At least 15,000 vans could be taken off the roads

[tompelli]

I can see a load of Malaysian/ Chinese micro buses being held at the port. Deja bloody vu. 

[stupot1952]

5 hours ago, daveAustin said:

At least 15,000 vans + DRIVERS could be taken off the roads.

 

Just to make it more appealing.

Be interesting to see how many have insurance 

[williamgeorgeallen]

baht bus and mini van systems of transportation are very good. cost the tax payer nothing and are good value for money. just need to get the drivers to start driving in a responsible manner. of course this is not possible but is a good idea in theory.

[Shawn0000]

6 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

Minivans don't kill people. It is the drivers of minivans who kill people. Better if they took 15,163 looney drivers of any sort of vehicle, including minivans, off the road.

 

Even drivers who are not loony kill people when they are persuaded into driving overloaded vehicles, the minivans need replacing.

[CGW]

23 minutes ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

Even drivers who are not loony kill people when they are persuaded into driving overloaded vehicles, the minivans need replacing.

The cynic in me does wonder if the minivans are(?) replaced with larger vehicles if it will really make any difference apart from the fact they will be able to squeeze even more people onboard

Continue using the same overworked drivers and continue to be outside of the "law"

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Article 44 of the interim charter to immediately tackle the problem

Whoosh there goes your whole life out the window. No van no job possibly wife gone with kids all at the whim of some politician with a brain flatulation. A problem yes solution provided scary. 

[Basil B]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

AS MANY as 15,163 inter-provincial passenger vans on fixed routes could be taken off Thailand’s roads by 2019 because they are not appropriate for public transportation, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krue-Ngam said yesterday.

 

So what about the blue pick up trucks in Pattaya with bench seats at the back that if the driver was to accelerate hard all the passengers would fall out the back? not forgetting all the passengers who have to stand on the back platforms due to over loading?

 

[White Christmas13]

6 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

When pigs fly.......................

 

[Geoff Snell]

The only way I would ever get back into a minivan in Thailand is being kidnapped at gunpoint.

[tomacht8]

2 hours ago, Geoff Snell said:

The only way I would ever get back into a minivan in Thailand is being kidnapped at gunpoint.

Same for me.
I will never forget my few MiniVan trips.
Hua Hin to Bangkok at 130 km / h, safety distance 1 meter to the other Mini Van in front; Blind flight over 2 hours.
Surat Thani airport to the ferry port at 120 km/h at heavy rain;  aquaplaning sliding without end.
Koh Samui Airport to Hotel at 70 -100 km/h on the ringroad while the driver was playing with his smartphone non stop.
Bangkok to Kampheng Phet, almost crash on the highway. In the evasive maneuver, the van was only on 2 wheels.

Better to pull the monkeys out of traffic first.
Better today than tomorrow.
They can start again with the MiniVans, when the drivers have learned to drive a vehicle safely.
At the moment there are only a few.

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by tomacht8

[ZAKY]

9 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

Minivans don't kill people. It is the drivers of minivans who kill people. Better if they took 15,163 looney drivers of any sort of vehicle, including minivans, off the road.

Yep ! It is same with gun, it is the person behind the gun who kills ! 

[Brer Fox]

3 hours ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

Even drivers who are not loony kill people when they are persuaded into driving overloaded vehicles, the minivans need replacing.

Great idea! Even the Thai's have thought of that which is a worry in itself.

As I said before minivans don't kill people. They are static objects. The drivers and the overloaders are the cause of deaths. So what do you replace the minivans with? Answer: Maxivans and buses with the same idiot drivers and the same idiot overloaders. Problem solved according to you? Time for bed.

[Rhys]

oh really.....

[Brer Fox]

3 hours ago, CGW said:

The cynic in me does wonder if the minivans are(?) replaced with larger vehicles if it will really make any difference apart from the fact they will be able to squeeze even more people onboard

Continue using the same overworked drivers and continue to be outside of the "law"

Agree. Try telling shawn0000 that.

[poohy]

Thank God the pattaya Hua hin ferry is running!...... well every second thursday and alternate mondays at high tide, as long as there is no nasty wind or waves

[Basil B]

For my sins, yesterday I had to attend a "Driver Awareness" coarse for a minor road traffic offence.

 

When it was pointed out that there was a average five fatalities on UK roads every day I could only think of Thailand where the daily average is sixteen times greater yet has a smaller population.

 

Taking these busses off the road is like using a nut cracker to crack a peanut as the other nuts are too hard to crack.

 

[CGW]

2 hours ago, poohy said:

Thank God the pattaya Hua hin ferry is running!...... well every second thursday and alternate mondays at high tide, as long as there is no nasty wind or waves it is Dead calm!

In the interests of good Thainess & public safety, I have taken the liberty of altering your post, apoligies.............

[samsensam]

12 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

Minivans don't kill people. It is the drivers of minivans who kill people. Better if they took 15,163 looney drivers of any sort of vehicle, including minivans, off the road.

 

dont forget the people who should be held responsible for ensuring a van is in a serviceable condition...

[Elkski]

This is good new IMHO.   Many of you don't understand or fail to admit that these little vans were never designed to haul so much weight.  Yes passengers sitting on laps was common in my few experiences. I am hopeful the new mini buses will be able to handle the loads even if overcrowded.  But there should be a maximum load capacity.

 

Firm rules should be enforced for all the drivers.

-No drug use or alcohol  and random testing.

-Supervisor ride a longs should occur and retraining should begin.

