11 die in passport run crash

[reader]

Many non-Thai guys that we meet take this route regularly. Most try to sleep through it but others can not, aware of the risks of just such an accident.

From Nation Multimedia

Eleven people were killed and four others seriously injured when a chartered van carrying Lao workers for visa renewal to the Chanthaburi immigration checkpoint collided with an 18-wheel truck in Sa Kaew province early on Sunday.

Police suspect Thai van driver Sansern Sathongkhan might have dozed off behind the wheel, and driven the van into the opposite lane where it crashed head-on with the oncoming truck.

They found the dead bodies of the van driver and Lao passengers at the scene, many of whom were crushed in the wrecked van while some were flung out under the force of the impact. Rescue workers extricated four seriously wounded people -including three Lao passengers and the truck driver Subin Pengmoo - to rush them to the district hospital.

Following the fatal crash report in Wang Somboon district at 4.15am, police and rescue workers rushed to the scene on the Sakaew-Chanthaburi Road section near the entrance to the Wang Somboon District Office.

They found the dead bodies of the van driver and Lao passengers at the scene, many of whom were crushed in the wrecked van while some were flung out under the force of the impact. Rescue workers extricated four seriously wounded people -including three Lao passengers and the truck driver Subin Pengmoo - to rush them to the district hospital.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374925

[reader]

Yes, Splinter, very sad.

Here's a quote from article that appeared in Khaosod English news site:

The crash came amid backlashes against transport minister Saksayam Chidchob, who recently dropped a plan to switch from public vans to more durable minibuses. The proposal was floated by the previous government in 2017 as a bid to reduce deaths and injuries related to vans.

Saksayam also extended the services of public vans from 10 to 12 years, raising concerns that outdated vehicles would be used on the roads.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2019/08/19/11-killed-after-truck-crashes-van-carrying-migrant-workers/

 

[reader]

From the NY Times

Inequality in Life, and Death

When things go wrong, those in power often promise to make it right. But do they? In this series, The Times investigates to see if those promises were kept.

BANGKOK — The Thai woman was riding on a motorcycle on her way to work when a pickup truck sideswiped her on a rural stretch of asphalt in northeastern Thailand. The truck’s driver was an off-duty police officer. He was drunk.

Orathai Chanhom, the motorcyclist, was catapulted off her bike and killed almost instantly in the crash.

The officer who struck her still has his police job. His driver’s license was not taken away. A court declined to sentence him to prison.

In Thailand, one of the world’s most unequal societies, even roads have a rigid hierarchy, with the poor far more likely to be killed in accidents than the well-off and well-connected.

And there are many deaths: Thailand had the world’s second-highest rate of road fatalities per capita, surpassed only by war-afflicted, lawless Libya, according to a 2015 report from the World Health Organization. When it comes to per-capita motorcycle deaths, the country is No. 1.

“I never thought about road deaths until this happened to my mother,” said Chularat Chanhom, Ms. Orathai’s adult daughter. “I had no idea it was such a big problem in Thailand.”

The government vowed at a United Nations forum in 2015 to halve the number of road traffic deaths by 2020. With less than one year to go before the deadline, however, Thailand is a long way from fulfilling that promise, its roads still ranking among the world’s 10 most dangerous, with more than 20,000 preventable fatalities a year.

The country has seen a small dip in road deaths since 2015, and Thailand has in place many of the necessary laws to make its roads safer.

But what the government has not addressed is the country’s vast gap in wealth, which is the core issue that not only makes its roads so deadly, but has also split the country into two bitterly divided political camps: Thailand’s haves and have-nots.

Thailand, named the most unequal country of the 40 major economies surveyed last year by Credit Suisse, has what might be the world’s most toxic combination for traffic safety.

Unlike poorer countries, its roads are well paved and made for speed, and the cars driven by the rich and its growing middle class tend to be new and fast.

But many Thai families can afford only a single scooter or motorcycle, and high-quality helmets are a luxury for many, whatever the law says about their being mandatory to wear.

In accidents on the country’s crowded roads, it’s a devastating mismatch when an air-conditioned SUV collides with a two-wheeler, scattering the detritus of death across the asphalt. And the aftermath of such accidents are a common, macabre sight on Thai thoroughfares: a shredded tire, a mangled frame of steel, a bloody plastic flip-flop.

Continues with photos

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/world/asia/thailand-inequality-road-fatalities.html