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Phuket Bus Crashes Into House, Five Hurt: 'Brakes Failed' on Patong Hill
By Sert Tongdee Tuesday, June 4, 2013
PHUKET: A Pegas T bus has crashed into a house at the base of Phuket's Patong Hill, with as many as five Russian passengers injured.
The bus suffered an apparent brake failure about 6pm and did not take the corner at the base of Patong Hill, outside the Buddhist temple.
Instead, the bus rolled on and only stopped when it crashed into a house in Phisit Koranee Road.
A spokesperson for Patong Hospital said the injured Russians were not seriously hurt.
Pegas Touristik, a Turkish company, contracts local bus companies and has them repainted in the distinct blue and white livery of Pegas T.
The driver, Kang Sangsikeaw, 68, steered the bus into the living room of Thitiporn Kingko, 35. He stayed at the scene.
Fortunately, nobody was in the path of the bus.
The corner has a long history of mostly lucky escapes. But the photo album shows how fortunate it was that nobody was seriously hurt.
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Comments
Comments have been disabled for this article.
PEGAS again!!!! I see them approaching me on the bypass, i pull over. I have had too many near misses with these people including an incident involving 2 of their buses racing each other to the airport. It was one of the scariest moments for me on Phuket roads and that is saying something as i drive the bypass 6-7 days a week.
Posted by
swerv
on
June 4, 2013 19:06
Glad that no one was hurt. But NOT surprised at that logo.
Posted by
Nick
on
June 4, 2013 19:06
With so many bus accidents blamed on failed brakes, one would imagine that the Land Transport Office would introduce a program to conduct safety tests on any vehicle certified for commercial passenger transport.
Have not seen a single comment from them reported in any news media on Phuket.
Posted by
ThaiMike
on
June 4, 2013 19:27
Editor Comment:
There's a shortage of places where buses can be officially checked for mechanical deficiencies.
Maybe the bus company should be name as to help the uninjured companies, never using this damned company ever.
Posted by
Robin
on
June 4, 2013 19:37
its not the brakes that fail its the drivers still think they are driving a scooter. 26,000 die each year on the roads, when will they learn
Posted by
Anonymous
on
June 4, 2013 19:41
Lack of maintainance.Like all the ones billowing black smoke crawling up hills.
Posted by
Col
on
June 4, 2013 20:23
- Ed
Thanks for the info. Sounds like once again the basic infrastructure fails to keep up with the pace of growth in visitor numbers.
Personally I don't believe the brake failure excuse given ever so often. Pre-emptive driving habits go a long way to prevent this and besides that, air brakes lock the wheels when they fail, unlike hydraulic brakes used on passenger and light transport vehicles.
Posted by
ThaiMike
on
June 4, 2013 20:44
Editor Comment:
There is one place in the entire country where buses can be thoroughly inspected to international standards. One place.
ED, you say that "There's a shortage of places where buses can be officially checked for mechanical deficiencies".
What kind of excuse is that? In all other modern countries they have a control of all kind of cars and buses one times a year. Is that too much to ask about here in Phuket?
Posted by
retired roadworker
on
June 4, 2013 20:57
Editor Comment:
I'm not offering that information as an excuse. It's a fact. I don't deal in excuses, just facts.
These drivers simply lie,fact, how do I know, well for the brakes to "fail" there would be three (3) failures needed, the rear brakes, the front brakes and the emergency brake, ALL are on separate circuits, so impossible for all to fail, at the same time. The only failure here is the loose nut behind the steering wheel.....the driver.
Posted by
Phuket_IOC
on
June 4, 2013 22:14
Yeah its not brake failure its driver failure pure and simple..
Posted by
dave66
on
June 4, 2013 22:34
Only one place ? Well, that explains a lot then.
Tourism brings in 8% of Thai GDP but tourist safety is, how to put this politely, obviously not of primary concern.
Posted by
ThaiMike
on
June 4, 2013 22:51
Not only has that corner got a reputation & history so has that bus company,another brake failure not once have I heard the words maitenance failure or driver failure,when police investigate do they stand on the brake pedal to verify this,its the first thing a insurance assessor does on any vehicle claim I assure you!
Posted by
slickmelb
on
June 5, 2013 00:33
@retired roadworker - yes in all "modern countries" there is an annual safety check. This is not a "modern country", its 40 years behind the times and suffers from incredible laziness and complacency regarding road safety (amongst many other things!). Until Government takes control and funds an adequate system of Transport Regulation, these accidents will continue to take their dreadful toll on the roads.
Posted by
jimbo34
on
June 5, 2013 01:41
Not a surprise, isn't it ? And it's not only this company, maybe they are just a bit more visible, as there are many vehicles of them on the road. Vehicles often aren't in best shape, control is little. But the main problem are still the drivers...no serious training, no knowledge and NO BRAIN !
Posted by
Resident
on
June 5, 2013 09:22
I have to agree with jimbo34. This will go on for another generation or 2. It's amazing to me how lazy some people are to even consider a normal maintenance on everything. When something isn't functioning properly, and addressed to a third party, it's like they don't even care. Maybe the reason that the public busses aren't on the road yet can now be blamed on the " fact " that there is only one service/ inspection place on Phuket. What a joke. But in the meantime there are lives in danger because of this every day.
Posted by
Charles
on
June 5, 2013 09:49
Air brakes: 1st, Must have air pressure to function. 2nd must be properly adjusted or when they heat up the drums move further away from the break pads, which is why they fail, no contact is no brakes. 3rd Not all air brake pods on the vehicles have the spring brake that engages when the air pressure drops, and the ones that they do have will not stop a loaded bus on a flat surface, let alone on a steep down grade, add to this that if the driver has ridden the brakes down the hill and they have heated up till the drums expand past where the adjustment had any effect then the spring brakes do no more than the foot on the peddle anyway at that point. Most of these vehicles have self adjusting brakes now adays, but they do not always work and the drive has to know how to check them and then adjust them, its not really difficult, but it does take some training and then follow through, it not something that anyone would know how to do with out the the training, in fact it would be impossible as I know drivers from the states that thought they were doing it right and were really un adjusting a self adjusting break system. All these drivers simply need some training on this and the ability to say no to an employer when something is not right.
Posted by
Tim
on
June 5, 2013 15:00
@ThaiMike
"and besides that, air brakes lock the wheels when they fail"
In case, the system fails. But in case of metal on metal, there would be nothing to lock the wheels.
As long no official department is investigating this failure / parts, it will go on and go on.
The Nissan NV some second earlier, the BMW)? some seconds later: The 2 cars wouldn't stand any change. And then, the complete soi would have been affected! With bodybags to carry away.
Lucky thing, but will it be always that lucky?
Posted by
Anonymous
on
June 5, 2013 18:10
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Pegas again....
Posted by Whistle-Blower on June 4, 2013 19:00