-Personal phone use while driving should be cause for immediate dismissal and public should be encouraged to take video and report in. maybe a reward system. 

-Most likely bus fares will have to increase to be able to raise salaries, pay for new buses, better maintenance, -inspections, training, and attract better drivers. 

No one can say newer, larger buses are a bad thing. I am naive and expect this announcement to be carried out. 

[sioux2012]

according to the original article  "Office of Insurance Commission’s Si Sa Ket branch head Ladapa Neelamon also presented four cheques totaling Bt1.015 million to the two families at the temple yesterday".

 

They could have kept the 15 baht. Make it dollars to show you are really sorry. Such a major loss of life and a pathetic compensation to what they knew could, would happen....RIP to all that died that day and my condolences to the families.

[sioux2012]

4 hours ago, poohy said:

Thank God the pattaya Hua hin ferry is running!...... well every second thursday and alternate mondays at high tide, as long as there is no nasty wind or waves

whats this comment got to do with this topic......unbelievable the ignorance of some of these quality farangs...choke 

[NCC1701A]

5 hours ago, Elkski said:

This is good new IMHO.   Many of you don't understand or fail to admit that these little vans were never designed to haul so much weight.  Yes passengers sitting on laps was common in my few experiences. I am hopeful the new mini buses will be able to handle the loads even if overcrowded.  But there should be a maximum load capacity.

 

Firm rules should be enforced for all the drivers.

-No drug use or alcohol  and random testing.

-Supervisor ride a longs should occur and retraining should begin.

-Personal phone use while driving should be cause for immediate dismissal and public should be encouraged to take video and report in. maybe a reward system. 

-Most likely bus fares will have to increase to be able to raise salaries, pay for new buses, better maintenance, -inspections, training, and attract better drivers. 

No one can say newer, larger buses are a bad thing. I am naive and expect this announcement to be carried out. 

As a fellow American and seeing that you live in Utah, one of the most law abiding places in the USA, might I suggest you not hold your breath on your completely common sense prediction.

 

The Thais know what needs to be done, but it will never happen because of the corruption at every level.

 

This is a Mad Max film here for sure... chaos everyday.

[MaiChai]

Please ban the mini buses; they are overcrowded, uncomfortable, dangerous in an accident and are driven dangerously and at high speed. However the Thai style of driving is the issue and that has been the same since i first visited over 20 years ago. Thus nothing will change and we will continue to read about horrible accidents on Thai roads.

 

Which brings me to the Thai wife driving with me in the UK today. She never ceases to be impressed with UK drivers stopping at zebra crossings to let pedestrians crossed. I pointed out that in Thai law, drivers are also supposed to do the same thing but no one does. So there you go; its about obeying the law rather than ignoring it and in Thailand the land of the free everyone does what they want and there is very little chance of being caught by police.

[hotchilli]

Just a suggestion!!

 

[poohy]

7 hours ago, sioux2012 said:

whats this comment got to do with this topic......unbelievable the ignorance of some of these quality farangs...choke 

 

1. Ferries mean less buses
2. Humour (I cannot help it if due to ignorance or lack of ability  you are unable to see that)

I really  do hope your choking isn't fatal ,

Edited January 8, 2017 by poohy

[Shawn0000]

16 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

Great idea! Even the Thai's have thought of that which is a worry in itself.

As I said before minivans don't kill people. They are static objects. The drivers and the overloaders are the cause of deaths. So what do you replace the minivans with? Answer: Maxivans and buses with the same idiot drivers and the same idiot overloaders. Problem solved according to you? Time for bed.

 

According to your "logic" numbers of passengers on all routes are infinite.  The local school bus run where I live consists of about five overloaded pickups all doing the same route at the same time, these could all be replaced with one normally loaded bus.

[Autonuaq]

As it is that safety and crash zone of a passenger vehicle is different from the same vehicle that is used for cargo.

So the conclusion to remove the vans is logic conclusion.

One of the many steps to be done at the same time are:

Overall Driver education

Implementing rules, guidelines and apply the road design as implementend in high speed high density traffic countries like The Netherlands.

Normalize the cars, vans an busses as well make the lighting as is supposed to be.

Remove the motorbike with their death wishs sqeezing thru traffic

Enforce the traffic laws

Fine the taxi, mini vans and busses for causing road blocks and traffic jams, they do reduce 4 or 3 lanes in to one or half lane around populair areas

 

Passenger vehicles increase the overal safety to the higher standard that are available, like roll bars and thing like that.

 

[Brer Fox]

58 minutes ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

According to your "logic" numbers of passengers on all routes are infinite.  The local school bus run where I live consists of about five overloaded pickups all doing the same route at the same time, these could all be replaced with one normally loaded bus.

That's fine having one bus instead of 5 overloaded pickups so long as the driver is a sensible driver. Again buses don't kill people the drivers do. Anyway I thought the discussion was about minivans rather than pickups.

[ezrider62]

On 1/7/2017 at 10:50 AM, Brer Fox said:

Minivans don't kill people. It is the drivers of minivans who kill people. Better if they took 15,163 looney drivers of any sort of vehicle, including minivans, off the road.

 

Agreed! Do they have a special license or training, probably not.

[BSJ]

I remember the first time I rode up to the wife's village in a mini-van.  The what sounded like metal to metal contact when he hit the brakes was disturbing,  more so his idea of undertaking everything instead of waiting a few seconds and overtaking. But what can one expect from a guy with red line road maps for eyes......I was assuming his best friend is Johnny Walker.