Minivan, bus and road accidents

[Lung Per]

Yet another fatal mini Van accident.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... -van-crash
These accidents will continue to happen.
Want to go the safe way? Take your own taxi and make the driver drive carefully.
Even better: Don't go!

[PeteC]

Not just mini vans. I was on a relatively wide 2 lane country road over here in Rayong on Thursday, came around a corner and here is a very large double decker bus sitting in a deep ditch with its nose pointed straight up in the air. It looked like an atlas rocket ready for launch. All passengers and police were gone and it as just sitting there awaiting a crane I guess. How the driver managed to do what he did I have no idea.

If some of us devoted a full day to just driving around our areas with a camera, I bet we could fill these pages with accident photos. Pete

[Takiap]

Pete, I think many of these accidents are simply down to the Thai way of thinking. I don't mean this in a bad sort of way, but most Thais only seem to think about the "now", and not about and possible consequences. At least I hope this is the reason because if it's not, then it must be due to thickness.


A little while ago for example, I saw a little toddler playing with an extension lead and he was trying his best to plug it into another extension lead which was live. The mother was watching this and was quite fascinated........perhaps wanting to see if the toddler could puzzle it out. I walked over and took the plug away from the child and tried to explain to the mother as best as I could that it's very dangerous. To humor me, she mumbled something to the child about "jep" (sore), and the matter was forgotten.


This was just one case where there was no forward thinking, but I see things like this every single day.


Until someone of great importance gets killed in a minivan, accidents will continue to happen on an almost daily basis, but of course very important people don't travel in minivans, so nothing is about to change.

[hhfarang]

And yet another one:

Van plunges into 5-metre-deep ditch
The Nation January 28, 2012 1:00 am



A PUBLIC-TRANSPORT van plunged into a roadside ditch in Suphan Buri yesterday, killing four and injuring 16 other passengers.

The casualties included a nine-month-old baby girl and a 10-year-old boy.

The van, which services passengers between Bangkok and Suphan Buri, crashed into the ditch on the Uthong-Dan Chang Road.

Driver Methee Wongthai, 39, said he was about to change lanes when a pickup suddenly sped up and slammed into his vehicle.

"Then the van fell into a 5-metre-deep ditch," he said.

Police said they would gather evidence and speak to more witnesses before wrapping up the case.

Edit: I guess this is the same crash mentioned in the OP, just in a different paper.

[Takiap]

Not mini vans, but still shocking.......


http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... icle-crash

[Nereus]

Not mini vans, but still shocking.......
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... icle-crash

The classic result of "tail gating". Although I doubt that they were all travelling in the right hand lane as reported.
Tail gating is something that REALLY gets up my nose. It seems to happen no matter which lane you choose to drive in, but some of it is caused by those that travel slowly in the "fast" lane.

[usual suspect]

2 weeks ago I drove back from Issan.
All the way I drove at 90-100k's..no need to push it..I'd all day to get back to HH.
It was blatantly noticable that as we left the South-side of BKK the on-slaught of manic minivans was upon
us...all the way to BKK there was no signs of these vans driving aggressive & reckless, but once we were
on to Hwy 35 and Southbound to HH that all changed..all three lanes + hard-shoulder was their playground.
Every minivan we saw for the next 2+ hours drove like a twat, even at the junction of Petkasem and Chomsin here in HH..the lights were at red, but the van steamed up to cars waiting.. then braked like mad..senseless!!

[PeteC]

Yet another. Pete

Van plunges into ditch killing 4, injuring 14 http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 75156.html

[Takiap]

It happens almost daily, and I'm surprised how often the drivers actually survive. Maybe instruct the police to shoot any and all minivan drivers who are involved in an accident for which they were responsible.

[PeteC]

What some may skip over is that there were at least 18 people in that van! If some were not injured it could even be more based upon the description used. No wonder the tire blew out. They're lucky the entire suspension didn't collapse as well. In most other countries that would be a manslaughter charge against the van owners/managers. Pete

[Takiap]

Not mini vans, but still shocking.......
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... icle-crash

The classic result of "tail gating". Although I doubt that they were all travelling in the right hand lane as reported.
Tail gating is something that REALLY gets up my nose. It seems to happen no matter which lane you choose to drive in, but some of it is caused by those that travel slowly in the "fast" lane.

The ironic thing is, tail gating often happens at red traffic lights as well, or when there's a long line of cars waiting at a junction. How can anyone NOT see a huge number of cars all stopped at a red light is beyond me, and yet I've seen this happen plenty of times. Just last week it was a Farang in a Landrover (not yours ) that drove into the back of a new SUV. Not a serious smash, but how it happens I really don't know.

[usual suspect]

Of all the poor folk in this mess only the driver & 1 other will have had a seat belt on (in the front)..I really did think it has been law now for one year that all minivans had seatbelts fitted..do these vans have belts in them??
Was speed-limiters ever considered as a safety factor here in LOS..??
(But they would only ever be wired-up for the annual vehicle test)
And if vans HAD to have limiters fitted ALL drivers would have to wear Nike's..in case of accident,- for prompt getaway.. twats! RIP the 4 poor souls in this latest incident..

[STEVE G]

..do these vans have belts in them??

Actually they do; I used a couple of them last month and all the seats have lap belts. I was the only one using them as you can imagine.

[tonymaroni]

seatbelts???

Sure they have them.

Like the Victory Monument to Hua Hin one I was on a couple months ago.

All the belt were tied down under the seats with those plastic fasteners they use for handcuffs in the USA.

I had to cut my belt loose to use mine, luckily I had scissors in my pack.

Tony

PS I no longer use the minivans.

[dozer]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/transpo ... c-minivans

Hopefully this will be a start towards safer minvans.