Tour Bus Crashes and Overturns in Phuket Injuring 17 Chinese Tourists

On Tuesday morning, a small tour bus overturned on a bend in Thalang district in Phuket, Thailand, injuring 17 Chinese tourists (two badly) and two Thai crew members.

The accident occurred at the Bang Duk curve on Thep Krasattri Road and was reported to police at 7.50 a.m., according to Phuket Pol Maj Akkaraphon Sriwilai, deputy chief investigator at Tha Chatchai.

Emergency crews discovered a white bus with Buri Ram license plates toppled on the road near the center divider, with its windscreen damaged.

 

According to police investigations, the bus was carrying 17 Chinese nationals and three Thais: a guide, a driver, and an assistant. They were traveling from a guesthouse in downtown Muang to Thap Lamu pier, where the visitors would board a boat to the Similan islands in Phangnga.

The driver lost control of the bus near the Bang Duk curve, and it overturned.

Bus Accidents in Thailand

There have recently been several terrible occurrences involving bus wrecks in Thailand, highlighting the dangers of bus travel in the country.

Last month, fourteen people died in Thailand when a double-decker bus went off the road and collided with a tree. The incident in Prachuap Khiri Khan, a seaside province in the country’s south, injured thirty-two others.

Thailand has one of the world’s highest road accident rates, resulting in thousands of fatalities each year.

According to Thailand’s Road Accidents Data Centre, 15,000 persons died on Thai roads in 2022 alone. In the United Kingdom, which has a little smaller population, the figure is 1,700.

According to the World Health Organization, traffic-related events would account for about one-third of all deaths in the country in 2021. The number of fatalities has decreased in the last three years, yet Thailand remains among the top ten worst countries for road safety.

Despite this, there is minimal public demand for increased safety, and the topic rarely comes up during election campaigns.

Some have ascribed this to the fact that the majority of the casualties – more than 70% of fatalities – are motorbike riders from the weakest socioeconomic groups, and the majority of accidents occur on rural roads.

In Thailand, unlike in neighboring Vietnam and Indonesia, helmet use is virtually universally discouraged, and alcohol is frequently a contributing factor to accidents.

Thailand’s governments are more easily affected by campaigns supported by wealthy metropolitan dwellers.

Thailand’s roads are excellent enough for fast driving, although they are generally poorly illuminated and signed, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Speeding is only seldom penalized, and the fines are little and frequently not collected at all.

Disqualification from driving is also uncommon among Thai drivers.

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