Thread: Chinese Tourist Seriously Injured After Falling from Pattaya Songthaew, Driver Escape

A Chinese tourist was seriously injured Monday morning after falling from a Songthaew in Pattaya. The driver of the Songthaew reportedly immediately fled the scene.


Update: Unfortunately, the tourist later passed away from his injuries. Police are planning a safety training with baht bus drivers and working with the wife of the tourist and Chinese embassy on the matter. Meanwhile, the baht bus driver has surrendered to police and stated he claims he was not aware that the tourist fell off his bus until he saw the news later in the day.


The incident occurred on Monday, July 22nd, 2024, on Pattaya Second Road in the Nongprue sub-district, Banglamung district, Chonburi province. Emergency responders from the Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Foundation rushed to the accident scene following the report.


At the scene, a large crowd had gathered to witness the event. On the road, rescuers found 48-year-old Mr. Chi Fai Lam, a 48-year-old Chinese tourist, who was seriously injured and lying motionless in the middle of the road. The rescue team provided initial first aid by performing CPR to revive him before urgently transporting him to the nearest hospital. The Songthaew driver involved in the accident had reportedly fled the scene before the authorities arrived.

Ms. Sripai Phanthongdee, a 56-year-old motorcycle taxi driver and eyewitness, told The Pattaya News that while she was waiting for passengers, she heard someone shouting for help. She then found that a tourist had fallen from the Songthaew and was severely injured. However, instead of stopping to help the injured tourist, the Songthaew driver sped away quickly. Ms. Sripai immediately notified the authorities for assistance.


Initially, the Pattaya Police collected CCTV footage from the area to track down the Songthaew driver. The driver is expected to face legal charges.

Chinese Tourist Seriously Injured After Falling from Pattaya Songthaew, Driver Escapes - The Pattaya News

Tourists, and indeed locals, especially schoolkids love to travel standing on the little step at the back of these songthaews, It is breezy and perched there has an element of danger, giving a sense of freedom and adventure and seems preferable to sitting inside the vehicle where one is crammed in close proximity to obese farangs, smelly indians and arabs, consumptive chinese and local pickpocketing katoeys.

This outside step is not always securely fitted and is often attached to the main body of the vehicle either with bolts that are soon affected by rust in the corrosive salty air of Pattaya, or with equally insecure chickenhead welds.

I suspect the unfortunate chinese gentleman was standing on this step and lost his footing when the driver suddenly braked after looking up from his phone and realising he was too close to the vehicle in front.

happened to my daughter in January coming back from Airport Link. was very worrying.
she has free songtaew rides for life now (which she of course doesnt use).

Yikes. Is she ok now?

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Yikes. Is she ok now?

Still don't know then, HE is dead, NOT a she, why not read it before rushing to get a comment in?

Originally Posted by britanicus123

Still don't know then, HE is dead, NOT a she, why not read it before rushing to get a comment in?

suggest you re-read. he was replying to my comment, rushing in and all that.

Originally Posted by reinvented

suggest you re-read. he was replying to my comment, rushing in and all that.

He should have quoted you then, how do the rest of us know who he's talking to?

The Pattaya conurbation is the only city of its size, getting up to a million in population in season, that I know of in the world which does not have a municipal public omnibus transport system.

The filthy pig trucks are what passes for public transport in this shitty town but I do seem to recall you sung their praises in the past, Tax.

Since the advent of Bolt and Grab, I rarely use them now unless it is for short hops and one is pissed.

I hate the way the drivers, simpleton Bonobo ape lookalikes with their ever frowning simian visage, drive on their fucking brakes forcing the passengers to lurch sideways back and forth skewing spinal columns, as they hit the horn to attract the attention of pedestrians in some gormless and forlorn hope they’d be persuaded to stop walking and use his pick up.

And his miserable anhedonic wife sitting next to him scowling Pekingese like who takes the money and gives you the evil eye if you have the temerity to proffer a 20 baht note and then punishes you with 10 one baht coins in change.

Tipping those fuckers is akin to wai-ing them, something only a gormless fuckwitted septic newbie might do.

Thankfully it will never happen again.

Additionally, Pattaya Tourist Police and Pattaya City Police Station will call a meeting with songthaew operators to emphasize and establish measures for serving tourists to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

Joking.

Tax, the accessibility of songthaew drivers aside, Hua Hin is a tedious humdrum dormitory town of little interest and quite simply too far away from Bkk for my liking. Pattaya is very much a compromise and the least worst option in a country which is pretty much uniformly fuckwitted.

From the screen grab it looks as if he was the only passenger. The driver is clearly a lying sack of shit or so halfwitted as to be unaware of which planet he is currently inhabiting - in short, a typical songthaew driver doing the Pattaya circuits.

Admittedly Hua Hin lacks the sophistication, the refinement, the elegance and the finesse that makes Pattaya the world class and highly desirable destination that it so obviously is, maybe one day soon Hua Hin will also be able to boast of its own extensive protected criminal fraternity, 10000 cockroach infested brothels and suck shops, an infestation of diseased and drug addled sexual freaks preying on visitors, thuggish chickenheads controlling tourist transport operations, thousands of stinking bobbleheads, juiced up euro mongers, russian orcs, bedraggled retirees living inpenury and of course a corrupt police force skimming the cream from all of them.

if only.

