Kiwi's fatal balcony fall near Khaosan Road ruled accidental

[garryjohns]

My post from the previous thread..please read and understand;

NO bargirls, no showing off, just a possibly drunken mistake.

 

On 8/30/2016 at 11:02 PM, garryjohns said:

 

 

Wrong, no showing off involved....from NZ source  the deceased was one of three NZers travelling together, another guy and a female.

 

The female had gone to the other room to sleep and old mate thought he would go join her..whilst transitioning from 420 to 422 which is adjacent he fell to his death..RIP fellow kiwi..

^^^^^^ 

EDIT..he may have been on a 'promise' or she may well have been his g/f and gone to the room and locked the door and passed out and the guy tried the ,alternative way to get access to their room and sadly didn't get there!

Some of the comments made so far by  posters are totally out of order, insensitive, and a reflection of the pathetic nature of so many posters on TV now. A young guy simply made a drunken mistake here and paid for it was his life...those of you who never have 'pushed the boundaries' ,sober or not and got away with it have obviously lead a very sheltered life.

 

 

Now, today, according to the attachment,old mate had been to the girls room [his mates g/f room??]and was actually returning via the balconey to "impress" his mate..story is different to NZ source..cant immagine impressing the mate after he has been visiting mates g/f.  Lost in translation IMO..

 

Anyway..death by misadventure, RIP kiwi guy!

Edited September 2, 2016 by garryjohns

[slippery snake]

Why was he trying to climb across the balcony from one room to the other ?  to rob some one ?   just a drunk and stupid prank ? 

Didn't the rooms have doors ?  and being a New Zealander he should know Kiwis can't fly............  

[ClutchClark]

1 minute ago, slippery snake said:

Why was he trying to climb across the balcony from one room to the other ?  to rob some one ?   just a drunk and stupid prank ? 

Didn't the rooms have doors ?  and being a New Zealander he should know Kiwis can't fly............  

 

I believe he was traveling with a fellow Kiwis--a woman and man.

 

I read the three had rented these adjacent rooms with balconies.

[mike324]

2 hours ago, maoro2013 said:

All very well to call the victim stupid, but balcony falls are a daily event here, (for foreigners). I think the building code should be reviewed, not that it may be necessarily adhered to. Not to say the victim in this case was acting stupidly, but just a comment.

 

Why are balconies so dangerous in  Thailand, I have not heard of these continual events in Australia?

 

So many people fall in Thailand due to crime, drunk, or relationship issues. There really isn't any problem with the construction, its the type of people that come to Bangkok.

[Shawn0000]

2 minutes ago, mike324 said:

 

So many people fall in Thailand due to crime, drunk, or relationship issues. There really isn't any problem with the construction, its the type of people that come to Bangkok.

 

One of the problems with the construction is that balconies have no set height in Thailand, wheres they do worldwide, generally balcony handrails are 1.1m or above, when someone goes to lean on a handrail and it is 80cm and they are drunk and they miss the handrail entirely as they instinctively reach for something higher then they can go right over quite easily.

[ClutchClark]

6 minutes ago, mike324 said:

 

So many people fall in Thailand due to crime, drunk, or relationship issues. There really isn't any problem with the construction, its the type of people that come to Bangkok.

 

Then should we just ignore the report that the wood had broken on the railing?

 

Perhaps you feel the way you do for some personal agenda but for those of us that were builders in our own country it is second nature to spot inferior and downright dangerous construction practices and designs here in LOS.

[trogers]

Seems to me that such an event has a high probability to occur with farangs who grew up in low-rise homes.

 

I have not heard this happening to people who grew up in high-rise homes of Hong Kong or Singapore, because they have been taught the danger since very young.

 

I wonder if the deceased would have done differently should it have been the 14th floor instead of 4th?

[ClutchClark]

3 minutes ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

One of the problems with the construction is that balconies have no set height in Thailand, wheres they do worldwide, generally balcony handrails are 1.1m or above, when someone goes to lean on a handrail and it is 80cm and they are drunk and they miss the handrail entirely as they instinctively reach for something higher then they can go right over quite easily.

 

Spot on Shawn.

 

An easy example is the riser height on a staircase. In a developed country they are equally spaced and any leftover is factored into the lowest step. 

 

we take it for granted that the vertical distance is uniform the entire staircase--but how many times do we stop short because a mid-step is poorly measured.

 

or do many of the forum not recognize this? Maybe one has to be a builder?

