Thailand's deadliest accidents

[PeteC]

Some will remember most or all of the below. Some very tragic events over the years. Two people I knew perished in the Korat hotel collapse. I was actually in a hotel on Sukhumvit the night of the gas tanker explosion on Petchburi. You heard it very clearly, and it shook the windows all the way over there. Pete

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/06/09/n ... -accidents

[Brit Jim]

Until recently there was a website recording Foreigner deaths in LOS, now removed!

Phuket top of the list with drownings (riptides) followed by Pattaya. Hua Hin very safe!

Phuket has a terrible reputation with these rip tides and currents. My brother training for the Phuket Triathlon reckons a lot of un experienced swimmers drown because their natural instinct to swim against these rip tides especially if its dragging you out to sea. You will exhaust yourself pretty soon!

Whilst training in Phuket he was caught in several rip tides. Best advice is to go with the current and at some stage it will stop, Float on your back if possible! Then attempt to swim back to shore but you may have to swim in a circular route not direct otherwise back to square 1.

Either way these rip tides scare the crap out of me!

[VincentD]

Walked past that junction on Petchburi road only days before the accident. Also remember the Korat hotel collapse, think I stayed there once.

[Bamboo Grove]

I was actually in a hotel on Sukhumvit the night of the gas tanker explosion on Petchburi

I was in a tuk-tuk going from Lumphinee Park area to my home on Soi Suan Phlu.

[Korkenzieher]

Has Farang-Exits also turned up its toes then Jim? THere is still an archive of the site at archive.today/7Nejl but I haven't looked for the original site for some time.

[Nereus]

I remember my late Mother calling me franticaly after the gas tanker fire. For at least a year after the fire there were burnt out car bodies parked in the area.

Have to wonder if anybody was ever bought to trial over some of those "accidents", such as the hotel collapse and the Kader fire.

[Terry]

I can recall having a reservation for the Royal Plaza on Korat for 12th to 15th August '93. I was due for a site meeting on Friday 13th as we were working in that area.

I changed the hotel at the last moment to stay elsewhere with some of my colleagues.

It was a close call.

[Brit Jim]

Has Farang-Exits also turned up its toes then Jim? THere is still an archive of the site at archive.today/7Nejl but I haven't looked for the original site for some time.

Yes dead and buried not good for Phuket tourism. Surprised the archived stuff is still there.

That said local newspaper does cover most of the fatalities which alternate between drownings & motorcycle accidents!

Be safe out there!

[dundrillin]

Until recently there was a website recording Foreigner deaths in LOS, now removed!

Phuket top of the list with drownings (riptides) followed by Pattaya. Hua Hin very safe!

Phuket has a terrible reputation with these rip tides and currents. My brother training for the Phuket Triathlon reckons a lot of un experienced swimmers drown because their natural instinct to swim against these rip tides especially if its dragging you out to sea. You will exhaust yourself pretty soon!

Whilst training in Phuket he was caught in several rip tides. Best advice is to go with the current and at some stage it will stop, Float on your back if possible! Then attempt to swim back to shore but you may have to swim in a circular route not direct otherwise back to square 1.

Either way these rip tides scare the crap out of me!


Really good advice there,I would have done the opposite. Hope this advice is plastered over the beaches there

[Stargeezer]

The Gas tanker explosion on Petchburi will stay with me, as I had arrived at the DM
airport and was in a taxi to Nana Hotel. The driver had to detour past the scene and I could see the smoke and some flames as we were that close when it happened. Our tour bus came past a
bad accident a few years back, we were headed from Chang Mai to BKK and one bus was on its side
with the other bus piled into the first bus. There must have been quite a few people killed and injured
as the first bus was all mangled.
Stargeezer

[taffinexile]

Not a Thai disaster but linked to Thailand. A manager of mine, we both work for an Indian Steel company, was caught up at the airport when taken over by protesters in 2008. Stranded in Bangkok he missed his plane to Mumbai and his car to the companies hotel In Mumbai which was over run by gunmen. You just need to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he would have reached there before it all kicked off I'm not sure, but it was one plane he was glad to miss.