At least thirteen drowned and several missing in boat accident in Chao Phraya river

[davehowden]

Looks like he lost steerage way and hit the bank, maybe engine failure.

[mettech]

Swimming ??? I spent close to 20 years at sea as a Marine Engineer down in the engine room and believe me I still do not swim and hate to be onto water but love to be on water.

My best survive is the vessel and of course life jacket and never forgot to bring it with me if I had to go for a ride on life raft.

 

[gk10002000]

There is a video on the pattaya news site that shows the boat motoring by the shore and then the camera points away from the boat and then a few seconds later points back at the boat and it seems to just go to the right a little bit and strike that dam or dike and then sink like a rock.   The video doesn't show the entire thing so can't tell from the video if the boat was already damaged and then just kind of ran aground or if it ran straight in to the dike thingy and then sank.  But you can see in the video the boat went down in about 5 seconds!  Really fast

[Thian]

10 hours ago, coma said:

 

And that typical [for this part of the world] lack of ability to swim.

 

And where is the dyke? Did he hit that concrete dyke at the waterfront? How was that possible?

 

They can't swim 3 metres but dare to go on a Thai boat??

[metisdead]

Troll posts and replies have been removed. 

[otherstuff1957]

That boat sank amazingly fast.  I take back my comment about any reasonably well trained swimmer being able to survive.  The people trapped in the cabin probably didn't have a chance!

[Wilsonandson]

A longer video of the smartphone video.

Also I posted last night that 19 had died. I'm not a journalist, just a TVF member. All I do is use google translate. By what I have seen through my amateur eyes today is that 15 have perished in the tradegy. I maybe wrong. Anyhow, a terrible tradegy.
R.I.P

[smedly]

the boat seems to have gone straight on instead of turning for the bend, driver not paying attention and looking where he was going, I suspect something extremely stupid went on there - possible mobile phone use

 

tragic

 

RIP

[smedly]

10 hours ago, Pib said:

RIP.  

 

A lot of people can't swim a lick and panic when falling in water that gets around chest high.   Although the boat sank in shallow water it looks like the water was at least 2 meters deep where it sank...more than enough for adults/children who are probably around 1.5 to 1.7 meters (or less) in height to drown.  Plus there are currents in the river that probably pulled people to deeper water...plus a person would sink into the river bottom mud a little making it even tougher to keep your head above water.

it sank in seconds after ramming the barrier, people in the lower part of the boat unable to get out

[impulse]

Lesson learned:  Never take a seat in the middle of these boats.  Take a position where you can jump or swim clear without obstructions.  Even if that means standing.

[Crossy]

A photo of a different incident has been removed along with posts pointing out the fact.

[catman20]

11 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

If they were unfortunate enough to have been below deck under water not surprising and the current is quite strong too.

i should think with the rush of people trying to get out the same exits i am surprised there was not more deaths.

Edited September 19, 2016 by catman20

[denkiblue555]

RIP to those involved.

 

Seems like a nasty combination of far too many people on the boat, and a high river that was absolutely pumping with floodwaters from up north.

[ratcatcher]

1 minute ago, catman20 said:

i should think with the rush of people trying to get out the same exits i am surprised there was more deaths.

There will be more deaths, as those that are missing will eventually turn up somewhere down river.

[F4UCorsair]

8 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

That vessel was certainly moving downstream ift a good rate of knots. The river is in flood at the moment. Captain obviously unqualified. 

It will be interesting to see the final death toll. A very itad day for so many families.

How could you possibly say the 'Captain obviously unqualified'?? It went right at the bank, so possibly,and only possibly, a steering problem?

It didn't capsize as an earlier poster suggested, and the sinlking took some time, so difficult to understand there were drownings with so much of the vessel above the surface. Non swimmers panicking would be a likely explanation.

The best water safety lesson at school was don't panic, and just relax as If standing.  Your head will come to within centimeters of the surface, a tiny kick or hand   (le  ..can't edit) paddle will get your head above water for a breath, relax again, sink perhaps half a meter, and your natural buoyancy will again cause you to rise to the surface.  Try It.  But no panic Is paramount.

