23 die in fiery Chonburi wreck

[licka]

1 hour ago, Thaiwrath said:

Total carnage, now will people with authority start doing something ?

Unfortunately NO

[lvr181]

Any talk about petrol, diesel, CNG or LPG merely addresses the symptoms BUT DOES NOT address the CAUSE of any collision!

[impulse]

11 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

How are you going to do that, you cant even get them to wear crash helmets, maintain their vehicles or stop them drinking and driving, Thais are uncontrollable.

 

Sure you can.  Hit 'em in the pocketbook.  Win-win.  Mo' money AND safer driving habits.  Works back home.

 

A 10-50% chance of getting pulled over and fined is a better deterrent than a 0.001% chance of burning to death.  Sad, but provable.

 

When I was a new driver, I didn't worry much about getting killed.  I did worry about getting pulled over and fined and losing my license.  So I practiced driving to avoid getting pulled over.  Which, not so coincidentally, had the effect of making me a safer driver.

[jimstar1]

Very Sad R I P all the Victims  This is so much the Norm I watch these vans go up to Doi Suthep In Chiang Mai the drivers are lunatics nothing is done about the vans doing the visa runs drivers a lunatics still nothing done

My God or my Budha  Wake up Thailand

[soalbundy]

Just now, impulse said:

 

Sure you can.  Hit 'em in the pocketbook.  Win-win.  Mo' money AND safer driving habits.  Works back home.

 

A 10-50% chance of getting pulled over and fined is a better deterrent than a 0.001% chance of burning to death.  Sad, but provable.

 

When I was a new driver, I didn't worry much about getting killed.  I did worry about getting pulled over and fined and losing my license.  So I practiced driving to avoid getting pulled over.  Which, not so coincidentally, had the effect of making me a safer driver.

but the police would have to do their work for that to happen, as i said, Thais are uncontrollable. 

[licka]

1 hour ago, alocacoc said:

No word about LPG?

The bus would have LNG

Some claim its safer but it still burns and explodes

[edwinchester]

1 minute ago, lvr181 said:

Any talk about petrol, diesel, CNG or LPG merely addresses the symptoms BUT DOES NOT address the CAUSE of any collision!

True and looking at the effect of the impact there were going to be high casualties regardless of the resulting fire.

[docspinoff]

23 peeps die ,How many was the van and truck carrying  ? this must stop !!!!!!!!

 

[lostinisaan]

1 hour ago, DinoSabanovic said:

I was a driver for the temple few times, i saw them fit 16 persons in one van.

 

 

 The vans have 16 seats, there's nothing wrong. It's the quality of the drivers and poor maintenance.

 

Some teachers of my first school made a tour to schools Chiang Mai and Pitsanulok and we were 16 people plus driver in a Toyota van. 

 

But we had a brand new car and a good driver, plus enough stops. 

 

  A really shocking crash. RIP. 

[impulse]

2 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

but the police would have to do their work for that to happen, as i said, Thais are uncontrollable. 

  

True, but I'm sure someone could figure out an incentive program where the cops wouldn't mind collecting all those fines.

[ponder]

1 hour ago, elliss said:

   Ban  these  high speed  hearses ,  used  them once  , never  again .

My feeling exactly. I was in one of these vehicles going from Pattaya to Bangkok when I suffered the only panic attack that I have ever had in my life. On the back inside seat, I could not move at all, and I knew that if anything happened, nobody would get out alive except the driver (possibly). The bus stopped after about 15 minutes to re-fuel, and I got out and took a taxi instead.  

 

These vans are death traps, and I shiver to think what a horrible end these unfortunate people met, trapped in a burning vehicle.

[UPDEHSOI]

2 hours ago, F4UCorsair said:

I took a van from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok once.....and once was enough.

 

If you value your life, don't get in a van, big bus, train, or fly.

Umm, sometimes the big buses ain't so good either. INDRA TOUR BUS, two hours south of Chiang Mai, enroute from Bkk to Chiang Mai. The driver decided to take a short cut up through the bush. Of course he didn't know he was doing it at the time. He was fast asleep. Four people didn't make it that morning. By the time I found my way down from the upper deck, and crawled out of the bus, the ambulance had come and gone. The "stew," of the bus, who didn't even know I was on the bus, asked me if I was able to travel. What the <deleted> was I gonna say? So they put me on another Indra Tour bus that came along, and got me to Chiang mai.

[flyingdoc]

Utterly tragic.  You might choose never to travel in a van in LOS, but they will still be about !  RIP all the victims!

[seancbk]

Doubt they all died instantly.

[darren84310]

1 hour ago, elliss said:

   Ban  these  high speed  hearses ,  used  them once  , never  again .

