News Forum - Irishman suffers life-threatening injuries in motorcycle accident in Thailand

[Thaiger]

A young Irishman is the latest in a long line of victims injured in a motorcycle accident in Thailand without having any cover or insurance. How many more need to suffer fatalities or life-threatening injuries before they learn to drive properly or get insured? Michael John Miller, from Knock in Mayo, is the latest man …

The story Irishman suffers life-threatening injuries in motorcycle accident in Thailand as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Ramanathan.P]

As i have been mentioning again and again.....this is another moped accident. The road from Chiang Mai to Pai is very steep with dangerous corners. Even though the road looks wider in some places, in fact it is very steep with uphill and sudden downhill. During the uphill these inexperineced riders will trottle to the max to pull the bike along with their heavy body weight. In order to have a safe acceleration at least 250cc cluch bike is the most preferred. But these so called experts always rent the moped which is automated and the torque shifting is not inline with the trottle during uphill and when comes sudden downhill, the 150cc moped will simply pull throught faster and by the time the rider wanted to release the trottle it would be too late as the braking system is also at the handle and not at the foot peg. The best is to rider from Mae Hong Son to Chiang Mai Via Pai. The safest route would be Chiang Mai - Route 108 - Mae Sariang - Mae Hong Son - Pai - Chiang mai. From Mae Sariang up to Mae Hong Son it would be a gradual gradient uphill...and then it would be mostly downhill. Even thought it is a bit steep, by the time the rider reaches Mae Hong Son, the rider would have somewhat used to the uphill and downhill riding as the uphill is gradient along the way. This gives the rider a good practise and idea about riding along the rest of the dangerous down hill route.  

[socal]

"Details of the motorcycle accident reported are vague but it appears Miller was riding from Chiang Mai to Pai when he crashed" 

That's a 3 hour drive. So once again , he probably had no prior motorcycle experience. He toodled around town for a week and thought he had it all figured out. 

[HolyCowCm]

42 minutes ago, socal said:

"Details of the motorcycle accident reported are vague but it appears Miller was riding from Chiang Mai to Pai when he crashed" 

That's a 3 hour drive. So once again , he probably had no prior motorcycle experience. He toodled around town for a week and thought he had it all figured out. 

Have to agree with you. The bikes if in good working order will still not save the I have never ridden a bike (or ridden much as to have adequate got experience) wanting to be tourist cowboy. That ride I have probably done over 20 times plus just going and then there is the coming back. My bikes are well maintained but even give me a bike that is shady and I still wouldn't have an accident on that road if it is just based on me and the road. Cannot say have seen foreigners down on their bikes on the down turns about 3 times and that should be considered a lot. No sympathy for this tourist. 

[ExpatPattaya]

55 minutes ago, Ramanathan.P said:

this is another moped accident.

Mopeds are motorized vehicles 50cc and under and do not need licensing in the U.S. 

So strange that nowadays humans do not need to pay for their own mistakes, just gofundme. 

Almost a billion humans living in extreme poverty in the world, but one guy in an accident can get $29,000 dollars from strangers by posting on the internet.  Something is wrong about that IMO.  

[Saunk]

13 hours ago, ExpatPattaya said:

Mopeds are motorized vehicles 50cc and under and do not need licensing in the U.S. 

So strange that nowadays humans do not need to pay for their own mistakes, just gofundme. 

Almost a billion humans living in extreme poverty in the world, but one guy in an accident can get $29,000 dollars from strangers by posting on the internet.  Something is wrong about that IMO.  

I have to agree with this.  It befuddles me how people choose to "donate" their hard earned money.  For me I prefer to donate to people living in poor, third world countries who have no means to make a living or obtain food...then you have people who donate to causes like this.  To each their own I guess.

[jerrynatl]

I do wish this young man a good and quick recovery. I have visited Thailand many times and most always have rented a bike in CM and on the coast. I've never taken out insurance but after seeing so many people having accidents I am sure to next time. One other thing....I have never been asked for my motorcycle driver's license to the rental shop. After 25 years of showing my US driver's license, I was pulled over and fined for not having an International Driver's License! It is a scam for not allowing my own license. They know most tourist do not have an International License so they pull us over to extort money from us!

 

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

4 hours ago, Saunk said:

It befuddles me how people choose to "donate" their hard earned money.

That’s an idea, I will raise a GFM page saying I’m about to be stupid …. And see how much I can raise! Would just need online news agencies to push the story to increase the monies I bet.

[MrStretch]

12 minutes ago, jerrynatl said:

 After 25 years of showing my US driver's license, I was pulled over and fined for not having an International Driver's License! It is a scam for not allowing my own license. They know most tourist do not have an International License so they pull us over to extort money from us!

No, it's not a scam.  It's the law that you have chosen to ignore for many years.  Getting the "International Driving Permit" in the US is as easy as visiting a AAA office with two passport pictures and $20.

[HiuMak]

 

18 minutes ago, jerrynatl said:

 One other thing....I have never been asked for my motorcycle driver's license to the rental shop. After 25 years of showing my US driver's license, 

I have rented mopeds in south of Thailand from the hotel. Never needing driver's license or provided a helmet. Just grab the keys and go. Cops don't bother me too much.

[Skip]

20 minutes ago, jerrynatl said:

I do wish this young man a good and quick recovery. I have visited Thailand many times and most always have rented a bike in CM and on the coast. I've never taken out insurance but after seeing so many people having accidents I am sure to next time. One other thing....I have never been asked for my motorcycle driver's license to the rental shop. After 25 years of showing my US driver's license, I was pulled over and fined for not having an International Driver's License! It is a scam for not allowing my own license. They know most tourist do not have an International License so they pull us over to extort money from us!

It's not a scam... it's the law... not unlike the USA not accepting foreign driver's licenses...get a grip on reality... 

[Andyroo]

He made his own choice to save money and not buy insurance. It seems to be a growing trend to decide not to be responsible and then beg for crowd funding when the bad decisions enter the world of reality.

[MrStretch]

3 hours ago, Skip said:

It's not a scam... it's the law... not unlike the USA not accepting foreign driver's licenses...get a grip on reality... 

The US does, though.  Driving regulations are governed by individual states. There are only seven states that also require an IDP for those holding a valid license from their home country.  43 accept a foreign license as sufficient. In some, if you are there for more than 90 days, it might be required.

We're slightly off-topic here but then we don't know if he had a valid motorcycle license.  We do know that he didn't have insurance, which just belies common sense.

[Grumpish]

2 hours ago, Andyroo said:

He made his own choice to save money and not buy insurance. It seems to be a growing trend to decide not to be responsible and then beg for crowd funding when the bad decisions enter the world of reality.

I think it is human nature to always want to blame someone else, but the "I am not responsible for the consequences of my own actions" attitude does seem to be very prevalent these days.