Van crashes into street sweeper on Bangkok tollway, 2 dead

[Andrew Dwyer]

Read the news article (post 18) and enlighten yourself.

I am now corrected.
But I don't think I was that far off, the van was tailgating the pickup and the pickup swerved to avoid the cleaning truck, the van didn't make it.

[yooyoo]

16 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

What a wreck never get in one of those again

 

When will this carnage end?

 

so much for Kuhn Prayut new rules

It will not end until you educate the nation to obey the law....

[The Deerhunter]

Are the words speeding and minivan really two words or just one?  They always seem to go together.  'Nuff said.

[The Deerhunter]

19 hours ago, kannot said:

and they often show the WRONG LANE CLOSED, seen this many times, sign says left hand lane  closed and when you get there its the right or  vice versa..............guess having 2  choices confuses the operator

Maybe so, but at 140kmph what can you do about it?  It does not give anyone enough time to consider the possible alternatives.

[lungnorm]

Speed for sure.

[sotsira]

Wasn't long ago, that the authorities were talking about taking these death trap minivans

out of service, they just like to talk a lot of hot air without any action.

The problem has become an epidemic. 

Let's just bury our heads in the sand, and wait for the next one to happen.

R.I.P.

[saminoz]

4 hours ago, bdenner said:

The good PM can enforce maximum Minivan Capacity, Seat Belts and the like. - BUT - unless he has mystical powers he will never do anything about STUPIDITY!

Maybe because he's working hard to monopolize it?

[hotchilli]

Have all the new laws you want, put a suicidal idiot behind the wheel and you cancel them all out !

No driving skills
No checks
No respect for the law of the road
No respect for passengers

Things will never change as long as the only thing driving minivans are idiots & profit !!

[ben2talk]

21 hours ago, Crossy said:

Looking at the other photo (on the linked site) I'm amazed anyone got out in one piece.

 

Those sweepers travel relatively slowly with just the large warning lights on the back, no cover vehicle. The warning signs on the road do (usually) show a lane closed but how many take notice of them?

 

And of course it was a van, so travelling at Mach-3.

 

I think it's more likely a case of long working hours and pressures to perform... maybe bonus payments, or penalties for not making enough runs, or minimum number of runs to be managed... and a generally casual attitude toward safety (If a similar van driver get his phone out in London, for example, he'd better be calling the police to save him from his passengers).

 

They don't seem to think much about speed. It isn't 'high' speed that kills - speed is a factor. In this case, it's LOW speed that kills - differences in speeds when most vehicles are driving at or around 120km/h. Reasonable variations IMO would be trucks/slowest traffic in the left lane at 80km/h.

 

Did ANYONE bother to replay the webcam recording? Is GPS considered a better tool for the job? All I see are threads of experts with no evidence making wild accusations...

 

Surely every public vehicle should be fitted with a front and rear camera recording on a loop... Recent news shows that insurance companies will start discounting for dashcams.

 

It's not entirely fair to judge the guy - van drivers are forced to work too many hours, crazy salary and bonus schemes... it's just not managed properly.

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, bdenner said:

The good PM can enforce maximum Minivan Capacity, Seat Belts and the like. - BUT - unless he has mystical powers he will never do anything about STUPIDITY!

and that is the problem with the vast majority of Thai drivers, stupidity.

[balo]

RIP to the 2 passengers who died and the driver did not survive so I guess thats good news.

[ben2talk]

7 minutes ago, balo said:

RIP to the 2 passengers who died and the driver did not survive so I guess thats good news.

Good news? Instead of trying to scrape a miserable living by driving 14 hours a day 7 days per week, he's dead leaving his wife and children with no support. Ripples go out and all his friends and people who knew him also think it's great that he's gone, and his parents won't rely on him being around to help them buy food any more which takes the pressure off them trying not to be a burden. Yes, a great deal all round.

 

In what way will this improve things? Do you think the next driver will be less prone to drive excessive hours? or offered less incentives to cut corners and keep pushing on?

[ben2talk]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

and that is the problem with the vast majority of Thai drivers, stupidity.

The same applies in England... however, they set up infrastructure to monitor drivers and try to create environments where driving faster will not bring any gains...

