News Forum - Father asks police to investigate accident, claims American crashed golf cart, injured his son

[HolyCowCm]

22 hours ago, Fanta said:

The golf cart didn’t leave the lane. The bike rider cannot overtake legally using the same lane. I doubt any vehicle can legally overtake  at a pedestrian crossing. 

I am with you on this one. Although the golf cart did veer right it did not leave its own lane. I think the stupid Thai kid was probably looking at his phone which is mount on the bars.

[Stonker]

On 2/12/2022 at 8:49 AM, AussieBob said:

Watched the video in detail - slow mo etc. The cart driver was at fault - so was the bike rider. 

I play golf a lot - golf carts do not have side or rear mirrors and you cannot see behind you at all - therefore before making any turn to the left or right you must look - because you cannot see anything - you do it on the golf course - and you do it on the roads/paths. This is especially true when turning right - turning left means an easy turn of the head left will show anything, but a turn right means having to do a full turn of shoulders to see over the back of the cart. The cart driver or his passenger did not look right at all - he just turned straight into the bike.

Having said that, it is obvious that the bike rider was going too fast and was not being observant and leaving room for just such an idiot move - like so many Thais do on bikes and in cars.  It was also obvious judging from how he flew through the air and his injuries that he did not know how to fall off a bike at speed - never stick your arms or hands out and land on them - they break very easily as evidenced.

I reckon the matter will be settled with the cart driver paying some money to cover the Thai's medical costs and loss of income due to the accident, and the bike rider will have to pay to fix/replace the bike. 

Agreed, although I'm far from sure that anyone but a fully trained and very experienced  stuntman would have fallen any differently under the circumstances.

If you look at the video, not only do you see no rear or side mirrors and no brake lights or indicators, but you also see that both the driver and his wife are wearing baaeball p hats so it's very easy to see that neither turn their heads at all.

It's also easy to see that he's turning right as you can see his arms moving as he turns the wheel - and if you look at Google Maps street view, although you can't see which pedestrian crossing he was at, there's a right turn after each one (even the two lane main road) suggesting he was very probably turning right and just failed to look behind him or to his right and rear when the motor bike overtook him, going too fast, and he turned straight into him.

Both clearly responsible, but the main responsibility has to be with the American although he's not been charged with anything.

[Stonker]

On 2/12/2022 at 4:26 PM, HolyCowCm said:

I am with you on this one. Although the golf cart did veer right it did not leave its own lane. I think the stupid Thai kid was probably looking at his phone which is mount on the bars.

If you look at the video, he's clearly turning right, not just 'veering' - and you can also see from the angle of his helmet that 'the stupid Thai kid' wasn't 'looking at his phone which is mounted on the bars'.

[HolyCowCm]

4 minutes ago, Stonker said:

If you look at the video, he's clearly turning right, not just 'veering' - and you can also see from the angle of his helmet that 'the stupid Thai kid' wasn't 'looking at his phone which is mounted on the bars'.

I did look about 5 times at the video and it was odd every time. I do agree there was a sudden right motion shift on the golf carts part but it didn’t cross the lane line. My guess is the kid in the bike was lolling at his mobile phone mounted on the bars and this maybe was the end result in him having the unfortunate accident. If me, I might offer to pay for the poor kids hospital bills but not claim any wrong doing as out of compassion. My son playing  basketball was tripped and broke an arm here several years back leaving it look like a V. I saw it happen and still leaves a yuck memory in me. Made me feel like in shock. Horrible. 
 

[Stonker]

2 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

I did look about 5 times at the video and it was odd every time. I do agree there was a sudden right motion shift on the golf carts part but it didn’t cross the lane line. My guess is the kid in the bike was lolling at his mobile phone mounted on the bars and this maybe was the end result in him having the unfortunate accident. If me, I might offer to pay for the poor kids hospital bills but not claim any wrong doing as out of compassion.
 

We must have been looking at different videos.

In the one I looked at, at https://www.sanook.com/news/8515926/, which includes clear slow motion, he's very clearly looking straight ahead and never glances down, and the driver of the golf cart is clearly turning the steering wheel to make a right turn.

The motorbike's going in a straight line down the right hand side of the lane, and the driver of the golf cart turns across the lane from the left hand side, turning straight into the passing motorbike.

We're agreed he doesn't "cross the lane line" but he very clearly goes from the centre-left of the lane to the right side of it, and if you look at the position of the zebra crossing in the first screenshot I gave (bottom right of the picture) it was clearly the start of a right turn into the side road.

Had he continued in a straight line there would have been no accident, and had he checked before starting to turn he would have seen the motor bike overtaking.

