News Forum - Road of sorrow: Scottish man becomes latest victim of Thailand’s perilous roads

[Thaiger]

A sombre chapter was added to the tragic toll of Thailand’s perilous roads today, as a 48 year old Scottish man became yet another victim. The unfortunate incident unfolded when Robert Griffin, a shipping officer from Fife, lost control of his white Honda Click motorbike, resulting in a head-on collision with another motorcyclist in Krabi, … …

The story Road of sorrow: Scottish man becomes latest victim of Thailand’s perilous roads as seen on Thaiger News.

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[TheDirtyDurian]

A presumably clever guy with a 'notable career in the shipping industry' 

And yet no helmet. 

May his death be a lesson to all the invincible foreigners out there. 

[ChrisS]

No crash helmet, I wonder did he even have a motorcycle licence. What is wrong with these people that they think they are invincible.

[Ramanathan.P]

"Griffin had a notable career in the shipping industry, having held positions in various operations involving cargo ships, oil drilling vessels, and rigs with the prominent shipping company Maersk"

Where is his safety conciousness? Does he had the mentality of safety at workplace only? Even at workplace he has to wear the safety helmet and reflector west, including life jacket in oil rigs for certain operations. He is responsible for his own fatality. 

[Marc26]

Why do people freak out about someone not wearing a helemt

 

Some prefer not to and he paid the consequence

 

That's all

[ThaiFoodGuy]

I rarely (never) wear a helmet in Thailand unless I'm going to encounter a highway, but always wear full gear here in Canada. Then again, I'm an experienced rider, and I drive like everyone is trying to kill me at all times, and I'm not a speed freak or risk taker, especially when my wife is riding as my passenger.

It's a shame when anyone is injured or worse in an accident, but just as @Marc26 said, he understood the risk he took and paid the consequence. At least he didn't take anyone else out.

[HolyCowCm]

What can you say. He shouldn’t have been on a bike. Period! I’ve ridden here almost daily for decades and am still alive. I really don’t feel sorry for him as it was his own doing. 

[Guest1]

 

l... eading to a head-on crash with a motorcycle-and-sidecar vehicle.

One question: was that a legal one? Most likely not. Now lets think about, if a Farang would have driven that sidecar bike, and a  Thai would have died.

 

[TheDirtyDurian]

7 hours ago, ThaiFoodGuy said:

I rarely (never) wear a helmet in Thailand unless I'm going to encounter a highway, but always wear full gear here in Canada. Then again, I'm an experienced rider, and I drive like everyone is trying to kill me at all times, and I'm not a speed freak or risk taker, especially when my wife is riding as my passenger.

It's a shame when anyone is injured or worse in an accident, but just as @Marc26 said, he understood the risk he took and paid the consequence. At least he didn't take anyone else out.

You be invincible then. 

To alter a great line from Scarface:

"never underestimate the other guy's stupidity!" 

[TheDirtyDurian]

8 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Why do people freak out about someone not wearing a helemt

Some prefer not to and he paid the consequence

That's all

Is making a comment on an anonymous forum on t'internet freaking out. 

I think people were just pointing out the guy's foolishness, considering his background. 

But having said that, met plenty over the years. Guys who you think have got it together, who make extremely poor decisions in L. O. S.

Myself included.... 555

[RJBT]

No Helmet!!

I have been living here for ten years ,I have never been on a motorbike

I cycle on the backroads here in the farming area and wear a helmet.

It has been proven that over 75% of accidents are made within 20 km of your home.

No helmet is like committing suicide, anywhere in the world

I sat at my wifes restaurant  on the main road of teh village the other day and counted 117 people passing on motorbikes and motorbikes with sidecars only ten had helmets  on.

 

 

[gazmo16]

Most things in life involving danger are a gamble so anything that puts the odds in your favour can't be a bad thing.  His freedom of choice came with a cost in this case. 

[Ramanathan.P]

12 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Why do people freak out about someone not wearing a helemt

Some prefer not to and he paid the consequence

That's all

I think you got a point here. Well, he decided to end his life journey that way. Just let him had his last wish fulfilled in his own way. 

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

Is making a comment on an anonymous forum on t'internet freaking out. 

I think people were just pointing out the guy's foolishness, considering his background. 

But having said that, met plenty over the years. Guys who you think have got it together, who make extremely poor decisions in L. O. S.

Myself included.... 555

Yeah wrong phrase I used 

 

My point was people make their decision and literally live by them 

[Leo]

6 hours ago, Guest1 said:

l... eading to a head-on crash with a motorcycle-and-sidecar vehicle.

One question: was that a legal one? Most likely not. Now lets think about, if a Farang would have driven that sidecar bike, and a  Thai would have died.

