Phuket tour bus crash on Patong Hill leaves boy, 12, dead

[The Dark Lord]

8 hours ago, Pomthai said:

I wish they'd stop with the BS excuses. Its not brake failure - its driver training failure.

 

You do not ride the brakes all the way down the hill otherwise you'll get brake fade due to the heat build up. You need to select a low gear and allow the engine to do the majority of the braking. If you don't do this you'll probably crash near the bottom of the hill due to brake fade, this is driver failure, not brake failure.

Brain fade or failure more like

[Wilsonandson]

 

[Psimbo]

Another day, another crash, the same worn comments. nothing to see here- move along. That's what the authorities will do,

 

Even some car and truck drivers struggle to drive correctly up and down this hill, let alone the bus drivers.

[taxin]

There is actually a very simple solution, ban larger tour buses from entering any heavily populated tourist areas, particularly areas that require entering via a hill (Patong, Kata/Karon).

There is absolutely no need for these tour buses, should 30 something Chinese need picking up and taking to the other side of the island, send 2 or 3 minivans.

OK minivan drivers are no better, but they do require less driver training and a real understanding of what they are actually driving, rather than a tour bus.

It will also eliminate the problems of the traffic build up the tour busses cause by crawling up the hills at 5kms an hour, doing 3 point turns (or 7 point turns as the case may be) in the middle of the road, etc..

Any coach or tour bus that enters Phuket from another province must go to a stop off point and have the passengers transferred to minivans, the check point just after coming off the Sarasin Bridge would be ideal, plenty of space around there to do this.

Problem solved !

[Adventra20]

11 hours ago, just.a.thought said:

Are you saying the driver is lying when he stated "break failure" as cause for not being able to slow down. So what was the cause of the accident, in your "expert" opinion?

Brake systems in heavy trucks and buses rarely "Fail". What happens is in Thailand the drivers are not trained to use engine braking when descending steep hills.  They go down the hill in top gear, holding the truck/bus on the brakes until the brakes overheat and don't work any longer.  I've been driving heavy motor vehicles for over 40 years, if you put me in that bus I would go down that hill in a gear low enough that the engine would hold the vehicle speed down, and I would rarely need to touch the brake pedal.  The rigs I have been driving in Australia weigh in excess of 170 tonnes, have 4 trailers, and if I depended on the brakes alone to slow my rig going down a hill I would be dead long ago.