Video: School bus driver dead as homeward bound students injured in 18 wheeler collision

[kkerry]

If someone, in a position of care, driving a bus with schoolchildren in the wet, decides they can overtake on double yellow lines, then all the road laws in the world aren't going to help. Absolute insanity.

[thequietman]

If you watch it on the big screen you will see that the bus is overtaking uphill. The bus breaks the solid line. The other side consists of 2 lanes downhill. The lorry was overtaking the car in the overtaking lane and I suppose expected the bus to get back in its lane quicker and didn't slow down. The lorry tried to steer back into lane one and his trailer made impact. Terrible.

[kannot]

Drove up from Hua  Hin to  BKK yesterday thru heavy rain ,  3 lorries upside down in the ditch in 3 different locations , also 2  pick ups in the central ditch................ they wont learn they dont learn they cant learn............many of them still driving inches from my bumper...............but as long as I respect the flag then alls  well

[UPDEHSOI]

2 hours ago, smedly said:

for F sake yet another serious bus crash, when is this madness going to end, something drastic needs to be done

 

Thailand, the hub of serious bus accidents in the world......by a country mile

 

surely someone is going to waken up to this carnage and start getting serious

 

Limit all buses and mini vans to a strict 45kmph speed limit until a long lasting solution has been found and anyone caught going over 45kmph or committing any other moving traffic violation gets a mandatory month in jail and licence revoked for a year forcing them to take the test again to get it back. and a hefty fine of at least 20kbaht

Hmm, I see. Sooo,,, for a month all the jails in the country would be jammed packed. Then the whole country would have a buncha bumpkins driving busses without any licences. And of course, the crime rate would skyrocket. Well, I mean, they would have to get the twenty thousand baht SOMEWHERE!

[UPDEHSOI]

59 minutes ago, smedly said:

Firstly what they need is a deterrent so severe that it will make it not worth the risk.

Secondly they need to make sure that there is a very high chance of being caught (see below)

Thirdly they need to make sure that drivers of passenger vehicles are highly trained

 

Since the normal police don't have any interest in law enforcement and the motorway police don't seem to bother much either, perhaps the setting up of a (plain clothes) special highly motivated and trained unit that only deals with public transport (buses) and HGV vehicles.

 

I honestly don't know what the answer is, I have been driving on Thai roads for almost 14 years and covered well over 100,000km and some of the stuff I have seen particularly involving buses - minivans and HGV vehicles is horrendous and insane mixed in with a very large dose of extreme stupidity

 

The interesting thing that I mentioned earlier is the recent widespread use of dashcams and the distribution of footage via social media

But, but, butbutbut, if ya do that,  only a special few (highly motivated and trained ) instead of the whole force would be able to easily collect Tea mon, uh Kick bac...uh extra bonuses.

[puukao]

UPDATE:  ALL SCHOOL BUSES NOW BANNED

 

In 11-months, the new buses will be eighty-seven times as big.

[hobobo]

2 hours ago, johng said:

The driver of the bus was a woman and she died of her injuries...from the video it looks like it was her fault   but R.I.P

I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to wish her everlasting peace - the dumb b1tc4 also endangered the lives of dozens of kids!

[thequietman]

If you watch it on the big screen you will see that the bus is overtaking uphill. The bus breaks the solid line. The other side consists of 2 lanes downhill. The lorry was overtaking the car in the overtaking lane and I suppose expected the bus to get back in its lane quicker and didn't slow down. The lorry tried to steer back into lane one and his trailer made impact. Terrible.

[little mary sunshine]

Wet road and transporting children,

driver so irresponsible, should have

been going slower.  

Edited January 10, 2017 by little mary sunshine

[Boycie]

I can't make out the roadside yellow warning sign at 1min 49sec on the video?

 

'When you see a warning sign, increse your level of alertness to changes in the roadway, in traffic, or in enviromental conditions. ALWAYS proceed with caution'

 

I guess the bus driver also missed it but probably would have made no difference as they probably thought that the double yellows meant no parking 

[zorro1]

they r going to phase out the vans n sub them with mini buses...

not the weapon but the man wielding it has to be look into..

Yes but all the kids are out of danger. If it was a van they would all be dead.. Some are having trouble grasping this concept

.. Move from van to bus will save thousands of lives

A micro bus is bigger and heavier and has infinitely better impact protection. Lots of those vans are converted commercial vehicles with no side impact protection

[Mackstask]

Thai way of thinking! Overtaking on the brow of a hill.  They think "What is not coming" rather than  "What might be coming".

Edited January 10, 2017 by Mackstask

[sahibji]

3 hours ago, tracker1 said:

Paid the price for plain stupidity ! when will they ever learn ?

we do not know for sure what happened.

[sahibji]

RIP poor driver of the bus.

[Lampang2]

"I refuse to loose face and time, but I can loose my life no problem"

 

[Lampang2]

3 minutes ago, sahibji said:

we do not know for sure what happened.

 

are you blind ?

 

yet you are able to read and write here...

puzzling

 

[lungnorm]

3 hours ago, smedly said:

and he was overtaking on a single then double yellow, not to mention the weather conditions

 

also worth noting that without the dashcam and social media we would have heard nothing about this accident

 

 

jail him.......................oh wait

Driver was a she not a he.

[balo]

I'm happy I don't have any kids in Thailand. I would be worried every minute of the day .

 

[Khon Kaen Dave]

I noticed that the post said that the incident was recorded by a 3rd party dash cam.I dont have a dash cam,so please enlighten me.This camera,is it something you have to turn on,or is it automatically started when the car engine is running? Is there a tape inside that can be removed?like a cctv camera? What is the approximate size?and do they actually sit on the dash,Where are they available and what is the usual price for such an item.Thanx.