It might have been a motor bike with a street food cart attached.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Leo

[HolyCowCm]

7 hours ago, Guest1 said:

l... eading to a head-on crash with a motorcycle-and-sidecar vehicle.

One question: was that a legal one? Most likely not. Now lets think about, if a Farang would have driven that sidecar bike, and a  Thai would have died.

Sort of totally irrelevant. The foreigner veered into the opposite lane and hit the bike with sidecar. 

What do you mean legal? The bike if registered is all that needs to be ok and by Thai lawa insured or not, the foreigner is at fault. I wouldn't be suprised that the Thai wife will have to pay for the damge and injury to the sidecar bike and people on it. That is the law.

[RNikoley]

Well, in this case it looks like he was at fault for crossing into oncoming traffic, for whatever reason. Looking at the phone is a common one.

So, the type of vehicle he hit wasn't much of an issue, could have been a car, truck, or other standard motorbike...that might have resulted in more of a survivable, glancing blow. Head-ons are notoriously hard to survive, helmet or not.

Someone mentioned a license. Pretty big LOL there. Everybody knows what licenses are for, especially for farang...and yes, I have both...but only because I got tired of getting nicked for 500 baht in tourist areas. Out in Isan rice paddies where I have a house, the only people with DLs are the ones who had to because they finally qualified for car loans. I know people in their 70s who have never had a DL (or ever paid the annual registration on their motorbikes). I find it humorous how farang come here, live amongst only other farang, in farang areas, and they're all such law-abiding citizens when the 70% of the population that lives rural scoffs and laughs at their virtue-signalling.

To address the high traffic-fatality rate here, it has zero to do with helmets and just like in other 3rd world and developing countries, the cause of high fatality is:

1. slow and very-slow moving vehicles mixed with fast and very-fast moving vehicles in the same space.

There's no number 2.

Humans are not particularly good at judging relative speed, as we tend to affix a moving object into the stationary terrain and are only judging our own speed relative to that...when in actuality, closing speed can be double or more.

Things happen very fast when 2 objects are moving toward each other.

A feature of modern-society 1st world road travel is that first, there are lots of minimum-standards for road worthiness and enormous swaths of mom & pop vehicular machinery wouldn't come close to qualifying; and second, more restrictions on what vehicles can travel where, particularly applicable to large trucks.

Edited August 11, 2023 by RNikoley

[HolyCowCm]

21 minutes ago, RNikoley said:

Well, in this case it looks like he was at fault for crossing into oncoming traffic, for whatever reason. Looking at the phone is a common one.

So, the type of vehicle he hit wasn't much of an issue, could have been a car, truck, or other standard motorbike...that might have resulted in more of a survivable, glancing blow. Head-ons are notoriously hard to survive, helmet or not.

Someone mentioned a license. Pretty big LOL there. Everybody knows what licenses are for, especially for farang...and yes, I have both...but only because I got tired of getting nicked for 500 baht in tourist areas. Out in Isan rice paddies where I have a house, the only people with DLs are the ones who had to because they finally qualified for car loans. I know people in their 70s who have never had a DL (or ever paid the annual registration on their motorbikes). I find it humorous how farang come here, live amongst only other farang, in farang areas, and they're all such law-abiding citizens when the 70% of the population that lives rural scoffs and laughs at their virtue-signalling.

To address the high traffic-fatality rate here, it has zero to do with helmets and just like in other 3rd world and developing countries, the cause of high fatality is:

1. slow and very-slow moving vehicles mixed with fast and very-fast moving vehicles in the same space.

There's no number 2.

Humans are not particularly good at judging relative speed, as we tend to affix a moving object into the stationary terrain and are only judging our own speed relative to that...when in actuality, closing speed can be double or more.

Things happen very fast when 2 objects are moving toward each other.

A feature of modern-society 1st world road travel is that first, there are lots of minimum-standards for road worthiness and enormous swaths of mom & pop vehicular machinery wouldn't come close to qualifying; and second, more restrictions on what vehicles can travel where, particularly applicable to large trucks.

My wife has never held a bike license and refuses to get one. Could be she is shy on having to go do the written test and pass it so not going to ever happen. For the vehicle she has a for life license as nothing ever has to be done since she got it when young. But for me and the kids I stress that we have bike and vehicle with no ifs and or butts. Just having the license is a good feeling in itself. I used to ride without a bike license and got to the point of tired of avoiding check points or having to pay the few times I really had to.

[Khunmark]

I don’t ride a motorbike in Thailand, because I don’t have a license to ride one from my own country. Many of my friends ride back home and aside from wearing a helmet which is enforced, they all wear leathers which is not enforced . If you come off a bike at over 25 kmph some part of your body is going to introduce itself to the gravel or bitumen. And wearing, shorts, a single and open toed footwear isn’t going to protect you from the nasty abrasions you will inevitably receive. And yet it seems only a small minority of motorcyclists take this into consideration before they get out on their bike.

