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Bus Crash In Songkhla


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SONGKHLA / ROAD ACCIDENT

Three killed and 102 hurt in tour bus plunge

VICHAYANT BOONCHOTE

Songkhla _ Two passengers and the driver were killed and 102 injured when a tour bus left the road and plunged into a ditch on a highway in Bang Klam district yesterday.

The Phatthalung-Hat Yai air-conditioned passenger bus hit a road island, three electricity poles and the concrete part of a water drainage pipe, and careened into a ditch beside the four-lane Asian Highway in Moo 14, tambon Tha Chang of Songkhla's Bang Klam district, about 7am yesterday. Dead were the driver Sophon Suwannawong, 30, Jiraporn Khongkhao, an 18-year-old vocational school student in Songkhla, and Pawarit Wongsakul, a schoolboy at Sote Suksa Hat Yai school.

Of the 102 hurt, more than 20 sustained severe injuries, and were admitted to Hat Yai, Prince of Songkhla, Krungthep Hat Yai and Sikharin Hat Yai hospitals.

Most are still in hospital and being treated for broken bones and head wounds.

According to passengers' accounts, the bus, on the way from downtown Phatthalung to Hat Yai and Muang districts of Songkhla was travelling at high speed and tried to overtake a trailer truck.

It failed to heed oncoming traffic, it swerved and hit the road island.

The bus driver was unable to control the vehicle as the tyres exploded sending it off the road.

Bangkok Post

7th Sept 2004

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According to passengers' accounts, the bus, on the way from downtown Phatthalung to Hat Yai and Muang districts of Songkhla was travelling at high speed and tried to overtake a trailer truck.

It failed to heed oncoming traffic, it swerved and hit the road island.

Unfortunately, this scenario is all-too-typical.

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Two things struck me about this report:

1. According to the report the driver was driving like a lunatic, but the crash was blamed on a burst tyre(s).

2. There is no mention of "ploughing into by standers" so I am forced to assume that all the 105 people involved were riding on the ONE bus?

Is there no maximum load on these buses.

No wonder it went out of control with twice the maximum sensible passenger load.

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2. There is no mention of "ploughing into by standers" so I am forced to assume that all the 105 people involved were riding on the ONE bus?

Is there no maximum load on these buses.

No wonder it went out of control with twice the maximum sensible passenger load.

Maybe they were sitting on the roof rack,It's no laughing matter i know,but there are some real loonies on the roads out there,

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According to passengers' accounts, the bus, on the way from downtown Phatthalung to Hat Yai and Muang districts of Songkhla was travelling at high speed and tried to overtake a trailer truck.

It failed to heed oncoming traffic, it swerved and hit the road island.

That's a four lane, divided high way. (Been on that stretch form Phattalung to Hat Yai many times.) I don't see how there could be "oncoming traffic". But then I guess anything's possible on Thai roads and with Thai bus drivers

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According to passengers' accounts, the bus, on the way from downtown Phatthalung to Hat Yai and Muang districts of Songkhla was travelling at high speed and tried to overtake a trailer truck.

It failed to heed oncoming traffic, it swerved and hit the road island.

That's a four lane, divided high way. (Been on that stretch form Phattalung to Hat Yai many times.) I don't see how there could be "oncoming traffic". But then I guess anything's possible on Thai roads and with Thai bus drivers

Could have been that construction was going on, and all traffic was rerouted to one side....I've also driven that stretch many times, and the routing this way seems quite common in road construction areas...I remember when they finished that stretch of the hiway about 10 years ago...Bet it's due for repair.

But, 105 people on a bus with 48 seats?. I sense a mistake in reporting, maybe.

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Unfortunately, the bigger the vehicle, the more right-of-way, that's the Thai way (no pun intended!). I used to live in Hat Yai and regularly travelled the Sadao road to the border. The bus drivers were just nuts on that route with no regard whatsoever, not to mention the truck drivers. Got forced off the road by a tour bus one time and I was cringing watching the w8nker continue up the highway swerving through traffic like a luni.

105 people does sound a lot but these buses have two rows of about 15 double-seats where they shove three on each seat at rush hour times as well as the standing room. I've seen over this amount on the Hat yai-Songkhla run with the driver having a laugh with his conductor buddy and the black&white uni girls while only taking a passing interest in the road.

Nightmarish...

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I travelled on a bus from BKK to Phichit once.

The driver had his son with him.

They were playing a game.

The little boy would stand behind his Dad and put his hands over the drivers eyes to see how long Daddy could drive without looking.

That was the last time I travelled with Travorn Farm

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I travelled on a bus from BKK to Phichit once.

The driver had his son with him.

They were playing a game.

The little boy would stand behind his Dad and put his hands over the drivers eyes to see how long Daddy could drive without looking.

That was the last time I travelled with Travorn Farm

Yes, wasn't that the one where daddy scolded him for disturbing his sleep? :o

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I travelled on a bus from BKK to Phichit once.

The driver had his son with him.

They were playing a game.

The little boy would stand behind his Dad and put his hands over the drivers eyes to see how long Daddy could drive without looking.

That was the last time I travelled with Travorn Farm

<deleted>.

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the newspapers today were all to happy to report that a bus going from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in the US crashed injuring 17 Thais.

But look at the differences: the bus was in a rainstorm and lost control. It slipped off the road and fell SEVEN meters into a ditch and fell over onto its side. No one was killed or seriously injured (life threatening). At least the story didn't mention that.

so this bus driver had at least some skill in driving. he probably wasn't speeding to begin with. And he was able to control the bus enough to control its speed enough to prevent it from flipping over exessively and killing passengers.

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Is there no maximum load on these buses.

Does it matter whether such a limit exists? When (and how) would it ever be enforced? Even so, 105 people does sound like an awful lot of passengers for a single bus.

you know what thai people do on buses and cars and even motorbikes get everyone on them!!! i think you seen this by now. also it's sad.

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  • 3 weeks later...
the newspapers today were all to happy to report that  a bus going from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in the US crashed injuring 17 Thais. 

But look at the differences:  the bus was in a rainstorm and lost control.  It slipped off the road and fell SEVEN meters into a ditch and fell over onto its side.  No one was killed or seriously injured (life threatening).  At least the story didn't mention that.

so this bus driver had at least some skill in driving.  he probably wasn't speeding to begin with.  And he was able to control the bus enough to control its speed enough to prevent it from flipping over exessively and killing passengers.

The bus had 19 Taiwanese, not Thais. Part of the problem for the police was that nobody spoke enough English to find out where they boarded the bus and where they were going. Eventually it was learned that they were from the LA area and going to Las Vegas for the day. The crash happened during a rainstorm on a steep downhill section of I-15. The police have ruled it driver error, going too fast for the conditions. After my first trip to the LOS, I decided to get on the biggest vehicle on that route. I took a minibus from Hat Yai to Phuket and another from BKK to Pattaya. Never again, I vowed. The Thais drive like lunatics and have no regard for their safety or their passengers. I wanted as much metal around me as possible. I gave up riding the minibus if a full sized bus was also going that route. This article of an air con bus crash is really disturbing. What to do now? We all know motorbike, private cars, baht bus, minibus are all more dangerous than a full size bus. I guess I get on the air con bus and pray the driver wants to live at least one more day. :o

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