Tax, I suggest you revisit. Even ten years ago it wasn’t as you depicted.

Whores, foreign scum, gormless tourists, wogs, coons, greasers, slopes, dinks, dagoes, chinks, panheads, niggers, ragheads and the Welsh, as indeed are the scheming, duplicitous, hypocritical and rapaciously greedy Thai whose ethical compass points inevitably to perdition, are all to be found anywhere in this medieval dystopia.

ItÂ’s just that Hua Hin is the equivalent of a waiting room in a branch line station between destinations for the living.

Dull, mediocre, predictable, and with an expat population whose lingua franca seems to be smug sanctimony.

Fine for three days but no more.

Tax, I suggest you revisit

I think I would rather spend a month in Isaan with Stumpy and Neverna than a weekend in Pattaya.

Originally Posted by taxexile

I think I would rather spend a month in Isaan with Stumpy.

Despite him telling you several times where he lives, you still can't get it right.

Your mental enfeeblement is more noticeable by the day.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Despite him telling you several times where he lives, you still can't get it right.

Your mental enfeeblement is more noticeable by the day.

Oh do fuck off cyrille, you pedantic old has been.

To us southerners, anywhere north of ayutthaya is the land that time forgot. There be dragons and all that.

Originally Posted by taxexile

I think I would rather spend a month in Isaan with Stumpy and Neverna than a weekend in Pattaya.

Went to 'Patters' for a week once in 1997, left after one night. It's a cross between an open air brothel and a madhouse.

Originally Posted by britanicus123

Went to 'Patters' for a week once in 1997, left after one night. It's a cross between an open air brothel and a madhouse.

Tell me, is idiocy a full time thing with you or merely a phase you are negotiating whilst entering your dementia?

Tax, are you unaware of the organised crime syndicates from Holland, Sweden, Britain etc in cahoots with the local Thai panjandrums that have been operating in Hua Hin over the past twenty five years protected by several generals?

Sometimes, Tax, despite your claimed knowledge you really are bit of a naïf.

They are small potatoes compared to the goings on in Pattaya, and whilst they may have been of concern a decade ago, their influence now is much reduced. Mostly Thai on Thai these days.



At least thats what my informants tell me.

Hong Kong Tourist Dies After Falling from Pattaya Songthaew, Driver Charged

A tourist from Hong Kong, originally reported as from mainland China, who fell from a Songthaew in Pattaya on Monday has died from his injuries. The driver of the Songthaew has been charged with reckless driving causing death and failing to stop and assist the injured victim.

The victim, identified as 48-year-old Mr. Chi Fai Lam, was found unconscious on the side of Pattaya Second Road near the Wat Chai Mongkol Temple intersection on Monday morning, July 22nd. Rescue workers rushed him to Pattaya Hospital, where he was later tragically pronounced dead on the same day.

Pattaya Police collected CCTV footage from the area, which shows Mr. Lam in the back of the Songthaew when he suddenly fell out. The Songthaew driver, later identified as Mr. Thongchai Thongruang, did not stop to help and immediately sped away from the scene, according to the footage and statements from many eyewitnesses.




At around 1 PM on July 22nd, Mr. Thongchai surrendered to Pattaya Police after being contacted by the owner of the Songthaew. He claimed that he was unaware of the incident, stating that he had picked up 7-8 tourists from Dolphin Roundabout in North Pattaya and dropped them off at Walking Street. He insisted that he saw all passengers get off his vehicle safely and immediately turned himself in after learning from the Songthaew owner that a tourist had fallen from his vehicle.

Mr. Thongchai has been charged with reckless driving causing death and failing to stop to assist the victim or report himself to authorities.


The Pattaya Police are aiding the victim’s wife in seeking compensation from the driver. According to the police, Songthaews typically have insurance under the Protection for Motor Vehicle Victims Act, which covers death compensation up to 500,000 baht.




The victim’s wife (name withheld to protect her privacy) asked authorities to repatriate Mr. Lam’s body for funeral rites in Hong Kong. The Pattaya Police will facilitate her coordination with the embassy on July 23rd, 2024. The man was reportedly a member of law enforcement in Hong Kong.


In response to this incident, Pattaya Tourist Police and city officials plan to convene a meeting with Songthaew drivers to enforce stricter safety measures to prevent such accidents in the future.


The Pattaya News notes that safety on baht buses has come up a number of times over the years and this is not the first time a tourist has fallen off the back of a baht bus and died. In 2019, another tourist from Hong Kong died after falling from one in Jomtien.




In February of 2023 Thailand passed a law banning standing on the back of Baht buses. However, enforcement is widely perceived as lax.


Update: Hong Kong Tourist Dies After Falling from Pattaya Songthaew, Driver Charged - The Pattaya News