 

If the government are truly interested, then they would make sure the drivers start to command higher than average salaries, perhaps 10 up to 20k per month, and have some degree of bonus dependent upon a passenger rating system... not sure how I'd do that, maybe a keypad they can punch on the way out of the van.

 

Given that most Thai's have phones, they could number the vans and have an app for that too.

[kannot]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

and that is the problem with the vast majority of Thai drivers, stupidity.

And  99% do the same things round here........can  follow any car round the local roads and they ALL drive in the same crap  manner.......every corner is often taken with ALL 4  wheels over onto the other side of the yellow line (oncoming traffic), its very predictable, every junction is taken with the entire vehicle on the other side of the road also and you get a "surprised"  look off them when you are coming round  the corner the other way from them.

[superfletch]

Last Sunday, I was on a bus heading back to Morchit from Rangsit but the service unexpectedly terminated at Saphan Mai. Against my better judgement, I took a van for the rest of the journey.  The driver, who was tailgating at high speed, veered to the right to avoid hitting a vehicle from behind on the curved elevated section of road, then had to yank the wheel hard left to prevent us from going straight over the top. 

 

Needlessly reckless, irresponsible and oblivious to the potential outcome of his driving. 

 

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we arrived at the BTS.

 

Never again.

[brling]

16 minutes ago, ben2talk said:

Good news? Instead of trying to scrape a miserable living by driving 14 hours a day 7 days per week, he's dead leaving his wife and children with no support. Ripples go out and all his friends and people who knew him also think it's great that he's gone, and his parents won't rely on him being around to help them buy food any more which takes the pressure off them trying not to be a burden. Yes, a great deal 

Cry me a river,,  How do you know he worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, had a wife and children, and parents ? Why did he not think about them and drive  with his eyes open, and his brain in gear ?

[ben2talk]

1 minute ago, brling said:

Cry me a river,,  How do you know he worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, had a wife and children, and parents ? Why did he not think about them and drive  with his eyes open, and his brain in gear ?

My point is that it's never a good thing when someone dies like this. The only possible benefit is that a better driver might take his place - don't hold your breath, but certainly never be happy about people getting killed like this.

 

You have NO idea how he was driving, it's all speculation... a speciality of ThaiVisa customers is to judge and condemn all and sundry with a bare minimum of a headline (possibly biased) and a snap or two.

 

It's quite possible he was stressed, I don't know. The norm is for these drivers to be expected to deliver - and a 14 hour day is considered normal according to my sources. Many accidents on motorways aren't actually caused by cars travelling at 'mach 3' or excessive speeds, indeed many are caused by traffic moving very slowly combined with a momentary lapse of concentration, or perhaps a failure to process information available.

 

Do you know anything about this man's life, about his employer? Do you think British or American drivers would be better if offered the chance to get paid an extra 10% commission for every run they do, and 1.5x rate for each run after the first 12 per month, and 2x rate for over 18?

 

Do you have access to the records showing his hours of work? showing the percentage of hours spent driving? showing his official break times?

 

If there's a road sweeper on the expressway I'd be looking into that - finding out Why it's there, and Who let it get onto the road. 

 

A road sweeper on the expressway, for gods sake - top speed what, 15km/h? Sweeping the centre lane? Who cares, the words 'VAN' and 'DRIVER' wipe out anything else. 

[Jai Dee]

10 minutes ago, ben2talk said:

You have NO idea how he was driving, it's all speculation... a speciality of ThaiVisa customers is to judge and condemn all and sundry with a bare minimum of a headline (possibly biased) and a snap or two.

 

Witnesses stated that the minivan was speeding and tailgating... see this news bulletin. 

[brling]

3 hours ago, ben2talk said:

 

 

 Do you think British or American drivers would be better if offered the chance to get paid an extra 10% commission for every run they do, 

YES they would be better. They would not risk their life, their passengers, or other  people on the road. Wise up and dont try to defend stupid drivers. and no this is NOT a Thai bashing thread.

 

[metisdead]

Another post containing a "Sent from my nose" troll comment has been removed.  Continue to use that comment in your posts and your posts will disappear. 

