23 die in fiery Chonburi wreck

[dieseldave1951]

1 hour ago, The Old Bull said:

Vans only have ten seats must have been thirteen in the pickup

who said they were all sitting in the van ?????

Edited January 2, 2017 by dieseldave1951

[thhMan]

How could this happen if they where both traveling in the same direction?

[CGW]

Do they have a "Minister of transportation" here, someone from the government who is responsible for the roads & traffic? Like most countries have.

I may well have answered my own question when I said "responsible"!!

[NanLaew]

Bangkok-Chantaburi minivan headed for Bangkok and Bangkok registered pickup heading eastbound. The minivan crossed the median and collided head-on with the pickup.

[Falcon]

Very sad news, especially for the start of a new year. It always the same here though at this time of year, always some disaster happening just to start the year off as it means to go on. I agree with most other posters here that something needs to be done about the reckless way the van drivers go from point A to point B with total disregard to anyone and everything else on the roads in front of them.

[Don Mega]

How does accidents like this happen Mr Prime Minister when yo have a crackdown enforced on scooters not wearing helmets ?

[jonw8uk]

1 hour ago, mercman24 said:

ruptured petrol tank, next think you will be saying ban all petrol driven vehicles. LPG nothing to do with it

 

If not gas, its more likely than not these vehicles were diesels. Diesel doesnt ignite easily though. 

 

Why couldnt a ruptured tank, hose or fitting create a flammable gas cloud?

 

from calor gas:

L.P.G. Liquid.

A liquid leak is readily visible. Small liquid leaks will develop ice at the point of escape. Large leaks such as from a hole or broken fitting will issue as a white cloud. This white cloud is caused by the liquid vaporizing and expanding so rapidly that it freezes the moisture in the air. The cloud is a rich and highly flammable mixture, especially at the outer edges and will flash if brought into contact with a source of ignition.

Flammable gas mixtures will also be found beyond the outer fringe of the vapour cloud, because, as the cloud warms up the gas becomes invisible and therefore more dangerous. The use of combustible gas indicators is the only way to determine at what point the gas has thinned out sufficiently to become non-inflammable.

A Liquid L.P.G. fire is more difficult to control than a vapour fire due to the fact that one litre of liquid produces between 233 and 274 litres of gas at 15 0C. 

 

Edited January 2, 2017 by jonw8uk

[bangrak]

39 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

LPG and LNG tanks do not explode but their fittings get ruptured and regulators torn off and what you get is a flame thrower. There was a double-decker tourist bus that went up in similar circumstances early last year near Korat.

'NanLaew': What about safety valves? Are there none fitted here then?

[gdgbb]

2 hours ago, chrissables said:

Drive or ride yourself, at least you have control about your own vehicle.

 

Isn't that exactly the position that the van driver was in, presumably he thought he had control, or would your control be better than his?  Do you know, without resorting to speculation, who was responsible for this accident, perhaps it was the pick up drivers fault?

[CGW]

47 minutes ago, darren84310 said:

 

Me too..... They should all be fitted with trackers and routinely monitored for speed. If they are found to have been speeding excessively then the driver and company should be prosecuted.

Make them drive in the left hand lane only! not the "fast" lane which they consider if for them only!

[Don Mega]

1 minute ago, gdgbb said:

 

Isn't that exactly the position that the van driver was in, presumably he thought he had control, or would your control be better than his?  Do you know, without resorting to speculation, who was responsible for this accident, perhaps it was the pick up drivers fault?

 

When the van driver fell asleep I doubt he had any control over the vehicle.

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Where are you Thai apologists? You know, the ones who keep trying to convince me that it's just as safe to drive in Thailand as anywhere else.

I think you mean Berkshire.

[bangrak]

12 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Bangkok-Chantaburi minivan headed for Bangkok and Bangkok registered pickup heading eastbound. The minivan crossed the median and collided head-on with the pickup.

'NanLaew': '...crossed the median...' you write. I don't say you don't know better than I do, but on the picture it looks like a highway with two lanes in each of both directions.

In another post here, I read the van was crossing the highway the pick-up was driving on, but there's no crossing visible on the one picture I saw...

 

Edited January 2, 2017 by bangrak

[gdgbb]

2 hours ago, The Old Bull said:

Vans only have ten seats must have been thirteen in the pickup

Are you forgetting the seating for 3 in the front?

[blazes]

36 minutes ago, lostinisaan said:

 

    Not all of them are reckless drivers and many of them are good drivers. The problem is that the company tells them to drive too many hours which is often only possible with speed and speeding.

 

        A second is enough. I fell asleep when I was 19 back from a disco driving all the guys home.

 

         Then I fell asleep, drove over three lanes and landed in a garden. I was lucky that no car was on the road at this time. 

 

       Driving here for 15 years brought me into countless and very dangerous situations, where only my good driving skills prevented an accident.  I'm fed up having to think for others. 

 

  I started to drive really slowly, the 150 km/h times are over and I don't get upset when a van is right on my rear bumper. I smile when others get upset, because I know that some are easy on pulling a gun. 

 

          It's not only too many hours of driving, the car maintenance in Thailand is a better joke. 

 

           And the quality of the mechanics as well. It all goes back to education and that's the first part that has to be overhauled.

 

       Isn't that where everything starts? Please have a look how and what these mechanics study.

 

     Does a van driver have to have a special license carrying passengers? A lot of people without a driver's license drive vans with kids to schools and back home.

 

Even to move a taxi in my country you'll have to go through psychological and physical tests. Anybody here's allowed to drive a van without having experience. 

 

           Not surprising for me to see many kids on the roof of a pickup. If the driver has to hit the brakes, they fly. But do the kids even know that? 

 

        The death toll will never decrease if the education won't improve. 

