Shit-Spattered Dog Posted September 5, 2001 Report Share Posted September 5, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Ashman: There was a TV documentary in the UK about drivers in India a while back. They asked a driver why he didn't wear a seatbelt and the reply was " why I must wear a seat belt if I am not going to be crashing." Have faith in GOD it's the only way to deal with the reckless drivers. Ohm nama Siva Had a taxi driver in India a few years ago take us to Madras from the village where we were staying at. All we could think and talk about during the 3 hour trip was the movie "Road Warrier." Trucks and buses as well as cars passing each other by overtaking the others in the oncoming lane. It is very unnerving, looking down the road and seeing a wall of metal bearing down than watch, as they swing back into there correct lanes at the last minute. All the roads in India are litter with wreaks of trucks and buses that waited to late to turn back. These wreaks get damaged on the front passager's side from contacting the oncoming traffic's after waiting to long to pull over( they drive on the left over there.) After a while all we could do was cheer each time a truck pulled back over on to it's correct side at the last second. By the time we got to Madras ( alive ) we felt like we just ran 5 miles! Mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 5, 2001 Report Share Posted September 5, 2001 As India has come into the equation, here some (maybe) surprising figures: The death toll on Thailand's roads is 17,000 per year, in India, with a population 17 times as big, it's 70,000, only four-something times higher (at least that's the figure I read in an Indian newspaper). I've travelled on Indian roads countless times and I've seen horrendous scenes. I'd have thought that the per capita death rate would be higher than Thailand's; but it could well be that the Indian figures are incomplete and thus incorrect. Or maybe it's because India has a lower vehicle-per-capita ratio. [ September 05, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 5, 2001 Report Share Posted September 5, 2001 I don't know how much help this will be but was the bus you were on a government run bus? As of late the government run buses out of Bangkok have been fairly good. From About two years ago I have found the drivers have slowed down and believe it or not the last twenty trips or so I have felt no fear from my driver. Of course driving anywhere in Thailand makes you a bit nervous. Mini-buses and private buses can still be a nightmare though and best avoided in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted September 6, 2001 Report Share Posted September 6, 2001 quote: Originally posted by bungie6: This is all well and good, but what would be nice is some constructive suggestions for people who cannot avoid taking a bus. For instance, if you're in Chiang Mai and need to go to Mae Sai for visa reasons, you have to go to Chiang Rai, then Mae Sai, by bus. The train doesn't go there. A plane is possible, but a tiny plane is expensive and scary. . Hire a car with driver. I did this in Chiang Mai to drive to Mae Sai and back. Costed me 1000 baht however. Not bad from 7 am to 7 pm. But does this really make a difference compared to taking a bus? I did it just to be able to stop any place and go off main road. I have travelled thousands of kilometers by bus, mostly front row for leg room, bit scary sometimes, but then again is it really safer driving around in your home country? I doubt it. What surprised me however, NOTHING drove faster than the buses I was in. They just overtake everything. WHY? Remember a driver going bizerk to pass a truck. Hit a small town 1 km further down, stopped there for 5 minutes, the truck passed by 11 sec after he stopped. Took him an other 20 minutes to chase and overtake the same truck. Really crazy and useless sometimes. Suppose the driver must be damned motivated to drive like hell. [ September 05, 2001: Message edited by: thalenoi ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 6, 2001 Report Share Posted September 6, 2001 quote: Originally posted by V. Calvino: I don't know how much help this will be but was the bus you were on a government run bus? As of late the government run buses out of Bangkok have been fairly good. From About two years ago I have found the drivers have slowed down and believe it or not the last twenty trips or so I have felt no fear from my driver. Of course driving anywhere in Thailand makes you a bit nervous. Mini-buses and private buses can still be a nightmare though and best avoided in my opinion. I don't know. It was just one of the "Regular" buses from the chiang Rai bus station. Fans, no AC. Still nobody has responded to my question: are the VIP buses from companies like Sombat likely to have more careful drivers? I mean, maybe they'd be better just because the private companies don't want to have to buy a lot of new buses to replace the wrecks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhumvit Posted September 6, 2001 Report Share Posted September 6, 2001 Thai drivers are pretty bad. Have come across the aftermath of a couple of accidents in recent years. There was one, a guy on a bicycle, who was a bit messed up on the road near the big croc farm outside Bk. Coming back from Ptty in a taxi it changed lanes, looking out the window saw the reason why. A motorbike taxi was lying in the carriageway smashed up, its rider flaked out next to it, claret everywhere, looked pretty dead to me. Did the driver stop to give assistance? Nah. Vietnam's also pretty hairy. I remember standing by the side of the road in Hanoi's old quarter trying to pluck up the courage to cross the road between the swarms of bikers. Was returning to Hanoi from Halong Bay a while back before they'd finished the new highway. Construction traffic everywhere. The tourist minibus was ducking and diving in and out of traffic, missing huge Czech lorries by split seconds. Dreadful journey. Thinking the nightmare was over and vowing to forever travel VN by train thereafter we headed onto the bridge across the Red River into Hanoi. Traffic jam up ahead. Our mini bus driver just kept on trucking. Could see the accident coming but the resultant rear end shunt was still a shock. Down in the Delta came across a truck that had left the road and ended up in a ditch. Under its front wheels lay a mangled bicycle. The cyclist must have been squashed. On the same day a few miles further on we were actually waiting at traffic lights at a crossroads. One of those old US VN war Mack trucks headed across the junction. On its back was the biggest tree trunk you could imagine. It was so vast that as the truck slipped into gear to move off the momentum and weight caused the front two wheels of the truck to lift off the ground as the truck did a wheelie. That's why it's better to stay in the bar. Drinking never killed anyone, did it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 9, 2001 Report Share Posted September 9, 2001 Originally posted by bungie6: Just did a search on bus crashes and Thailand. Pretty sobering. But is there a train to Chiang Rai?[/quote ] There is another one today in the Bangkok Post:- "Sixteen killed in bus crash on mountain Sixteen people were killed and 19 others seriously injured when a bus veered off the road and overturned in a mountainous area in Phu Rua district. Police said the bus, operated by Lomsak Pornprasert Co, was taking passengers from Lomsak district, Phetchabun, to Loei, when it skidded off the road while negotiating a sharp curve near Khok Nam Sang, in tambon Santom. The bus overturned, killing nine women and seven men on the spot." [ September 09, 2001: Message edited by: Ultraviolet ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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