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Runaway Phuket Truck Victim Dies in Patong Hospital

By Phuketwan Reporter

Saturday, July 4, 2015

PHUKET: A woman has died after being struck by a runaway truck that created chaos as it sped down Phuket's Patong Hill out of control yesterday.

The woman was on a motorcycle proceeding down the hill about 12.30pm when the truck, carrying a load of swimming pool chlorine, crashed into her from behind without giving her a chance to avoid impact.

She was to be transferred from Patong Hospital to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City but died before that trip could be made.

The driver of the truck has told police that the brakes on the vehicle failed. He is likely to face more questioning and the truck will be examined for mechanical deficiencies.

The truck crashed through six motorcycles and a car then damaged two houses at the base of the hill as it flipped, dumping its load.

The previous day, a truck failed to take a hill on the coast road north of Patong and rolled back, out of control. Two Burmese laborers died when the truck spilled its load of 30 people onto the road verge.

Comments

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is the woman a tourist or local?

Posted by sky on July 4, 2015 09:54

Editor Comment:

Her identity has yet to be revealed but she appears to be Thai. We don't usually mention a person's background in articles unless they are non-Thai.

Lack of enforcement of their own rules kills again. Heavy goods vehicles are supposed to be banned on that road during daylight hours.

Posted by Sir Burr on July 4, 2015 12:15

So terribly sad - I am sure all of us wish our sincere condolences to the lady's family

Having seen a video on social media of the ambulance men collecting her after the crash I would question their training on how to provide care for accident victims.

Posted by Discover Thainess on July 4, 2015 12:32

lack of law enforcement by thai police officers on Phuket cost daily a lot of thai and birmese life. Shame full.

Posted by Kurt on July 4, 2015 13:15

Taking into account the steep, hilly roads on Phuket and the countless number of cases where brakes failure is blamed for often lethal accidents, I find it quite staggering that there is not a single brake dynamo on the island capable of even testing the brakes of heavy vehicles.

Local vehicle inspection consists of nothing much more than taking a carbon copy of the VIN and Engine numbers.

How about if the Land Transport office acquire such equipment and launch a safety campaign checking the brakes of all commercial vehicles, goods and passenger transport, on Phuket ?

Suspend the registration (impound the license plates as is done in many developed countries) of those who fail until they are repaired to a standard good enough to pass the brakes test.

If they have no funds, just borrow the equipment from BKK. Since tourist safety is a priority on Phuket and for the current government, all this should be very easy to do.

Posted by Herbert on July 4, 2015 13:53