[Kiwisailor]

Definitely looks to be insufficient life vests - maybe all locked away downstairs? Even during the rescue operation a number of survivors on the shore wearing life vests and took some time before removing them and throwing back on board for others. Plenty of boats around when it struck but no-one went to help? Jetskis racing around but doing little to assist perhaps they were asking too much for a lift ashore. RIP people, safety on the water requires more than meetings, talkfests and making passengers produce ID or passport. Owners and operators need to held to account for the safety of their passengers and  punitive measures seen to be taken when they don't

[ratcatcher]

Just now, F4UCorsair said:

How could you possibly say the 'Captain obviously unqualified'?? It went right at the bank, so possibly,and only possibly, a steering problem?

It didn't capsize as an earlier poster suggested, and the sinlking took some time, so difficult to understand there were drownings with so much of the vessel above the surface. Non swimmers panicking would be a likely explanation.

The best water safety lesson at school was don't panic, and just relax as If standing.  Your head will come to within centimeters of the surface, a tiny kick or hand   (le  ..can't edit) paddle will get your head above water for a breath, relax again, sink perhaps half a meter, and your natural buoyancy will again cause you to rise to the surface.  Try It.  But no panic Is paramount.

IMHO opinion the speed at which the vessel was traveling and no horn or whistle blowing alerting other people and  vessels to a potential problem. Why did the captain flee the scene?

[gk10002000]

going fast, over loaded, strong current.  boat did not or could not make the turn and hit straight on to the concrete dike.  Pilot not paying attention?  Steering not working?  looks like it started going down bow first, suggesting to me that is where the main damage and massive water leak was.  Post analysis will show

[DoctorG]

slowly went down in vertical position.

 

I guess they meant horizontal.

[Kiwisailor]

Hard to tell but in the video it sounds like the engine was working hard just before, and after it hit the embankment. The natural tendency is to find an increased  water flow alongside embankments which would push the bow of the boat back out. The way it drove in suggests steering failure which would have required reducing speed and then let the current take the boat down river.

[Thian]

Those boats drove much faster than what i see here on the river.

 

And where did that jetski go? Did he go help them?

 

Yes the boat was overloaded i assume, no time to get a lifevest at all. IT's the same though at the Chaopraya passengerboats, if you stand in the middle there's no way you can run to the back to get a lifevest.

 

Of course the Thai won't learn anything from this (again)....so sad....And i doubt if the captain was qualified (and sober) or even old enough to drive a boat full of passengers.

 

Last week we took a tour at a big Watt in BKK, they used tricycles for that with drivers from 12-13 years old..the boy drove very fast and i had to duck for lowhanging tree's all the time or i would be missing my head right now.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Thian

[Searat7]

The boats on which I traveled in the Bangkok area don't carry nearly enough life jackets for the number of passengers aboard. As an experienced boater I have made this observation many times

[OnTheRun]

9 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

Smartphone Footage Of Boat Capsiizing Near Wat Sanamchai In Ayuthaya.

 

 

 

The boat sank in a matter of seconds totally engulfing the lower deck, no surprise the death toll was so high, it was also travelling far to fast. RIP to those who perished.

[umbanda]

8 hours ago, roo860 said:

Most can't swim.

 

And looks  like the boat submerged really fast. With 100 people aboard, most no swimmers,  I think that the death toll was small.

[Kiwisailor]

From news report - they tried to avoid another boat then all the passengers stood up and caused the boat to list and start sinking. So that's all OK now, it was all the victims fault and the helmsman can come out of hiding now (and take his drug and alcohol test)

[SOTIRIOS]

...would guess 100 is over capacity anyway....???

 

...horrible....

[bark]

12 hours ago, coma said:

Reading the Thai newspaper online. It doesn't say anything about nationalities of the deceased. But by looking at the photos there sure does appear to be foreigners amongst the passengers.

Ok, so  Foreigners died. They matter more then Thai people ?

 

[Graemej100]

At least the Thai flag waves proudly amongst the carnage.

[Kiwisailor]

Registered for 50 passengers when built (1967!!!) believed to be carrying ~150 when it sank. Would be interesting to know when it was last surveyed (if ever).

[geriatrickid]

12 hours ago, z42 said:

Absolutely diabolical, how on earth should people be drowning in circumstances like this. Just awful, condolences to the families. Will be interesting to see what the crew / captain actually did and how this affected the outcome

 

Have you ever had to deal with panic? When people panic they do not listen to instructions. This is not a culture where people  understand the concept of  an orderly evacuation. If you want that go to  middle England or a Dutch rural town. Have a look at the annual Haj stampedes and then come back and offer your observations.