 

Me too..... They should all be fitted with trackers and routinely monitored for speed. If they are found to have been speeding excessively then the driver and company should be prosecuted.

[fruitman]

Perfect moment for a big huge fat crackdown....let the police come out of their tents and check all vehicles passing them for a year long, nonstop. 

[kannot]

Actually the only fault here are the people who travel in them, I have a kid works for me and "everything" is mai pen rai, no tail  light on the bike "mai pen rai" , no front brake "mai pen rai", no air in the tyres " mai pen rai" change the engine  oil "mai pen rai" fact is I own the bike and pay for and  do all the repairs myself.

When i fix  all these things he deems it hilarious and "unnecessary"

Mai pen rai

[NanLaew]

54 minutes ago, bangrak said:

'stingray': Look at the, horrible, picture please: when some LPG tank would have exploded at that crash scene, it would look different, with one, or both, vehicle(s) blown into bits and parts scattered over a much larger area. Where does that leave you with your 'Should not be allowed to use LPG' stuff? Quality(1), well installed(2) and maintained(3), periodically thoroughly controled(4) LPG installations on vehicles are more safe than gasoline tanks! But, admittedly, points 1 to 4 might be an issue here...

LPG and LNG tanks do not explode but their fittings get ruptured and regulators torn off and what you get is a flame thrower. There was a double-decker tourist bus that went up in similar circumstances early last year near Korat.

[retarius]

There are a lot of great suggestions on here about tachometers and the like, fitted as standard in developed countries. But nothing can be done and no laws passed will be effective until there is a functioning police force whose purpose should be to uphold the laws. If 200 baht in the gloved hand can buy you out of any bad driving what hope is there?

 

For me I would like to see a cultural change whereby local communities get together and say 'no more'. Let's have local parents and schools get together to police their own children/students with regard to licenses, drinking, helmets and the like. In my town we have a police man on duty outside the local high school where kids drive out on motor bikes without helmets and 3 or 4 to a bike…he does nothing at all, it seems his job is to blow his whistle a lot. Yet 100 yards down the road on the main road there is a poster campaign to get kids to wear helmets….wouldn't you think that someone somewhere in the township authorities or police would move the campaign to the high school?

[Asiantravel]

12 minutes ago, UPDEHSOI said:

Umm, sometimes the big buses ain't so good either. INDRA TOUR BUS, two hours south of Chiang Mai, enroute from Bkk to Chiang Mai. The driver decided to take a short cut up through the bush. Of course he didn't know he was doing it at the time. He was fast asleep. Four people didn't make it that morning. By the time I found my way down from the upper deck, and crawled out of the bus, the ambulance had come and gone. The "stew," of the bus, who didn't even know I was on the bus, asked me if I was able to travel. What the f@$% was I gonna say? So they put me on another Indra Tour bus that came along, and got me to Chiang mai.

 

 

 

 

the statistics for both are equally gruesome

 

Accidents involving minivans in Thailand

 

http://driving-in-thailand.com/accidents-involving-minivans/

 

Accidents involving buses in Thailand

 

http://driving-in-thailand.com/accidents-involving-buses/

 

[kannot]

36 minutes ago, CGW said:

Thai's appear to have no concept of their personnel vulnerability, self preservation don't come high on the list.......................

its  because  their fantasy  friend  will save them

[seancbk]

26 minutes ago, Asiantravel said:

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly but have you noticed they are phasing out more and more big bus services so sometimes there is no other option.

I live in Pattaya and there used to be 4 number 99 government buses from Bangkok to Trat passing through here at various times in the morning every day then it was reduced to just one bus at 6 AM and then three months ago they scrapped it completely.The Thais seem quite content zipping around in these things and most passengers even fall asleep. How they do that I don't understand because I am nervously watching the road and the driver as they are often on their mobile phones and tailgating the vehicle in front simultaneously so I am getting ready to assume a brace position for when an impact occurs.

 

If I want  to go to Koh Chang from Pattaya now my  only choice is to go in one of these deathtraps which I won't do. My other option  is to go by big bus to Bangkok and then get another bus from Bangkok to Trat which is quite ridiculous.

 

 

We all have the option of either not going or renting our own transport.

I've hired a luxury van both times I've gone to Koh Chang.   From Bangkok all the way to the resort.    7500 THB in a really nice Hyundai Van with 5 seats or 17000 THB for a 10 seat Mercedes luxury van.  

I'd much rather be in a van with my own driver and only me and my friends.

Of course you have to pay twice as you'll want them to come back and pick you up at the end of your holiday.  

 

 

[lostinisaan]

 

    Not all of them are reckless drivers and many of them are good drivers. The problem is that the company tells them to drive too many hours which is often only possible with speed and speeding.