[onemorechang]

16 minutes ago, sahibji said:

RIP poor driver of the bus.

 

What !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She could have killed a lot of people with her dangerous driving.

One less imbecile  on the roads to kill other peoples children.

 

 

 

[wvavin]

Thank God for having one road menace less on our road.

[Generalchaos]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

for <deleted!> sake yet another serious bus crash, when is this madness going to end, something drastic needs to be done

 

Thailand, the hub of serious bus accidents in the world......by a country mile

 

surely someone is going to waken up to this carnage and start getting serious

 

Limit all buses and mini vans to a strict 45kmph speed limit until a long lasting solution has been found and anyone caught going over 45kmph or committing any other moving traffic violation gets a mandatory month in jail and licence revoked for a year forcing them to take the test again to get it back. and a hefty fine of at least 20kbaht

Limiting the speeds of these buses to 45KMH is not the answer! You are just going to put the people in even more danger due to impatient drivers trying to get past them.

There needs to be a serious test of driving ability, followed up by yearly rechecks for commercial drivers of any kind. Commercial vehicles should have a Tacho fitted. Police should start charging these idiots with manslaughter or attempted murder and start actually doing their damn jobs and ENFORCE THE LAW. (edited for bad spelling)

[lee68]

9 hours ago, catinthehat said:

Based on the fact that last weeks major death toll with a public van only thus far has prompted lots of empty rhetoric. Which, given time will all evaporate.

 

I presume it will take a bus accident with a similar proportionate magnitude of fatalities. Then the record will replay itself all over again. No one at the top really cares as:

• life is cheap
• they believe they go to a better place after fattening the coffers and lifestyles of the temples/monks
• and anything that costs more money than the penny pinching current expenditures in overhead and operating costs to save one baht

changes. But remember if you never ever learn what common sense means in your youth, how can you apply it to help affect change.

What does amaze me is that the parents never seemed to express any alarm over this kind of behavior.

Cultural differences playing out every minute of every day.

So horribly sad, senseless and so much of this could be avoided.

True about common sense,been here 20 years and never yet met a Thai with it!

[masuk]

3 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

The driver in front of the bus seemed to have seen the terrible coming.

He sharply goes to the curbside hoping it might work out.

It didn't.

My Thai friend told me that the lines on the highway are "advisory only"!!

 

A few hefty fines and jail sentences might start to get the message through.

 

ALSO a good solid press and TV campaign.  The solid yellow lines are NOT advisory.

[Crossy]

16 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

I noticed that the post said that the incident was recorded by a 3rd party dash cam.I dont have a dash cam,so please enlighten me.This camera,is it something you have to turn on,or is it automatically started when the car engine is running? Is there a tape inside that can be removed?like a cctv camera? What is the approximate size?and do they actually sit on the dash,Where are they available and what is the usual price for such an item.Thanx.

 

Readily available for less than $100 US, plugs into the lighter socket, starts recording when you start the car, stops when you stop. When the memory card is full it overwrites the oldest file. Once set up you need to do nothing. The more expensive ones have GPS and G-sensors so they save the crash automatically, so you don't have to.

 

A valuable (but not infallible) second witness to what happened.

 

My new mu-X comes with a dashcam as standard fitment, even the base model.

 

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Crossy.

Thanx for that Crossy.I was intrigued.

 

[Crossy]

Just now, Khon Kaen Dave said:

Crossy.

Thanx for that Crossy.I was intrigued.

 

 

Now go out and buy one, you know it makes sense :)

 

I think it was last year some time that dashcam footage was released where the driver of the camera car was killed. He would have been blamed for the crash but his camera footage showed the other car losing control and crossing directly into his path leaving him nowhere to go.

[spidermike007]

Traffic safety needs to be addressed and improved here, in a dramatic and drastic manner. This will not happen. And the question is why it will not happen. And the answer is complete and total apathy on the part of the government, and the police. Nobody cares. Sure, they jabber alot after some horrific accidents. But, will they do anything? Do they ever do anything? No. They are not serious about this problem, at all. More jawboning, from the master himself. If he was serious about protecting his people, he would have done it from day one. The RTP are not interested in traffic safety, and the government has no interest in public safety. And the carnage continues, and Thailand continues it's place as number two in the world (after war torn Libya) for road deaths per capita. At least they are number two in something! There are a hundred things that could be done to protect the people, and prevent more accidents. Start with law enforcement, and the enforcing of laws that are already on the books. Serious fines for speeding, impounding of vehicles, with serious fines for drunk driving, long prison terms for manslaughter, caused by drivers who carelessly mow people down, regardless of how influential or connected, or wealthy they are. Incease the penalties severely for fleeing the scene of an accident. I do not think there is currently any penalty for that. And how about a really novel idea? Have the highway police actually patrol the highway, instead of playing cards in the office. The only time I ever see them is after an accident. There is a concept known as a deterrent, which is virtually unknown in this country.

 

You make obnoxious behavior, dangerous behavior, and careless driving on the highways punishable, and people will think twice about doing it. Every single time I am on the highways I see people doing things they would never even consider doing in California, as the consequences are simply too high. Here they know they can get away with almost anything.

 

They know Little P. and the highway police are not serious people. And he and his people bear total, and absolute responsibility for the continued carnage. It rests squarely on his very small shoulders. 

[Black arab]

Samsensam is right where is the local outcry ,netziens defend their flag but where are they when road deaths occur or a guy get sliced up with a sword.I find it difficult to understand the thainess at times

[georgemandm]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

and he was overtaking on a single then double yellow, not to mention the weather conditions

 

also worth noting that without the dashcam and social media we would have heard nothing about this accident

 

 

jail him.......................oh wait

Can't jail him because he is dead .