10 passengers injured when tour bus hit earth mound

[webfact]

10 passengers injured when tour bus hit earth mound



BANGKOK: -- Instinctive reaction of a tour bus driver helped prevent a bus he was driving from falling into a ravine after it developed brake problem but still over 10 passengers were injured – three of them seriously.

The accident took place along the road from Phitsanuloke to Lomsak as the tour bus was negotiating a downhill road in Tambon Namchoon, Lomsak district today.

While applying brake to slow down the speed of the bus, the brake suddenly developed problem prompting the driver, whose name was not known, to plough the bus along the earthern barricade to slow down the slide.

Upon arriving at a curve where there was a huge earth mound, the driver then slammed the bus into the mound which successfully stopped the slide into the ravine but failed to save over 10 passengers who were injured.

But police still have to find out the real cause of the accident.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/10-passengers-injured-when-tour-bus-hit-earth-mound


-- Thai PBS 2015-04-06

[Aachen]

--- the brake suddenly developed problem ---

[Pattaya28]

Yep. 2 days earlier we had a bus / coach overturn. So yesterday was a good day. No major incident.

[catterwell]

Well done the driver I say. He made a tough decision under pressure: Earth Mound v Ravine? I know many drivers who would over-confidently think they could, even without brakes, manage those corners at the edge of the ravines.

[lemonjelly]

Has anyone ever even TRIED to teach these monkeys about downshifting to a lower gear to slow down, instead of riding the damn brakes all the time??? Just wondering

Gears only to make bus go faster, brakes to make bus go slow mentality..... Most of these guys scare me half to death. It's quickly becoming more and more bizarre living here in the respect that nearly everyone has a smartphone on 3g, brand new japanese cars/pick ups all over the place and yet they still don' understand basic road safety, oh well, I still love em and still love living here, god bless em.

Oh, by the way n off topic, has anyone discovered a way to get rid of this yellow "thai visa flights" advert that's rudely hijjacking 20% of the screen on my phone, it's doing my head in. Cheers

Edited April 6, 2015 by lemonjelly

[metisdead]

A post containing a derogatory slur toward Thais has been removed.

[Just1Voice]

Well done the driver I say. He made a tough decision under pressure: Earth Mound v Ravine? I know many drivers who would over-confidently think they could, even without brakes, manage those corners at the edge of the ravines.

IF he actually knew how to drive in the first place, i.e., NO speeding, downshifting to slow the bus down, etc., more than likely he wouldn't have been put in the position to have to make a choice. But TIT, and actual safe driving is never taught here, so what do you expect?

[lemonjelly]

Well done the driver I say. He made a tough decision under pressure: Earth Mound v Ravine? I know many drivers who would over-confidently think they could, even without brakes, manage those corners at the edge of the ravines.

IF he actually knew how to drive in the first place, i.e., NO speeding, downshifting to slow the bus down, etc., more than likely he wouldn't have been put in the position to have to make a choice. But TIT, and actual safe driving is never taught here, so what do you expect?

I think teaching them how to drive properly and responsibly won't overcome the macho " I'm the fastest driver on this route " mentality. What it needs is to make the bus driver test (if they exsist in Thailand, not sure) extremely rigorous and bloody expensive to obtain coupled with rigorous MOT testing of bus fleets. I'm honestly terrified when i see some of the bus drivers here, they've a "nutter just released from prison" vibe on them.

It's not for nothing that Thai folk believe so strongly in reincarnation, i mean to put your one and only shot at a life in the hands of a mental bus driver would be, well..... Irresponsible.... Lol

[NeverSure]

Roads and drivers truly are bad in LOS, and this inability to negotiate hills and corners proves it. All one has to do is go to Canada where they have real mountains such as the Rocky Mountains which cut the country in half but must have roads crossing them. They can't avoid having roads with sharp curves in narrow canyons etc., and lots of them. They also have snow and ice in the winter.

Yet even though they have a much smaller population and a much larger land mass to maintain than does LOS, their roads and drivers are safe. I think it's totally cultural.

Cheers

Edited April 6, 2015 by NeverSure

[MaiChai]

Looks like an old bus possibly not well maintained? If its regularly being used round Lomsak then brakes are important and something that the owner should keep on top of? Eg its a mountainous region?

[rethaier]

There are too may buses equipped with brakes that are prone to failure. Or are there too may buses equipped with drivers who claim the brakes failed.

