom Penh-Ho Chi Minh bus once, a Vietnamese woman, observing all these poor Cambodian factory workers herded into trucks near Bavet, the border town to Vietnam commented: "look, these people are crammed in like pigs going to the slaughterhouse". My Vietnamese friend translated this for me.

Strangely, Thailand still accepts this behavior, except on the expressways. Anyone who attempts to drive a pickup truck with people in the tray onto an expressway or motorway WILL be stopped by the police and fined. Elsewhere, no problem it seems. Still, surprised that this driver, who apparently drove on the motorway was allowed to carry so many people without getting caught? Maybe because it was late at night?

Edited June 28, 2016 by Tomtomtom69

[Bangkok Barry]

It should be illegal to have people in the back of a pick-up. Most countries in the world ban this except the few who don't consider saving lives as a priority.

It IS illegal. But that makes no difference in Thailand as the police are blind to it. And so people die.