 

How can people develop a "common sense" if none of their teachers taught them independent and critical thinking?

 

       I'd never trust a car mechanic anymore after all the jokes I've seen what they did to my truck. 

 

            Loss of face= Loss of life.

 

         

 

     

 

      

 

You have outlined very well why (linking with another TV thread from yesterday) it is time for me to leave Thailand.  I am too old to be able to wait for all the fixing that has to be done in all aspects of life here.  

[greenchair]

Really they need to prosecute the company owners for forcing drivers to drive multiple shifts with no sleep. Coffee and m 150 will not keep them awake, when they have such horrendous schedule. 

The bus driver that ran away because he was too tired is a hero. 

Now they want to prosecute him. 

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

Total carnage, now will people with authority start doing something ?

I doubt it but there is some hope before hell freezes over. 

[zorro1]

Looks like the yaba wore off.
Horrific!

[gdgbb]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Where are you Thai apologists? You know, the ones who keep trying to convince me that it's just as safe to drive in Thailand as anywhere else.

 

Well I didn't die on the roads yesterday, neither did millions of others in Thailand who arrived safely at their destination, so, apart from this incident, it can't be that bad.

[Rimmer]

Multiple off topic/troll posts have been removed

[elgordo38]

3 minutes ago, greenchair said:

The bus driver that ran away because he was too tired is a hero. 

Now they want to prosecute him. 

Life works in mysteries ways especially here. RIP those that perished. Makes one reflect on life. The van driver shares some of the responsibility. I guess tourism will intervene and hand out a few thousand baht per victim and life will move on till the next time. 

[gdgbb]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Oh yeah, the ones who have an alternate reality.

 

Not to mention the ones who don't get into trouble on the roads.  Are they the "alternate" millions?

[ianf]

It's great listening to all the farangs here telling us all what is wrong with the Thai drivers. And off course we see incredibly stupid driving every day. I had occasion recently to take the Chantaburi Sa Keow  road and the number of Thai drivers overtaking on blind bends on double yellows was astounding. Here in Chiang Mai I wonder if the Farangs that I see everyday without helmets, with small kids on their motorbikes, with passengers on the back of their trucks (and so on) also post here? Because if they do I would ask them to set an example and modify their behaviour.

[gdgbb]

1 hour ago, Enoon said:

 

I presume that the pick-up driver was in control of his own vehicle.

 

He was not in control of the minivan, which swung across from the other carriage way and obliterated him and his passengers.

 

The fundamental problem in Thailand is that you are not in control of the myriad other road users who are out to get you.

 

 

That's the fundamental problem in every country that has cars.

[fred007]

Just watched Tv news   .....They talked to the Transport Minister about this horrific crash 

...............................................Hang Your Head In Shame Sir.........................................................

[Essaybloke]

2 hours ago, stingray said:

23 die in fire? Should not be allowed to use LPG

Oh all right!  Should not be allowed to use petrol either then, or aero fuel in aircraft?  The problem is not the fuel, it's 'should not crash at high speed'. It's 'human error'!

[KKr]

2 hours ago, F4UCorsair said:

I took a van from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok once.....and once was enough.

 

If you value your life, don't get in a van, big bus, train, or fly.

Good idea, I would stay at home, BUT most people die in their own bed.

[gdgbb]

1 hour ago, al007 said:

 

 

Smoking pot gets you in jail, but murder on the roads does not

 

INSANITY I THINK

It sounds as though you know the cause of this accident?  Murder?

[JackThompson]

44 minutes ago, impulse said:

True, but I'm sure someone could figure out an incentive program where the cops wouldn't mind collecting all those fines.

 

If that happens, I hope they stick to policing actually dangerous-driving, though.  Not like back home where they hide behind billboards to catch victims for their "ticket-quota" (the "incentive program"), whose driving poses no risk to anyone.  Then came the automated red-light cameras, and when not enough "revenue" was generated, they shortened the yellow-lights to "catch" more victims.

 

As for the helmets thing, I always chose to wear one when I rode a motorbike - but telling adults what to do with their own lives is a terrible precedent.  There are checkpoints all over busting those for breaking that law, though the potential harm is only to the driver.  Why not just have the moto-insurance carriers put in the policy, "No helmet, no payout?"

 

But I understand they had to do the helmet-law for financial reasons, because of the "national health" plan.  Socialism always destroys personal freedom, because an individual's decisions are institutionally-fused into others' financial risk (at tax-collector gunpoint).  If we go down that road, everyone could wear govt-regulated electro-shock devices that zap you if you don't "look both ways before crossing a street" with sufficient pause.  It would "save lives," no?  I'm sure Google would be happy to cooperate with the tech-side - "for our own good," of course.

 

I'll take the GPS trackers on commercial vehicles option over any "incentive program" to encourage ticketing.  Insurance companies could enforce the vehicles they insure, for their own interests.

 

As horrible as a crash like this is, I hope the Thais do not take the totalitarian-solution, and turn highways into revenue-gauntlets - something I do not miss from the USA.

[Asiantravel]

45 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

 

I was thinking the same thing.  And now with Poipet an unusable crossing for many, that makes Cambodia inaccessible other than by mini-bus or Taxi, for the last-leg of the trip. 

 

As for traveling there from Pattaya, the closest you can get are buses through Rayong to Chanthaburi or Trat.  Then a taxi to the border, or take your chances in a van for a short-haul.

 

" As for traveling there from Pattaya, the closest you can get are buses through Rayong to Chanthaburi or Trat.   "

 

No the 99 bus doesn't  come through Pattaya any more and there are no more big buses from Rayong either.you only have the choice of a minivan until you get to Chanthaburi and there you might be able get a big bus on the final leg of the journey to Trat (but it's only 70 km).