[mike324]

1 minute ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

One of the problems with the construction is that balconies have no set height in Thailand, wheres they do worldwide, generally balcony handrails are 1.1m or above, when someone goes to lean on a handrail and it is 80cm and they are drunk and they miss the handrail entirely as they instinctively reach for something higher then they can go right over quite easily.

 

There is a regulation, it must be 90cm. Most older buildings are indeed around 90cm which is low for Westerners given that they are usually taller than Asians. I have yet to see any that are 80cm (not saying there are not), but majority of the hotels/resorts are around 90cm - I use to travel extensively as sales in Thailand when I was younger and stayed at many hotels big and small.

 

Most new buildings within the past 10 years have at least 1 meter high railings based on my observation though. Given that most of the deaths from balconies are not accidental. It involves people throwing/been thrown over, or climbing purposely over the railings. The height of railing is really not an issue with balcony deaths.

 

If you search "student fall off balcony" you will find news of mostly college students falling from balconies monthly in the USA. This is mainly due to being drunk and doing stupid things, same for many cases in Thailand.

[sahibji]

15 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

A wooden railing broke away? 

 

Well now that is just what I said in another thread. 

excellent deduction. well done.

[Docno]

14 hours ago, trogers said:

 

I call this 'thinking with the little head'.

 

Well, that's how we evolved. If we thought more with our big head, our species may not have survived. We are all descendants of men spent much of their time 'thinking below the equator'. [Just remember, in the past, it was a small minority of men in any generation that got to reproduce -- those were the guys who put in the effort and sometimes took stupid risks]

[sahibji]

9 minutes ago, mike324 said:

 

There is a regulation, it must be 90cm. Most older buildings are indeed around 90cm which is low for Westerners given that they are usually taller than Asians. I have yet to see any that are 80cm (not saying there are not), but majority of the hotels/resorts are around 90cm - I use to travel extensively as sales in Thailand when I was younger and stayed at many hotels big and small.

 

Most new buildings within the past 10 years have at least 1 meter high railings based on my observation though. Given that most of the deaths from balconies are not accidental. It involves people throwing/been thrown over, or climbing purposely over the railings. The height of railing is really not an issue with balcony deaths.

 

If you search "student fall off balcony" you will find news of mostly college students falling from balconies monthly in the USA. This is mainly due to being drunk and doing stupid things, same for many cases in Thailand.

the height of the  balcony is apparently not the issue. it broke making the poor guy lose balance and fall.

[sahibji]

22 minutes ago, trogers said:

Seems to me that such an event has a high probability to occur with farangs who grew up in low-rise homes.

 

I have not heard this happening to people who grew up in high-rise homes of Hong Kong or Singapore, because they have been taught the danger since very young.

 

I wonder if the deceased would have done differently should it have been the 14th floor instead of 4th?

he would not have try to cross over through the balcony unless off course he was totally drunk.

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, shaurene said:

Give it a rest now, let him rest in peace. He did a foolish thing through young age and a few drinks it felt it would be a piece of cake but they do not check closely.

RIP KIWI MATE.

I am Kiwi.

amen

[Docno]

30 minutes ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

One of the problems with the construction is that balconies have no set height in Thailand, wheres they do worldwide, generally balcony handrails are 1.1m or above, when someone goes to lean on a handrail and it is 80cm and they are drunk and they miss the handrail entirely as they instinctively reach for something higher then they can go right over quite easily.

 

But really a moot point in the instance that a drunk man is trying to climb from the balcony of one room to another as happened here. The height of the railing will make little difference...

[Docno]

2 minutes ago, sahibji said:

he would not have try to cross over through the balcony unless off course he was totally drunk.

 

NZ media says he was drunk. Happened after 3am. The three friends had been drinking, and the lady decided to go back to her room to sleep. His plan was to cross over to her room, likely as a practical joke, from the outside....

[Minnehaha]

14 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

I was a young man once and I climbed too. Thats what young men do who are athletic. They test their strength. They celebrate their strength. 

 

Thry climb from one balcony to another to get under the covers with the lass in the room next door. 

 

Its called living life...sadly it comes with risks.

 

 

I was deep in the jungle at the Bohorok Orangutan rehabilitation center around 1990. This is in the middle of nowhere. Hundreds km from nothing. Lovely place. Beautiful river running through it. Several guest houses but I chose the one with tree forts built away from maid building. Nightly walks were extremely stupid and done intoxicated. Heard and saw snakes. Forgot my key one night and decided the climb up and over balcony (25 meters) was a better choice than walking back in pitch black to get key.