[Viggen840]

17 hours ago, ChrisS said:

No crash helmet, I wonder did he even have a motorcycle licence. What is wrong with these people that they think they are invincible.

The possible lack of license/experience was the first thing that came to my head.

[Viggen840]

8 minutes ago, Khunmark said:

I don’t ride a motorbike in Thailand, because I don’t have a license to ride one from my own country. Many of my friends ride back home and aside from wearing a helmet which is enforced, they all wear leathers which is not enforced . If you come off a bike at over 25 kmph some part of your body is going to introduce itself to the gravel or bitumen. And wearing, shorts, a single and open toed footwear isn’t going to protect you from the nasty abrasions you will inevitably receive. And yet it seems only a small minority of motorcyclists take this into consideration before they get out on their bike.

A friend who used to work in the Aust Embassy related one tale of a chap that cost the Australian Government heaps of money because of a motorbike accident. To start with, he didn't have travel insurance and then had a bad prang with his rental bike that stripped a good bit of skin off his body in various places. Being able to walk away, he never went for medical treatment, self-treated with whatever and then anaesthetised with the local brown bravemaker.

A couple of days later, he couldn't get rid of the horrible stench and discovered he had developed gangrene. Long story short, the government had to come to his aid to the tune of three rows of seats on a commercial flight back to hospital at home. 

The moral of that story? Don't overreach your capabilities and plan ahead.

[Viggen840]

1 hour ago, RNikoley said:

1. slow and very-slow moving vehicles mixed with fast and very-fast moving vehicles in the same space.

I agree wholeheartedly! Why a vehicle has to be travelling at 35-40 kmh on a highway is criminal. Add to that the slow takeoff from lights! Do they have to check and re-check if the light is green and they aren't dreaming?

[harry1]

doesnt explain why he veered into oncoming traffic, as mention by witnesses, he was hoping to be a captain of the sea, might have had a seizure or something else, my condolences to his family and wife

[cowslip]

Blaming individuals or making assumptions about their behaviour is totally missing the point.

He IS sadly another statistic.

In Thailand it is almost impossible to get accurate, detailed statistics of road deaths and injuries and in those details are the deaths of tourists by nationality or whatever.....they are simply not collated.

THe accident itself is not analysed in detail at all, it is subject to a casual ,amatuer overview by a lovcal officer and nothing of value is learned from this.

 

deaths of foreigners on Thai roads has been a serious problem for decades now but as there is no analysis, nothing can can be done to prevent this.

 

Foreigners are entering a driving environment that is totally und=familiar to them and their is little or no advice  or warning about how to deal with it.....just expect more foreign deaths.

 

 

 

[TheDirtyDurian]

4 hours ago, RNikoley said:

Well, in this case it looks like he was at fault for crossing into oncoming traffic, for whatever reason. Looking at the phone is a common one.

So, the type of vehicle he hit wasn't much of an issue, could have been a car, truck, or other standard motorbike...that might have resulted in more of a survivable, glancing blow. Head-ons are notoriously hard to survive, helmet or not.

Someone mentioned a license. Pretty big LOL there. Everybody knows what licenses are for, especially for farang...and yes, I have both...but only because I got tired of getting nicked for 500 baht in tourist areas. Out in Isan rice paddies where I have a house, the only people with DLs are the ones who had to because they finally qualified for car loans. I know people in their 70s who have never had a DL (or ever paid the annual registration on their motorbikes). I find it humorous how farang come here, live amongst only other farang, in farang areas, and they're all such law-abiding citizens when the 70% of the population that lives rural scoffs and laughs at their virtue-signalling.

To address the high traffic-fatality rate here, it has zero to do with helmets and just like in other 3rd world and developing countries, the cause of high fatality is:

1. slow and very-slow moving vehicles mixed with fast and very-fast moving vehicles in the same space.

There's no number 2.

Humans are not particularly good at judging relative speed, as we tend to affix a moving object into the stationary terrain and are only judging our own speed relative to that...when in actuality, closing speed can be double or more.

Things happen very fast when 2 objects are moving toward each other.

A feature of modern-society 1st world road travel is that first, there are lots of minimum-standards for road worthiness and enormous swaths of mom & pop vehicular machinery wouldn't come close to qualifying; and second, more restrictions on what vehicles can travel where, particularly applicable to large trucks.

I would suggest it has everything to do with helmets. 

Of Thailand's extremely high road fatalities, about 3/4 are from motorbikes. 

Only about 50% of riders and 20% of passengers wear helmets. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/thailand-roads-deadly-traffic-accidents-class-inequality-a9071696.html