Yet ANOTHER Van Accident......

[747man]

SURIN: A Bangkok-Ubon Ratchathani passenger van packed with 17 passengers struck a power pole, killing one man and injuring 13, in Surin early Saturday. The fatal crash occurred between kilometre makers...

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[felixcat]

Yes, I agree with you 747man, take these terrible vans off the road.
And give me my superglue that I will glue your eyes shut with, when you try to invade my house.
What is worse, the poison or the hammer?

[747man]

And Yet ANOTHER One......What are these Van Drivers Playing At ??

KHON KAEN: Thirteen people were injured when their passenger van crashed into a truck trailer, wedged there and was dragged along the road as the truckie tried to shake it off.

Passenger Darika Phimphaeng told police the van driver had tried to overtake the trailer truck, moving into the right lane, but the truck also suddenly moved across into the right lane. The van crashed hard against the rear of the trailer, and stuck there.

Van driver Pramot Bunchan was seriously injured and all 12 passengers received lesser injuries. Their conditions were being monitored by doctors at Ban Phai Hospital.

The van had picked up the passengers in Nakhon Phanom on Tuesday. The accident occured on the Ban Phai-Borabue road in Ban Phai district, Khon Kaen, late that night.

[Lone Star]

Several years ago -- probably 5 or 6 years ago -- I used to witness some outlandish risks taken with these vans on the highways. Dangerously excessive speed, tailgating to the point that they were so close and maintaining such a high rate of speed that it was dangerous to even try to change lanes and get out of their way, and just bad, bad road manners that put many at risk.

I'm on the road a lot. I probably average around 15,000 km a year just on the bike. In the last two years, I have noticed that these vans aren't driving as wildly as they did before, and I've noticed it everywhere in the Kingdom, not just in isolated pockets.

However, I notice this quite a bit on the highways with large trucks:

Passenger Darika Phimphaeng told police the van driver had tried to overtake the trailer truck, moving into the right lane, but the truck also suddenly moved across into the right lane.

I have witnessed many situations -- including my own experiences with it -- where these big tractor trailer rigs pull out in front of me and others at the very moment that passing is beginning. In some instances, the rig has come up behind a slow truck in front of them, don't want to brake, and just pull into the passing lane no matter what is coming. It's all part of that "size matters" mentality on the roads here.

I've had two close calls here on the bike (thank God for inside lane shoulders and ABS brakes) over the past 10 years, and I'm always ready with an exit strategy when passing these big trucks.

However, overall, I have noticed fewer risk takers in every type of vehicle on the roads in Thailand over the last couple of years.

[747man]

However, overall, I have noticed fewer risk takers in every type of vehicle on the roads in Thailand over the last couple of years........So YOU Don't do much riding in Nong Khai then,Lone Star ??

[Lone Star]

........So YOU Don't do much riding in Nong Khai then,Lone Star ??

I can't argue against your personal experiences, and I won't. If you say Nong Khai is worse and the number of dangerous encounters has increased, I'll take your word for it. That hasn't been my experience when in Nong Khai.

My comments were based on the Kingdom overall and on my own experiences/observations. The dangerous and high-risk encounters that I used to face -- maybe 3 to 5 knuckleheads every trip -- is down considerably. I rarely have an "almost" incident anymore. I'm surprised when I have even one now. That might have a lot to do with anticipation and good lane strategies. I don't know. I was just making an observation.

[parrot]

15-20 years ago, it was almost a daily thing to have an orange-crush bus or some other meathead pull into an oncoming traffic lane to pass a slower vehicle. Back in those days, you could get a license by slipping the official a few hundred baht (at the old driver's license place near Udon Christian School). I'm guessing that most of those drivers have gone the way of the crematorium.
Yeah, there's still plenty of aggressive drivers on the road.......here....and in the US.