 

I fell on my back and lost consciousness. Slept there till dawn. Then climbed up and over the balcony with the help of sunlight. I left that day pissing blood from a kidney injury. 

 

signed

Lucky

[denkiblue555]

1 hour ago, silent said:

 

Apparently you and the man in the blue tights with a cape never did anything risky that was learned from, always did what were told and never deviated from thinking with the head on shoulders? Dreamchildren. 

 

Seems you have a chip on your shoulder for some reason.....hope you get over it.

 

But as another poster mentioned, let's just let Mr.Kiwi RIP.

[mike324]

18 minutes ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Then should we just ignore the report that the wood had broken on the railing?

 

Perhaps you feel the way you do for some personal agenda but for those of us that were builders in our own country it is second nature to spot inferior and downright dangerous construction practices and designs here in LOS.

 

The wood "railing" broken they were referring to was part of the decorative cover for the AC units. He was holding to that when he was crossing between the balconies. In the pic, its the horizontal slabs in between the balconies. Normally its only held together by one or two nails / screws. This is whats reported in the Thai news. It is not part of the railing on the balcony. 

 

No personal agenda here, just pointing out what really happened. Many things are lost in translation. I don't deny crappy construction and all the other dangerous crap that happens....

[varun]

14 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

I was a young man once and I climbed too. Thats what young men do who are athletic. They test their strength. They celebrate their strength. 

 

Thry climb from one balcony to another to get under the covers with the lass in the room next door. 

 

Its called living life...sadly it comes with risks.

 

 

I really don't know what you've been smoking, but I AM a young man now,

and jumping from one balcony just to another just to get my d*** wet is just plain DUMB.

 

There are other, safer ways to test the limits of one's physical capabilities.

 

There are also a million different ways to chase skirt, and none of them involve jumping over balconies, when shi*faced.

 

Not one ounce of sympathy for this idiot.

 

 

[Deepinthailand]

8 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

ah, so an outdoor wooden railing gave way.  Not surprising there in that environment.  Climbing between balconies, well, young is what young is.  Too bad the infrastructure seems to be what really did him in.

He climbed out he fell end off trying to turn the whole thing to find fault with a building is crazy if he didn't climb he wouldn't have died would he seems his stupidity did for him

[hansnl]

15 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Bull.

 

This is no different than goes rock climbing or swimming out to a distant buoy off the beach or racing s motorcycle. These are things that guys do who are physically fit. Like zi said, its a way of celebrating life, stregth & vitality.

 

I guess a guy either knows what this feels like or he doesn't. Not everyone was athletic...its just some of us were. He was a risktaker. It was his life to live and I doubt very much he could care what a middle aged fat guy in a cape thought of it.

 

 

Please, tell me, how much life you can celebrate if you are quite dead?

Living is about taking calculated risks.

If you don't calculate, you think with your little head, and you die!

Exactly the problem with most youngsters, nowadays more than ever, thinking ahead, calculating risks, knowing when to stop, those qualities are missing.

Things must be excessive nowadays.

(Yes, I am an elderly guy, but still alive)

 

[Agent Sumo]

2 hours ago, wvavin said:

Farang + Thai wife / girl friend + Balcony = Guarantee Death!

 

Yeah, right-o

 

Poor farang - the risks they have to take in order to drain the snake, eh?

[silent]

1 hour ago, louse1953 said:

I may not be a rocket scientist but i would certainly use a door before a balcony,especially if pissed.

I appreciate that. As a matter of fact I'm reminded of a risk analysis course my employer sent me on to try and resolve an assessment problem after a group of lab staff, engineers and scientist complained about my insensitivity over their working environment and concerns of lead poisoning. They didn't like the way I investigated and responded that lead doesn't radiate like Kryptonite and if they didn't lick the lead panels on the outside wall that someone saw in the building blueprints, there was no possibility of that being the cause of lead poisoning should any of the group become more retarded in the future.

 

I recommend that you consider always using the door, sir and don't lick anymore walls. 

[MiKT]

Lot of nonsense and bad reporting as usual, there do not seem to be any wooden railings pictured here and anyway this building is not so old that termites would have eaten the wood to the extent of destruction. Even a drunk person would have noticed that.

 

If you had been following the poor NZ guys fall, he was drunk and trying to climb to the room of  a young lady friend.

 

We all do stupid things, but this would have been a tough climb sober. He was unlucky that's all.

 

RIP

[ClutchClark]

1 hour ago, hansnl said:

Please, tell me, how much life you can celebrate if you are quite dead?