The motorbike driver was clearly overtaking too close and driving too fast, but the American also bears some responsibility for turning without either checking or signalling.

[HolyCowCm]

10 hours ago, Stonker said:

We must have been looking at different videos.

In the one I looked at, at https://www.sanook.com/news/8515926/, which includes clear slow motion, he's very clearly looking straight ahead and never glances down, and the driver of the golf cart is clearly turning the steering wheel to make a right turn.

The motorbike's going in a straight line down the right hand side of the lane, and the driver of the golf cart turns across the lane from the left hand side, turning straight into the passing motorbike.

We're agreed he doesn't "cross the lane line" but he very clearly goes from the centre-left of the lane to the right side of it, and if you look at the position of the zebra crossing in the first screenshot I gave (bottom right of the picture) it was clearly the start of a right turn into the side road.

Had he continued in a straight line there would have been no accident, and had he checked before starting to turn he would have seen the motor bike overtaking.

The motorbike driver was clearly overtaking too close and driving too fast, but the American also bears some responsibility for turning without either checking or signalling.

Just looking at the same video again. Now I understand why the golf cart veered. Do you see the cone left side on that road before the veering? It looks like it is a warning cone as there are many raised bricks right after it, and the driver acted too late upon seeing it. He veered to miss the cone and that is why the sudden jerk motion. Unfortunately the bike rider was riding the middle line as it looks to avoid the oncoming Grab or Line rider going the other way and he did for sure not catch or react fast enough to the cart. Terrible non existent evasive reactions. Then it is all the wheel of the cart interacting with the motorcyle wheel like a centrifugal force flipping the bike and propelling him like he was flying. The cart should have mirrors, and it may be also the blame of the housing estate as well. But if the cart didn't hit the bike or visa versa, it just might be the cart was on path to cross the line. Hard call all around and everyone involve is wrong in a sense, but road rules are you cannot pass another vehicle when the line is solid and not broken, and this is coming right up to a crosswalk which is another no no.

[Marble-eye]

48 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

but road rules are you cannot pass another vehicle when the line is solid and not broken,

You can overtake where there is a solid white line providing you don't touch or cross the line. Suffice to say rules mean very little in Thailand.

[HolyCowCm]

1 minute ago, Marble-eye said:

You can overtake where there is a solid white line providing you don't touch or cross the line. Suffice to say rules mean very little in Thailand.

Ok, you got me there. But isn't the underlying rule is when safe to do so. Rules? They will say: We don't need no stinking rules. 

[Marble-eye]

11 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

Ok, you got me there. But isn't the underlying rule is when safe to do so. Rules? They will say: We don't need no stinking rules. 

I suppose that the "when safe to do so" would apply to most rules in the highway code, but as we all know rules are totally meaningless if they are not enforced, so yes "we don't need no stinking rules" probably hits the nail on the head better than "when safe to do so".

[Stonker]

2 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

Just looking at the same video again. Now I understand why the golf cart veered. Do you see the cone left side on that road before the veering? It looks like it is a warning cone as there are many raised bricks right after it, and the driver acted too late upon seeing it. He veered to miss the cone and that is why the sudden jerk motion. Unfortunately the bike rider was riding the middle line as it looks to avoid the oncoming Grab or Line rider going the other way and he did for sure not catch or react fast enough to the cart. Terrible non existent evasive reactions. Then it is all the wheel of the cart interacting with the motorcyle wheel like a centrifugal force flipping the bike and propelling him like he was flying. The cart should have mirrors, and it may be also the blame of the housing estate as well. But if the cart didn't hit the bike or visa versa, it just might be the cart was on path to cross the line. Hard call all around and everyone involve is wrong in a sense, but road rules are you cannot pass another vehicle when the line is solid and not broken, and this is coming right up to a crosswalk which is another no no.

I think we're actually in agreement !

He actually started turning after he'd passed the cone, which is why given that there's a junction on the right (as seen in Google Maps), I'm pretty sure he's turning right into the junction / side road.  Once you know there's a turning there, it all falls into place!

2 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

but road rules are you cannot pass another vehicle when the line is solid and not broken, and this is coming right up to a crosswalk which is another no no.

He passed within the white line, which is allowed.

All are clearly at fault, as we both agree (I think!) but the father's point is that only his son is being charged and held to blame - I'd say his father's got a fair point .

Edit:

and I'd suggest the estate is also at fault over the siting of the crossing - it should have been on the other side of the junction, so that only those turning left turned on the crossing, not those turning right, across the traffic as they have to here.