Swede dies in Thai bus crash

Published: 12th March 2006 16:04 CET

A Swedish man died in a bush crash in northern Thailand on Saturday evening.

"We can confirm that a Swedish man, born 1982, died in the bus crash," said Miriam Mannbro at the foreign ministry in Stockholm.

"According to our information, he was traveling with his Thai wife, and all indications are that she died too."

The cause of the accident is still unclear. According to Expressen and Aftonbladet, the accident happened in the Udon Thani province, about 450 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, when the bus collided with a motorcycle.

At least ten people, of which one was a child, are reported to have died. Thirty people are reported injured.

"We don't yet know whether more Swedes were on the bus, and staff at our embassy in Bangkok are looking into that now," said Mannbro.

TT/The Local

well I've heard the news about the bus crashed in Kumpavapi (Udon Thani province ) I 'm not sure if it the same bus as u mentioned or not ,but for the bus company it said in the ticket there is the insurance and they will pay 200000 B for the accident.

Bangsean_girl wrote:well I've heard the news about the bus crashed in Kumpavapi (Udon Thani province ) I 'm not sure if it the same bus as u mentioned or not ,but for the bus company it said in the ticket there is the insurance and they will pay 200000 B for the accident.

200000B not a lot for a mans life. and i wonder how much trouble and how long it would take to actually get the money from the bus company.

TW has a friend in Kumpavapi who came up with more detail. The bus was from a large Udon VIP service, one of these fancy double deck units. One of thoes situations where the bike came flying out from the left with the rider not looking right before doing so, the bus swerved to avoid it and the driver lost control (going too fast????). Concensus of opinion amongst the Thais is the driver should have hit the bike as the better of 2 evils.

I will add this is not fact, just hear say subject to enquiry but how many times have you seen motorcyclists just fly out onto the road without looking???

A local girl here lost her father and grandmother when her father swerved to avoid a crazy boy on a motorbike.Hit the bike and you kill one or two,swerve and you may take out a row of school children.Should you be lucky enough to miss any people you then have to avoid all the roadside trees,pylons,etc.When i first came here i used to swerve but not anymore.

2 friends were knocked off their motorbike at Pattaya last Sunday by a car which drove through through a red light. One has his leg broken in 2 places and other injuries, the other Thai friend escaped with cuts and bruises. The hospital demanded that our farang friend pay 120,000 Baht up front before they would admit him, even though he has travel insurance. I don't think I'll risk buying a motorbike when I move up to Udon.

think I heard somewhere , that if the driver doesn't make it in time to the destination he loses some bonus/salery. true or not , I dont know.

but if true , it sure as hell explains the high number of bus accidents.

I am sure they also get a percentage commission so race other buses to get to the passengers first.

Do the bus and truck drivers still run off immediately after an accident? A criminal offense in most places.

Also, do the drivers still sit to the right of the steering wheel with their back up against the door? Always figured that they thought it looked cool or maybe wanted to be in position to make a quick getaway, if needed.

last year my nephew was driving in toward Udon on the Sakhon Nakon road. As usual he was riding his motorcycle and was in the middle of the breakdown lane where most folks ride their bikes. It was around 3PM so he was heading into the setting sun along the road at about 65kph. Suddenly, he was struck from behind by one of the big Red Coca Cola trucks and did a 30 meter superman flight as the Coke truck screeched to a halt.
My nephew called us in Udon and his wife in their village to come help him. Luckily, for once, he'd had his helmet on and buckled, was wearing a leather jacket and jeans. Of course, for footgear it was flip flops. When I say he was lucky, he was hugely lucky.. A scratch on his hand, and somehow a scratch on his back and a wrenched back.. He should have been dead.
When we arrived at the scene, I was shocked to see the Coca Cola Truck still there.. The driver was still apologizing profusely to my nephew and saying that the setting sun had blinded him and he'd drifted over the line into the breakdown lane. They'd gotten my nephew's handphone number, village and house number. I quickly got the Coke driver's license, name, and wrote down the Truck tag and company number. The guy and his two assistants told me to go ahead, that there would be no problems, that the Company would pay.. I was a bit suspicious but since I had all the numbers, I told them fine they could leave.
We loaded my nephews worse for wear bike into my truck and took him to Aek Udon for an examnation and back X-Ray.. The tough 44 year old rice farmer was stiff but the Docs gave him a clean bill of health.
The end of the story; The Coca Cola Company rep called my nephew, and made an appointment to see him in the village. The following day the Coke Rep showed up with a truck and helpers to collect my nephews bike to "make it right". He paid my nephew's medical bills, and topped it off with 4000 Baht for the pain and suffering. The bike came back fixed like new later that week..
Yeah, 4000 Baht, med expenses and fix the bike wouldn't go far in the States. There, my nephew probably would have gotten a pile of money and been set for life. But,, in Thailand, this type of corporate responsibility in a country where most errant drivers flee the scene is reassurring to say the least.. I always meant to go by the Udon Chamber of Commerce and laud the Coca Cola Company for its honesty.. I guess this posting will have to do..
Oh, my nephew's never had any health problems from the accident to this day.. He still himself is stunned that Coca Cola did the "right" thing.

personally i would'nt expect any thing less from a world-wide company like coca-cola.but agreed it is reassuring to know.If ever i am involved in a accident i hope its going to be a large world reconized company. and not a one man band company.who no doubt would pay zero compensation.

As for drivers who flee the scene surly they must get caught,especially if the tour bus company know who was driving at the time.But have witnessed many a motor-cycle rider flee the scene,some only to be caught by by-standers(not a pretty sight).

one of the worst in accidents in thailand to my knowledge, was the petrol tanker crash in Bangkok,it just piled into stationary traffic at a busy junction and exploded .(around 1991) Thats one crash the driver never fled. or all the innocents that perished too.

beer monkey wrote:
As for drivers who flee the scene surly they must get caught,especially if the tour bus company know who was driving at the time.

I have posted elsewhere about the son of a friend of ours killed by a drunk driver (near the Big C intersection topically) who tried to flee the scene, crashing again later.

He demanded, yes demanded that the boys family paid the hospital fees for his broken leg because "if the motorcycle had not been there my leg would be ok". He did'nt get it paid by the way.

The police could not prosecute him for drinking and driving because he was hospitalised and they could not test him, even though he reeked of alcohol, and thus could not press any charges regarding manslaughter, it was legally just an accident.

Go figure all that, run might the the logical action to avoid a baying mob....

Many years go I stayed for a while out near Ban Phu way. A Thai/Chinese trucking company used to have trucks drive max speed through the villages with max horn going
The drivers were told not to slow down in villages and if they hit anyone just keep on going. The trucking company would