British tourist kills police officer in Hua Hin road accident

[buksida]

A speeding Benz sports car driven by a British tourist crashed into a motorcycle at U-turn in Hua Hin town, killing a border patrol policeman early Wednesday.

Pol Lt Nonthawat Thongkham, an officer on duty of Hua Hin police station, said the accident happened on the outbound Phetkasem Road at the U-turn spot in front of the Hua Hin Hospital at 2:40 am.

After alerted of the accident, Nonthawat and rescuers of the Sawang Hua Hin Thammasathan Foundation rushed to the scene.

They found a two-door retractable-roof Benz car with Bangkok license plate at the scene. Its front was badly damaged and its airbags had been deployed. Its windshield was broken and its engine oil leaked but it did not catch fire.

The car crashed into a Yamaha YZF-R3 300-CC blue motorcycle without a license plate. The impact hurled the motorcycle about 200 meters away from car. Several parts of the motorcycle were broken and scattered at the spot.

The body of Police Lance Corporal Wiroon Srinarong, 24, a border patrol policeman of Naresuan base in Cha-am district, Phetchaburi, was found at the scene.

Nonthawat said the Benz was driven by John Benjamin, 44, a British tourist who suffered chest injury. He was rushed to the Hua Hin Hospital and received an x-ray and doctors put in under close watch for possible internal injury.

Nonthwat interrogated Benjamin and learned that he was speeding his car from his residence in Cha-am to Hua Hin and the policeman made a u-turn at the spot suddenly, cutting into his way and making it impossible for him to stop his car in time.

Source: Khaosod

[usual suspect]

It's been a fair impact to hurl a 300cc m/cycle 200m!
(This is why speed limits are in place worldwide in built-up areas)
R.I.P. Wiroon.

[Ginjaninja]

I find it hard to believe he admitted to speeding though....

[margaretcarnes]

Oh dear - with respect to the deceased police officer - - a 'tourist' speeding in a Merc sports job? Hardly your usual rental car is it? Hopefully the right person will pay the right price for this when it comes to court.

[Gregjam]

Another accident at one of the U turns and this time a fatality. A neighbour recently was very lucky at one of the U turns on this stretch as she rather foolishly turned without having clear sight of the road. The fact that her vision was blocked by a vehicle illegally doing a U turn the opposite way did not help. She was very lucky.
It is strange the way the report goes into detail about the make of car and that the bike had no number plate but is severely lacking elsewhere leading to a number of possibly false assumptions. Given the time one would suspect that alcohol is involved possibly by both parties. Does lack of a number plate indicate a new unregistered bike which infers it should not (theoretically but we all know what happens) be on the road in the middle of the night. Whatever the outcome of the investigation it is another tragic loss of life which should not have happened and could have been avoided probably by one small change in attitude by either party.

[dtaai-maai]

These little u-turns (not to mention the big ones on the main highways) are an accident waiting to happen, which is why they've been eradicated in most countries where safety is a priority.

There's inevitably an awful lot of speculation as usual, but the crucial factors should be whether the car driver was speeding (and by how much, because he almost certainly was, just like everyone else along there) and whether either person was drunk. I'm pretty sure it's possible to calculate the speed, at least approximately, by the damage to the vehicles (and the car looks a complete wreck), and you'd imagine that they'd have taken a blood sample from the car driver. Did he admit to speeding? Was he in any condition to be "interrogated"? In what language and by whom? What's his immigration status? (Seems unlikely that he's a tourist).

So many questions that we can't possibly answer, but it's an awful situation for the family of the dead man, and a pretty unpleasant one for the car driver as well.

[centermid7]

I would make a small wager that in the above "news" report that the statement that the car driver was "speeding" his car should actually be he was "driving" his car. This kinda stuff is lost in translation all the time.

We'll never know of course.

[hhinner]

Not lost in translation. The Khao Sod article uses Thai words for "speeding" and "high speed" in several places.

[Name Taken]

Oh dear - with respect to the deceased police officer - - a 'tourist' speeding in a Merc sports job? Hardly your usual rental car is it? Hopefully the right person will pay the right price for this when it comes to court.

Yeah, but Thai's view all foreigners(farangs) as just 'Tourists'.
We're all just 'Tourists' here even if you have lived in this country for 10, 20, 30 or 40 years. By viewing all foreigners as just mere 'Tourists' it makes Thai's feel superior.

[hhinner]

^ All Thais I suppose.

[europtimiste]

It's an accident as so many every day. Why so many comments and speculations ? A man died, RIP. When you make a U-Turn, you should give priority, but it happened at 2.40 am. so NO COMMENT.

[JamesWest]

Thais on their scooters "go" and then "look".
Just yesterday I was pointing it out to my Thai girlfriend. Over and over all day you see it.

I told her "look first" then "go".

So someone was speeding and someone else assumed the road was clear.

A nightmare for all.

[Banff]

R.I.P to the police officer....Please give him some respect...

And everyone please drive carefully...

....