Six dead, 40 injured after Bangkok bound tour bus crashes head on into 10 wheeler

[webfact]

Six dead, 40 injured after Bangkok bound tour bus crashes head on into 10 wheeler 

 

Image: Daily News

 

BANGKOK: -- Six people are dead and more than 40 injured after a Roi-Et to Bangkok tour bus jumped the central reservation on the Friendship Highway last night and collided head on with a ten wheel truck. 

 

Both drivers are dead along with 4 passengers sitting at the front on the Prayat Tour company bus, reported Daily News. 

 

It is believed that the tour bus driver nodded off. 

 

The injured have been taken to Si Khiw and Maharat Nakorn Rachasima hospitals - eight are in a serious condition. 

 

The accident happened in the Si Khiw area. The bus was going to Bangkok and reportedly started to swerve before mounting the central 

reservation and colliding head on with an oncoming truck on the other side of the road. 

 

Tour bus driver Phichet Klinklang, 44, was the only fatality named. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-08-05

[taichiplanet]

i should be impervious to stories like this as they are daily occurrences in Thailand, but every time i just shake my head in bewilderment and feel sad.

[Yoram]

Note to self, do not sit in the front rows of the bus, or better yet, walk, cycle of fly,

but avoid Thai buses with sleepy drivers,

[ratcatcher]

Note to Yoram.

Avoid riding a bicycle or motorcycle if you are in a busy urban area. Avoid Thai buses if you are worried about dozy drivers. Take the train where available but be aware they derail when attacked by trucks at crossings. Taxis can be safe providing the driver is unarmed and sober and willing to go to your destination.. Flying from Bangkok to Pattaya would seem to be expensive, best to drive or hire a car. Otherwise remain safely at home.

[craigt3365]

Really sad to hear this.  Again!  Never take a night bus.  Never.

[webfact]

Six die in bus-truck collision on Friendship Highway

 

 

BANGKOK: -- Six people, including both bus and truck drivers, were killed after a bus from Bangkok collided head-on with a 10-wheel truck on the  Friendship highway in Sikiew district of Nakhon Ratchasima province after midnight last night.

 

The fatal incident which injured 30 other bus passengers happened on Kilometre markers 103-104 of the highway at 01.00 am in Sikiew district.

 

Sikiew police said the interprovincial bus which belonged to Prayat Tour Co Ltd left Phnomprai in Roi-Et province for Mor Chit Bus Terminal in Bangkok.

 

As the bus entered Sikiew, there was heavy rain.

 

The bus skidded due to slippery road surface and jumped across the traffic island to the opposite traffic lane of the highway at the time of a speeding 10-wheel truck arriving at the scene.

 

Both the bus and the truck collided head on, killing six people in both vehicles.

 

Three charity rescue teams from Sikiew, Pak Chong, and Soong Nern were rushed to the scene and used hydraulic equipment to break open the badly damaged bus to bring injured passengers out of the debris.

 

They were admitted to Sikiew hospital,  Soong Nern hospital and Theparat hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima for treatment.

 

Exact cause of the fatal incident is still underway but initially it was suspected to be from speeding driving while there was rain.

 

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/six-die-bus-truck-collision-friendship-highway/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-08-05

[saltandpepper]

Ah....the rain is the culprit then....

I feel better coz for one minute I thought it was the driver's fault....

[madmitch]

54 minutes ago, saltandpepper said:

Ah....the rain is the culprit then....

I feel better coz for one minute I thought it was the driver's fault....

For once, very unusually, that is NOT what the article says. Try reading it before making comments.

 

 

[RareDingo]

1 hour ago, ratcatcher said:

Note to Yoram.

Avoid riding a bicycle or motorcycle if you are in a busy urban area. Avoid Thai buses if you are worried about dozy drivers. Take the train where available but be aware they derail when attacked by trucks at crossings. Taxis can be safe providing the driver is unarmed and sober and willing to go to your destination.. Flying from Bangkok to Pattaya would seem to be expensive, best to drive or hire a car. Otherwise remain safely at home.

 

you can fly to Pattaya now??

[tracker1]

When will Thailand ever get serious about the carnage on their roads ? It seems like population control in a mental way we have a Prime Minister that can remove sun chairs from a beach but can't do anything about the traffic accidents !

[Confuscious]

Again an idiot driving a bus.
Normal here.
 

[Thian]

19 minutes ago, madmitch said:

For once, very unusually, that is NOT what the article says. Try reading it before making comments.

 

 

 

I don't read articles about busaccidents anymore...it's always same same krab....mai pen lai

[ratcatcher]

29 minutes ago, RareDingo said:

you can fly to Pattaya now??

 

[dcnx]

Tragic, yet the carnage continues. Countdown until the next bus crash. A week tops?