[ratcatcher]

On 2017-5-22 at 3:59 PM, seajae said:

kind of shuts up the van drivers saying none of the new rules were needed, here we see the deaths caused by an idiot van driver  and not wearing seat belts as prescribed in the new law. The driver needs to have the book thrown at him, driving dangerously and not making his passengers wear seat belts thats if they were even fitted

"The driver needs to have the book thrown at him, ........."

I'm not sure which book would be appropriate to throw in this case. A bible would be a bad choice.

 

"The driver of the minivan 31 year old Niphon Srijan-in and a female passenger, Jureerat Jongjitklang, 33, were both pronounced dead at the scene..."

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

Thank Buddha there was only the one passenger, not a full bus load.

At 31 you would think he should know better. The police should test his blood to see what he was on, I guess they can find lots of it splattered inside the van I would think.

I hope the injured person is not serious, and can make a full recovery.

RIP Jureerat.

Edited May 23, 2017 by George FmplesdaCosteedback

[Andrew Dwyer]

Thank Buddha there was only the one passenger, not a full bus load.
At 31 you would think he should know better. The police should test his blood to see what he was on, I guess they can find lots of it splattered inside the van I would think.
I hope the injured person is not serious, and can make a full recovery.
RIP Jureerat.

2 were killed ( the driver being one) and several were injured.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

Sorry, I see now several were injured, well I hope none are serious and can recover. Too late for Ms Jureerat unfortunately, RIP.

If the report is correct it was the driver's fault, no sympathy from me.

[ben2talk]

19 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I am now corrected.
But I don't think I was that far off, the van was tailgating the pickup and the pickup swerved to avoid the cleaning truck, the van didn't make it.

It's a shame there's no requirement for all public vehicles to have front/rear dashcams fitted and running at all times.

 

One of the reasons that people get into driving this way is stuff clogging up the other lanes. Van drivers in the U.K. had the same issues... people hate 'white van driver'... but enforcement is a little different there. You can get points for trying to undertake, and you'll end up in deep soup if you try to jump queues regularly. Drivers here are often TOO POLITE in this regard - when I'm driving, if I ever close a gap - or move half on to the hard shoulder to stop people cutting in front, people say to me 'let them go' - as if it's my job to use only half my lane, squeeze over and let them through.

 

Without proper policing it's hard to see any way forward. Cameras are cheap, but they're only ever used for a 120km/h limit (no relation to any posted speed limits - none of those apply).

[cardinalblue]

Ben2..

 

not it sure why you are defending fatality driving habits...I see them every day I drive here...I think to myself what a d**k....

 

very simple case - he was speeding and tailgating. He got what he deserved...I feel bad only for others who are victims of his driving behavior...

 

 

And I blame the gov for not having an enforcement plan. This accident was preventable or least efforts to be made to minimize bad driving...

 

i would like to see the van company sued in a class action suit for reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter... 

 

Accountabilty can shape irresponsible behavior..

[01322521959]

Yet another sad report.

Another road kill by yet another idiot. Sorry but these people have little or no sense of public highways.

Last week my gf asked me to visit her brother at the Ramathibodi Hospital, against my better judgement we took a van and the exact same route, Navanakorn to Victory Monument.
It's been six months since I've been in one of those vans and I can tell you nothing has changed, no seat belts and a feeling of complete vulnerability as the van hurtled down the highway.
Today we are visiting her brother again and yes I drove this time, and never complained about the traffic or finding a parking place !!
Van ? Never, ever again !!
 

Last got in a van at Christmas 1999, told my then girlfriend I couldn't go to khon gan and had Christmas in BKK alone. Never again

Sent from my i-mobile_i-STYLE_219 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[tomacht8]

Stopping distance = reaction path + braking distance

Reaction path in meters = (speed / 10) x 3
Braking distance in meters = (speed / 10) x (speed / 10)

Test question: You drive 110 km / h. How long is the stopping distance?

I bet that 95% of all drivers in the public transport service (bus, minivan, taxi)  are not able to calculate the correct stopping distance here. Even if you give them the formula and a pocket calculator.

The basic understanding for physical connections is simply lacking. Otherwise you can not explain the suicidal tailgating and the idiotic driving style from many drivers here.

Edited May 26, 2017 by tomacht8