Living is about taking calculated risks.

If you don't calculate, you think with your little head, and you die!

Exactly the problem with most youngsters, nowadays more than ever, thinking ahead, calculating risks, knowing when to stop, those qualities are missing.

Things must be excessive nowadays.

(Yes, I am an elderly guy, but still alive)

 

 

These dang youngins today.

 

[ClutchClark]

6 minutes ago, MiKT said:

Lot of nonsense and bad reporting as usual, there do not seem to be any wooden railings pictured here and anyway this building is not so old that termites would have eaten the wood to the extent of destruction. Even a drunk person would have noticed that.

 

If you had been following the poor NZ guys fall, he was drunk and trying to climb to the room of  a young lady friend.

 

We all do stupid things, but this would have been a tough climb sober. He was unlucky that's all.

 

RIP

 

Termites?

 

Howabout marginal quality lumber, for instance  the last section of a board that was split or had insect damage prior to harvest?

 

Howabout a short "cut" by an inexperienced carpenter and a cheap foreman who said use it anyway.

 

Howabout too many fasteners that split the end or not enough fasteners to get a solid bite?

 

no disrespect but we don't know what happened exactly but it would not be surprising is poor construction and/or materials was at fault in a couple of these falls.

 

We just don't know but I am not one of these old guys who are so dissatisfied with their own station in life that they need to disparage a young man they knew nothing about. Maybe they never had kids, I don't know.

[garryjohns]

11 minutes ago, MiKT said:

Lot of nonsense and bad reporting as usual, there do not seem to be any wooden railings pictured here and anyway this building is not so old that termites would have eaten the wood to the extent of destruction. Even a drunk person would have noticed that.

 

If you had been following the poor NZ guys fall, he was drunk and trying to climb to the room of  a young lady friend.

 

We all do stupid things, but this would have been a tough climb sober. He was unlucky that's all.

 

RIP

 

 

Sorry, but your words show you to not practice as you preach

"If you had been following the poor NZ guys fall, he was drunk and trying to climb to the room of  a young lady friend.

 

We all do stupid things, but this would have been a tough climb sober. He was unlucky that's all."

 

He was not climbing anywhere..What 'tough climb" are you referring to?

He was simply trying to stretch/move accross a gap from one balcony to another one right next to each other.

Maybe 150-180cms..not too far at all and easy enough to do if sober.

I would say he simply misjudged the whole move and slipped, grabbing at the louvre cover over the void between the two balconeys.

 

However, i do agree with you  and said previously myself... "unlucky"

 

[MiKT]

1 minute ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Termites?

 

Howabout marginal quality lumber, for instance  the last section of a board that was split or had insect damage prior to harvest?

 

Howabout a short "cut" by an inexperienced carpenter and a cheap foreman who said use it anyway.

 

Howabout too many fasteners that split the end or not enough fasteners to get a solid bite?

 

no disrespect but we don't know what happened exactly but it would not be surprising is poor construction and/or materials was at fault in a couple of these falls.

 

We just don't know but I am not one of these old guys who are so dissatisfied with their own station in life that they need to disparage a young man they knew nothing about. Maybe they never had kids, I don't know.

 

 

You are so right, but it just does not seem to be the case for this building. Maybe somebody actually knows the balcony construction, but I have not seen many wooden railings here and it just doesn't look like wood in this case.

 

The last dangerous railings I saw were in a very expensive brand new resort in Malaka and they were glass.

 

I informed the management, but I doubt if they did anything about it.

 

I have seen wooden railings on resort type buildings, but they were all single story so not a problem.

[MiKT]

2 minutes ago, garryjohns said:

 

 

Sorry, but your words show you to not practice as you preach

"If you had been following the poor NZ guys fall, he was drunk and trying to climb to the room of  a young lady friend.

 

We all do stupid things, but this would have been a tough climb sober. He was unlucky that's all."

 

He was not climbing anywhere..What 'tough climb" are you referring to?

He was simply trying to stretch/move accross a gap from one balcony to another one right next to each other.

Maybe 150-180cms..not too far at all and easy enough to do if sober.

I would say he simply misjudged the whole move and slipped, grabbing at the louvre cover over the void between the two balconeys.

 

However, i do agree with you  and said previously myself... "unlucky"

 

 

What pictures are you looking at?

 

Those enclosed with this thread show, you could not just do the balcony stretch. Which I confess to doing more than once.

 

Where is the louvre cover shown?