[ignis]

So it is roll on the self driving Tour Bus's, no nodding off, or sleeping while drivng

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If every time I read one of these articles I printed it out, by now, I'd literally have a book-full of Thailand multi-fatality bus crashes. So sad, and so preventable. Once again, late night hours, inter-city bus deaths.

 

When I first came to Thailand as a tourist, I used and was appreciative of the relatively inexpensive inter-city buses that basically can take you anywhere (although I never traveled overnight). Now years later, wiser than before, I simply won't use these kinds of buses for travel. Nor the vans. Nor the speedboats and ferries, etc.

 

All the carnage on the roads has made me a much more stay-at-home person, and I wish that wasn't the case. But I don't want to end up dying in a ditch somewhere in remote Thailand in a mangled bus that's just crashed head-on into an oncoming truck.

[kkup]

RIP. Such a waste.

[Artisi]

4 hours ago, saltandpepper said:

Ah....the rain is the culprit then....

I feel better coz for one minute I thought it was the driver's fault....

Just arrived in Thailand did you (joking),  it's never ever, couldn't be , impossible, beyond all realms of possibility that the / a driver could ever be at fault. You should know it is only ever brakes, road, rain , sharp curve, downhill,  buffalo on road, or some other mindless and brainless excuse.

[Sphere]

Police need to get to the bottom of this. 

 

Why was the driver asleep? Nothing to read on Facebook? No Line texts on the phone?

 

The sooner Pokemon Go is introduced here, the better.

[whatproblem]

Where will tomorrow's main bus accident happen ,pity gambling is illegal here

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

All this COULD stop if....

 

--the police would start filing contributory negligence / manslaughter charges against the bus companies and company owners when finding that the buses in such accidents haven't been properly maintained, or perhaps not mandating that drivers get sufficient rest time.

 

or

 

--the Department of Land Transport would start suspending the operating licenses of bus companies involved in fatal crashes where driver negligence and/or mechanical issues are at fault.

 

Of course, neither of those things ever seems likely to happen, because the announced "causes" of these accidents are always conveniently other peripheral things like rain, slippery roads, glare from headlights, etc etc.

[mesterm]

23 minutes ago, Sphere said:

The sooner Pokemon Go is introduced here, the better.

 

[mcfish]

Only the poorest of farang need to risk life in an overnight bus. Both planes and trains have 2 drivers and hardly expensive

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[cumgranosalum]

So now we open the floodgates to all those experts who wish to apportion blame according to their personal prejudices, without any knowledge of the incident at all..........

[Borzandy]

Tonight at 3:00, I was driving from Hua Hin to BKK. I followed two buses driven/sneaking at 130 Km / h for almost 20 minutes. Very impressive. Hoping that the drivers were awake and the passengers were sleeping.

[Artisi]

8 minutes ago, cumgranosalum said:

So now we open the floodgates to all those experts who wish to apportion blame according to their personal prejudices, without any knowledge of the incident at all..........

Think you might find that the initial blame from "those experts" will be initially based on the initial new release ".... initially it was suspected to be from speeding driving while there was rain."

 

But of course you are correct in that we will never know the full facts as the thorough 5 minute in-depth on-site walk around investigation  by the BIB  will be meaningless as usual.

 

[fishbrando]

If you have to take a bus, I'd do the following:

• Use the services of reputable bus companies
• Avoid night busses
• Don't sit in the front rows
• Always wear your seatbelt

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

When I first came to Thailand as a tourist, I used and was appreciative of the relatively inexpensive inter-city buses that basically can take you anywhere (although I never traveled overnight). Now years later, wiser than before, I simply won't use these kinds of buses for travel. Nor the vans. Nor the speedboats and ferries, etc.

 

Sorry, forgot to add Nok Air to my Thailand no-go list....

 

And, right on cue.... more happiness....

 

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

39 minutes ago, Borzandy said:

Tonight at 3:00, I was driving from Hua Hin to BKK. I followed two buses driven/sneaking at 130 Km / h for almost 20 minutes. Very impressive. Hoping that the drivers were awake and the passengers were sleeping.

So you were speeding too.........Why?

[chowny77]

Until larger fines and actual prison time is enforced on both the company owners and drivers of these tour buses nothing will ever change. I was once on a school trip and on the way back we stopped in Songkla for the night. I then asked if we would stopping again on the journey back to Uttaradit and they said no, one trip all the way with only one driver. It took almost 24 hours for them to arrive from leaving Songkla in the morning. I politely refused to go on the bus in the morning and caught a flight the next day from Hat-yai to BKK and took a train to Uttaradit. If I were a parent of the students on this bus I would have gone crazy at the school for allowing this to happen, luckily I am an adult and had the power to say "Bugger that"! and saved myself the stress or possible death on that trip.