[NanLaew]

While applying brake to slow down the speed of the bus, the brake suddenly developed problem prompting the driver, whose name was not known, to plough the bus along the earthern barricade to slow down the slide.

Upon arriving at a curve where there was a huge earth mound, the driver then slammed the bus into the mound which successfully stopped the slide into the ravine but failed to save over 10 passengers who were injured.

That sounds like an accident investigation report that makes out the driver to be a hero. I read it as follows;

"The bus hitting the earthen barricade woke up the dozy driver and luckily there was a huge earth mound or else the bus would have gone into the ravine."

Brakes don't fail, drivers do.

[Lee4Life]

--- the brake suddenly developed problem ---

Yes...brakes on buses and trucks here tend to " suddenly develop problems" after the drivers ride the brakes for many kilometers and overheat them. Just as vehicles here seem to "go out of control" when traveling curvy roads at high speeds and/or when the roadways are wet.

[jackanapes]

the bus driver said his brakes failed and the police want to know the reason why?

[nabbie]

Why does the brake issue always have to be the best excuse?

[Tomtomtom69]

Roads and drivers truly are bad in LOS, and this inability to negotiate hills and corners proves it. All one has to do is go to Canada where they have real mountains such as the Rocky Mountains which cut the country in half but must have roads crossing them. They can't avoid having roads with sharp curves in narrow canyons etc., and lots of them. They also have snow and ice in the winter.

Yet even though they have a much smaller population and a much larger land mass to maintain than does LOS, their roads and drivers are safe. I think it's totally cultural.

Cheers

Thais only need to cross the border to Myanmar, Laos or Vietnam to see what mountainous roads can be like. In each of these countries, mountainous roads are much steeper, narrower, winding and often go up into higher mountainous territory than their Thai counterparts. While drivers in these countries are not great either, they tend to know a thing or too about driving in these conditions. Out of these the only country Thais are likely to find themselves behind the wheel is Laos, since Myanmar does not allow entry of Thai vehicles beyond the border areas and Vietnam doesn't allow them in at all (plus self-drive car hire is only available in Laos), but even as a passenger Thais would see how much better drivers in these countries are at negotiating bends and climbing up hills/descending.

Having said that, I've had maniac drivers in Myanmar that are far worse than anywhere else I've been to due to their propensity to speed and blind overtaking, all of this made even more scary by the fact most vehicles have their steering wheels on the wrong side! Not sure what it's like as a passenger here in Thailand anymore other than my previous experiences from years ago...I would never leave the driving to anyone else - I stopped doing that over 10 years ago and in fact back in 2002 I was involved in a single vehicle accident, when the rental car we were travelling in, driven by a then Thai friend lost control on a curve on the same stretch of road as this bus accident. It happened near Khao Kor whilst heading towards Khon Kaen just after dark (around 7pm in January). After suffering a dislocated right shoulder, I was initially treated at Khao Kor hospital before being driven to Khon Kaen, where a more thorough check-up was made at a better hospital. After recovering at one of the best hotels in town paid for by that "friend" I returned to Lampang by myself where we had started our journey. I was lucky. But the bus ride back was just as hair-raising as the journey made by car as the driver didn't negotiate the bends properly and put his brakes on the entire time we were going downhill, which was a lot. I wouldn't have been surprised if a second accident had occurred, though luckily I arrived back in one piece.

These days, in general when I drive somewhere with a Thai, I only rarely allow them to drive my car (the exception being my fiancee's brother who is a very good driver). I am quite confident about my driving skills and have never had a problem driving cross-country by myself, which is what I do 95% of the time anyway, so when others offer to share the driving for a lousy 400-600km trip because "I might get tired" I usually laugh it off because I know I'm OK. I certainly don't take risks like driving beyond my limits but I don't want others driving my car as they are usually scary drivers. The last time I allowed a Thai to drive my car last year from Thoen to Ban Tak and towards Mae Ramad in Tak province, I had to stop the guy less than halfway to Mae Ramad as he was all over the road, couldn't control the speed and kept stalling the car. He didn't drive again from then on. Luckily there was no other oncoming traffic otherwise I may not be here anymore today.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Tomtomtom69

[fredob43]

My three pence worth on Bus brakes.

My Sister in law visits us on odd occasions using a so called top bus company from BKK.

Twice out of the last 4 times the bus she was traveling on has had brake problems the last one the servo gave out.

I'm sure that on the odd occasion the driver is at fault but not always.

Mostly it's bad servicing one reason I never travel on the things.