Drinking and driving do not mix. The suspected drunk driver is a Canadian national. He will be paying for this mistake for a long time. I believe there were nine passengers on the baht bus with one fatality. Of course, the drunk driver walked away with only a few scratches. Read more at: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/09/10/suspected-drunk-canadian-involved-in-fatal-baht-bus-accident/

I just read the article. I hope the driver gets the book thrown at him with along jail sentence.

I just read the article. I hope the driver gets the book thrown at him with along jail sentence.

 

Is the Loma roundabout the same as the "Dolphin roundabout"? This traffic circle is really dangerous. There is no merging to let traffic flow. It is more like the pushiest driver wins.

Is the Loma roundabout the same as the "Dolphin roundabout"? This traffic circle is really dangerous. There is no merging to let traffic flow. It is more like the pushiest driver wins.

Yes, I believe the Loma roundabout is the same roundabout as the "dolphin roundabout." This is the intersection where North Pattaya Road (Pattaya Nua) and Second Road intersect. It is a dangerous intersection, especially when there are so many crazy drivers on the road.

Was just asking a boy about his dolphin tatoo the other day and I think he said loma.

Was just asking a boy about his dolphin tatoo the other day and I think he said loma.

 

Perhaps they should tear up the roundabout and put in a traffic light?

The problem with the roundabout is that people don't know how to use them here. As any Brit will tell you, the vehicle that is in the roundabout has the right of way, merging traffic should give way. But we all know about right of way in LOS. Not long ago my bf was driving, we were in the roundabout on the inside lane. A pickup merged and pulled right in front of us scraping our front bumper. The driver was Thai. When the police arrived he quickly started to talk to the police and pointed at me sitting in the car in the passenger seat. The police came and said, "You drive?" I said, "No, my friend was driving." He told me I must pay the other driver 500 baht. I started to explain to him, but he said, "You pay 500 baht or go to police station and pay more." I was furious, but paid the 500 baht.

Is the Loma roundabout the same as the "Dolphin roundabout"? This traffic circle is really dangerous. There is no merging to let traffic flow. It is more like the pushiest driver wins.

 

Yes, it is the Dolphin roundabout.

 

A dangerous coming together of fools driving and

with little sense of driving courtesy.

 

Combine that with a drunk driving and WHAM...accidents and deaths.

 

In Oklahoma City, they did away with such foolish road designs a decade ago,

due to many accidents. I gather it must have been an often used roundabout circle

traffic system design which was used by many road engineers years before.

 

tj

The problem with the roundabout is that people don't know how to use them here. As any Brit will tell you, the vehicle that is in the roundabout has the right of way, merging traffic should give way. But we all know about right of way in LOS. Not long ago my bf was driving, we were in the roundabout on the inside lane. A pickup merged and pulled right in front of us scraping our front bumper. The driver was Thai. When the police arrived he quickly started to talk to the police and pointed at me sitting in the car in the passenger seat. The police came and said, "You drive?" I said, "No, my friend was driving." He told me I must pay the other driver 500 baht. I started to explain to him, but he said, "You pay 500 baht or go to police station and pay more." I was furious, but paid the 500 baht.

 

Damn, that sucks. Did your BF do anything? He might have been in a better position to speak to the police in Thai than you.

Of course he spoke to the police, but once the police saw a farang was involved, even as only a passenger, his mind was made up. Anyone who knows anything at all about Thais, knows that once their mind is made up, it is extremely difficult to get them to change it and admit they made a mistake.

I once read that when your are travelling by taxi and the taxi has an accident, the best thing to do ist to pay and leave and let the driver deal alone with the accident. This is because by Thai law the customer is guilty. Even if he didn't drive, without customer the taxi wouldn't have had the accident!

 

In your case it was your boyfriend who was driving, it wouldn't be nice to leave him alone with the accident, but it would have made the situation Thai-Thai and not Thai-Farang.

I don't know if that is true or not. I do know that they try to exhort money from farang. The accident was so minor it was hard to believe anything came of it all, just a minor hardly noticeable scratch on the bumper.

Yeah, that's the reality, but it sucks. It's a shame your BF had no chance to turn the situation, if not for 500 baht , out of principle.

 

I agree with the taxi thing. If you have an accident in a taxi, pay the fair (or don't pay.... whatever is acceptable) and leave. I wouldn't accept any sort of penalty of being the passenger of a cab that crashes.

 

I guess sometimes in these sitations we need to make decisions with "practicality/pragmatism" taking priority over principles.

Not sure how true it is, but I heard a story about an Aussie in his vehicle waiting for a light to change. A Thai man plowed into the rear of his vehicle and claimed it was the falang's fault. "If you weren't sitting there, I wouldn't have hit you." TIT.

Drinking and driving do not mix. The suspected drunk driver is a Canadian national. He will be paying for this mistake for a long time. I believe there were nine passengers on the baht bus with one fatality. Of course, the drunk driver walked away with only a few scratches. Read more at: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/09/10/suspected-drunk-canadian-involved-in-fatal-baht-bus-accident/

Here is an undate. http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/27891/2-dead-and-many-injured-in-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout-crash/

The baht bus driver and a passenger has died. According to one comments at the end of the article, the drunk may go free. Seems his Thai wife is well connected.

Why in the world would his Thai wife help him when he was with two women he had just met (prostitutes?)?

If that's true, then it's fucked, but he'll always have to live with the fact he KILLED two people. He can't run away from that in his own mind.