Thailand school bus deaths: Could accident make roads safer?

Thailand is a country in shock: three days ago, 20 children and three teachers were killed when their bus was engulfed in flames.

One of South East Asia’s worst road accidents resulted from a number of security breaches that some people have suggested successfully turned the automobile into a “bomb on wheels.”

The 23 passengers on board the vehicle are also depressed, and they are left wondering how this was ever permitted to happen, and if it might happen again.

After the pilot had come to a stop and collided with a practical barrier, a video of the bus showed jets of fire propelled up from underneath the vehicle, instantly rendering the backseat of the vehicle an inferno, leaving the passengers in the back without any chance of escaping.

Six gas cylinder were officially installed in the back of the changed vehicle, according to investigators.

However, they likewise discovered five more concealed under the front of the vehicle.

A tube leaking from one of those in the front exploded in flames during the investigation. Although it is not yet clear why the trapped passengers did n’t seem to be able to open the rear emergency exit as well.

The authorities responded by requiring evaluation of all of the more than 13, 000 public and private CNG cars and halting all long-distance school bus journeys.

However, since the van was initially registered in 1970, only one of many modifications was made to convert to CNG.

It was a kind of “franken-bus”, with fresh exterior added several times, and merely sections of the vehicle remaining from the original.

It had once been a double-decker, but when top restrictions were put on them because of their tendency to reject in an accident, it was changed to a single-decker.

The lower board was used to provide all the gasoline cylinders, with passengers seated on the lower deck. The vehicle is described as a “bomb on rims,” according to social media users.

Thailand has gradually implemented rules for vehicle protection over the past 15 years, according to the UNECE, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, a brain responsible for setting global standards in several fields. However, the implementation of these regulations has been delayed and fragmented.

” The problem is most of the companies in Thailand cannot reach that standard”, says Sumet Ongkittikul, a travel consultant at the Thailand Development Research Institute. ” So the application has been postponed to allow them to get up.

” Moreover, the regulations just apply to new cars. However, the majority of the trucks in Thailand are dated.

Local businesses are responsible for replacing outdated vehicle chassis with fresh bodywork, with safety standards largely falling far behind those of many other nations.

It is thought that at least 80 % of the cars connecting Thailand’s locations are in this older, adapted group.

” A new bus, from a good company, is very expensive,” Sumet Ongkittikul explains”. So they use an old vehicle, and a local company to create new exterior, and that is counted only as an ancient bus, where the new regulations do no use.”

For instance, UNECE rules UN R118, which requires van designs to be made with non-flammable materials, was actually introduced in Thailand in 2022, but does not apply to buses made before therefore, or buses adapted using older vehicle.

Less explosive materials may have helped to lessen Tuesday’s vehicle fire.

Even the very loose rules that did qualify to the obnoxious van appear to have been broken.

The vehicle was inspected in May of this year, according to the authorities, but they believe the unlawful inclusion of gas cylinder was made after that.

Two days after the accident, the police say they caught the bus owner trying to remove improperly installed gas cannisters from the five other buses.

The business has had its permission to move cars suspended, and the user has been charged with causing dying through negligence, with various criminal charges being considered.

Will this accident, however, finally cause Thailand’s otherwise poor road safety record to change?

The nation is currently working on its fifth National Road Safety Master Plan, but it has not made much progress.

For years, it has sat in the top 10 countries with the highest per capita road fatalities. At times, it has been number two.

According to data from the TDRI, an average of 17 people died from road accidents each year between the ten years to 2023.

In the UK, which has a similar population, fatalities are 10 times lower.

Anyone who frequently travels on Thai roads will be aware of the risky behavior that many drivers exhibit regularly.

It is uncommon and rarely punishable to speed over the speed limit. Cars weave in and out of traffic, leaving little margin for error. Commercial vehicles are often overloaded, badly designed and poorly lit. Motorbike riders routinely fail to wear helmets, far more than in neighbouring countries.

Some attribute corruption to the police force. Some people attribute misfortunes like car accidents to bad luck rather than bad habits, while blaming the Buddhist belief in karma.

Although there are signs that clearly ascribe the risks of drinking and driving, no Thai government has launched a road safety campaign. Some researchers believe this is because most fatalities, on motorbikes and on public buses, affect lower income groups, and not the policymakers who usually drive, or are driven, in high-end cars with high safety levels.

For all of the appalling statistics, road safety is not seen as an urgent issue, and gets little attention from the public.

Long-distance buses have had a lot of equally horrifying accidents before, but they are still far less safe than they were ten years ago.

Following Tuesday’s fatal accident, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit set up a special committee to examine all aspects of road safety. However, it has been met with little fanfare or enthusiasm.

If this initiative actually leads to meaningful improvements and lowers the number of fatalities annually, it will dispel the pattern of ineffective measures that have plagued nearly all of Thailand’s road safety efforts to date.