 

        A second is enough. I fell asleep when I was 19 back from a disco driving all the guys home.

 

         Then I fell asleep, drove over three lanes and landed in a garden. I was lucky that no car was on the road at this time. 

 

       Driving here for 15 years brought me into countless and very dangerous situations, where only my good driving skills prevented an accident.  I'm fed up having to think for others. 

 

  I started to drive really slowly, the 150 km/h times are over and I don't get upset when a van is right on my rear bumper. I smile when others get upset, because I know that some are easy on pulling a gun. 

 

          It's not only too many hours of driving, the car maintenance in Thailand is a better joke. 

 

           And the quality of the mechanics as well. It all goes back to education and that's the first part that has to be overhauled.

 

       Isn't that where everything starts? Please have a look how and what these mechanics study.

 

     Does a van driver have to have a special license carrying passengers? A lot of people without a driver's license drive vans with kids to schools and back home.

 

Even to move a taxi in my country you'll have to go through psychological and physical tests. Anybody here's allowed to drive a van without having experience. 

 

           Not surprising for me to see many kids on the roof of a pickup. If the driver has to hit the brakes, they fly. But do the kids even know that? 

 

        The death toll will never decrease if the education won't improve. 

 

How can people develop a "common sense" if none of their teachers taught them independent and critical thinking?

 

       I'd never trust a car mechanic anymore after all the jokes I've seen what they did to my truck. 

 

            Loss of face= Loss of life.

 

         

 

     

 

      

[canda]

1 hour ago, Changwatchap said:

25 people in a van and truck. Both drivers were illegally overcrowded. 

 

Seriously.... Illegally overcrowded is an understatement !

 

A single cab pick - up should accommodate 2 to 3 passengers SITTING INSIDE THE CAB IN SEAT BELTS.

 

The report states there were possibly 10 to 13 people ( & possibly more) traveling in the pick - up.

 

In most countries it would be an offense for anyone traveling in the tray area, it's a cargo area for God sake !

 

For some reason, the people who are supposedly trying to reduce the shocking road toll here appear to 'turn a blind eye' to this insane method of transport... Subsequently low death accidents become double digit fatalities, Unfortunately & sadly, things never seem to change.

 

CANDA.

 

 

[lostinisaan]

22 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Doubt they all died instantly.

 

 It's difficult to "like" your post. I'm afraid that quite a lot of them burnt to death.

 

           If such an accident isn't a wake-up call for the big man, there's no other way to make them understand that this must have an end. 

[ChrisY1]

If the gas tank had ruptured......a very possible fire could start

https-::www.youtube.com:watch?v=_NxpSIyyXeM.webloc

[JackThompson]

19 minutes ago, Asiantravel said:

I agree with you wholeheartedly but have you noticed they are phasing out more and more big bus services so sometimes there is no other option.

I live in Pattaya and there used to be 4 number 99 government buses from Bangkok to Trat passing through here at various times in the morning every day then it was reduced to just one bus at 6 AM and then three months ago they scrapped it completely.  The Thais seem quite content zipping around in these things and most passengers even fall asleep. How they do that I don't understand because I am nervously watching the road and the driver as they are often on their mobile phones and tailgating the vehicle in front simultaneously so I am getting ready to assume a brace position for when an impact occurs.

 

If I want  to go to Koh Chang from Pattaya now my  only choice is to go in one of these deathtraps which I won't do. My other option  is to go by big bus to Bangkok and then get another bus from Bangkok to Trat which is quite ridiculous.

 

I was thinking the same thing.  And now with Poipet an unusable crossing for many, that makes Cambodia inaccessible other than by mini-bus or Taxi, for the last-leg of the trip. 

 

As for traveling there from Pattaya, the closest you can get are buses through Rayong to Chanthaburi or Trat.  Then a taxi to the border, or take your chances in a van for a short-haul.

[catman20]

just shows you wrong place wrong time.RIP to all 

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, Golden Triangle said:

Good God, this is horrible, horrendous and just so terrible, please Mr Prayuth can you do something about these minibuses, limit them to 80 kph, make it mandatory to have GPS installed and check the drivers for drugs, alcohol and how much sleep the driver has had prior to starting work and fine the asses off the companies running these things.

 

RIP to all those poor souls.

 

My Mrs is driving to Chanthaburi on Friday for a wedding, I worry constantly until she calls to tell me she has arrived safely.

 

And riding in the back of pickups is illegal. How about stopping that too. Too difficult for the police to see them there I suppose.

[gdgbb]

1 hour ago, Golden Triangle said:

Good God, this is horrible, horrendous and just so terrible, please Mr Prayuth can you do something about these minibuses, limit them to 80 kph,

 

This couldn't have happened at 80kph?  Really?