Thailand: School bus catches fire outside Bangkok with 25 feared dead

[klong toey]

Around 25 people are feared dead after a school bus carrying students and teachers went up in flames during a field trip in Thailand.


The incident occurred on Tuesday on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.
Thailand: School bus catches fire outside Bangkok with 25 feared dead | World News | Sky News

[Bonecollector]

Just horrific, very upset God Bless them all and their parents

[DrWilly]

Horrible

[david44]

Yes, will we find the cause thought to be a blow out?
Unlike anywhere else in the world the driver who must be known to the owners ran away.

RIP

[Troy]

Driver fled the scene...

[david44]

Driver fled the scene...

Indeed just added to my post.

An interesting aside to the tragedy.

I can recall many such cases but only in Thailand.

[taxexile]

will we find the cause thought to be a blow out?

A rescuer at the scene told the transport minister that the fire likely started after one of the tyres exploded and the vehicle scraped against a road barrier.

rubber shard from the punctured ( retreaded, second hand ? ) tyre flying back and piercing a poorly maintained fuel line, causing fuel to spill onto a red hot exhaust pipe, or a poorly fitted lpg line if the bus was gas powered.

a puncture and scraping collision with a road barrier shouldnot cause a bus to go up in flames like that, buses should have esily opening safety exits.

if the victims were unable to escape in time before the fire took hold then something was seriously wrong with that bus.

what an awful tragedy, and of course there will be little in the way of a serious investigation. the driver will be found, blamed and punished. the company will change its name and its poorly maintained death traps will continue to endanger passengers and other road users, just as buses have done in thailand for 50 years or more.

next time you pull up at the lights next to one of these gaudily painted nightmares, have a look at the tyres. you will be horrified. $5000 on paint, mirrors and sound systems but 50 satang on tyres.

[taxexile]

videos online show that the driver left the cab and tried to open the emergency exit doors from the outside, but they would not open and he was driven back by the flames.

[Seekingasylum]

Buses constructed locally are not necessarily known for their mechanical integrity and do have a history of catastrophic deformation and failure of safety systems when involved in collisions.

Typical Thai of course, on outward appearances they appear functional and fit for their purpose but on closer scrutiny inevitably prove to be inferior and often fatal.

[Edmond]

Wasn't the boat that went down with all the Chinese on board built in a backyard.

Wonder who put that thing together. Year 9 Metalshop?

[misskit]

Tragic school coach fire claims lives of 22 students and 3 teachers

Twenty-two schoolchildren and three teachers from a school in Uthai Thani province were killed when their two-deck coach caught fire on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road today, said Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.


Sixteen children and three other teachers managed to escape. One of the teachers reported that the door of the burning coach initially could not be opened, Anutin said.


Three double-decked coaches were taking the students, aged between three and nine, of Wat Khao Sangkharam school in Lan Sak district from the Ayutthaya Historical Park in Ayutthaya to the Electricity Generating Authority (EGAT) learning centre in Nonthaburi province.


The students were on a one-day trip from their school and were scheduled to arrive back at their school by 8pm this evening.


Anutin travelled to the scene of the tragic incident, with Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit, to investigate the incident and to arrange for medical facilities and other help for the survivors.


Anutin disclosed that there were 38 students and six teachers on the ill-fated coach.


Citing reports from the emergency services, Anutin said it is believed that a tire burst, causing the coach to scrape along the metal crash barrier, triggering sparks which came into contact with the gas tank and started the fire.


Anutin said that 16 students and three teachers were rescued, some of them injured, and were rushed to the hospital.


Meanwhile Transport Minister Suriya said that the ministry will look into the issue of CNG, which was used as fuel in the ill-fated coach, to determine its safety and whether it should continue being use in vehicles.


The school, in the meantime, issued a statement on Facebook advising parents of the students to contact the school for information about their children.

Tragic school coach fire claims lives of 22 students and 3 t

[misskit]

Investigation of fatal school coach fire gets underway

Forensic investigators have started collecting evidence from the ill-fated double-decked coach that caught fire today, killing 22 school students and three teachers.


Officials were seen erecting temporary screens around the wreckage, to facilitate the forensic work, which will include the identification of the victims’ bodies.

They are mapping the seating plan on the coach to help identify the bodies, as most were burned beyond recognition.

The tragedy occurred on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, near Zeer Rangsit Department Store in Pathum Thani province, shortly after noon.


The coach was carrying 44 passengers, including six teachers and 38 schoolchildren, when the accident happened.


Sixteen passengers, three teachers and 13 students, managed to escape the fire.

Investigation of fatal school coach fire gets underway

[klong toey]

Heard rumours of this yesterday.

[misskit]

Field trips don’t hurt students, poorly-maintained transport does : PM


Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has expressed disagreement with suspending educational field trips for students, saying that the measure does not solve the basic problem.


She said that such trips are not harmful to children and blamed poorly-maintained public transport for road accidents, adding that all transport used for educational field trips should be properly checked, especially for long journeys.


The prime minister made the comments after the Education Ministry ordered the immediate suspension of all educational field trips by schools under its supervision, except for trips which are deemed necessary, and that the trips should be confined within the schools’ province.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit announced today that all the 13,000 plus public buses which use compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel must be subjected to thorough checks within 60 days.


He also said that he has ordered the Land Transport Department to coordinate with the Education Ministry, and all educational institutes which organise field trips for their students, to arrange inspections of the vehicles to be used.


He added that the drivers must be trained to cope with an emergency situation, so they can help passengers.


The minister disclosed that, in the past, when the Transport Ministry planned to issue regulations to tighten up controls on the use of aging vehicles, public transport operators often protested.


“But this time around we will not acquiesce to their demands or protests,” said Suriya, adding that new measures will be introduced to ban aging vehicles from being used as public transport.

Field trips don’t hurt students, poorly-maintained transport

[armstrong]

Daughter left on her residential trip yesterday. The LINE group was sent pics of the busses tyres, engine and drivers.

[Seekingasylum]

Reckless incompetence, institutionalised stupidity, money grubbing, hypocrisy and obfuscation is the leitmotif for this ridiculous little country.

There is not a shred of doubt what caused this appalling disaster killing 23 innocent children and adults.

An ageing bus travelling on substandard tyres crashed into a barrier when a tyre blew which pierced the fitted lpg/cng tank that ignited and burned the occupants alive who could not escape because an emergency exit failed to function.

Apportioning blame where it belongs is not the Thai way, that would mean the culpable would have to accept responsibility and that would never do among a people pathologically incapable of it.

The school, the dept of transport, the absence of any meaningful health and safety regime, the laxity of a succession of politicians unqualified to govern, all are responsible but none will pay for their crimes of negligence.

Shitty people, shitty society, shitty country.

[harrybarracuda]

No surprise.

Acting Police Chief Pol Gen Kittirat Panpetch said at a press conference Wednesday that investigators found no evidence that a bus tire exploded. Also, they discovered not 10 but 11 NGV tanks installed in the bus – 5 of them without a permit.

Just a moment...

[Troy]

...
The driver, Saman Chanput, was arrested several hours after the accident and charged with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident, police said. He had fled the scene, but after being arrested told police he had run to try to get a fire extinguisher from another vehicle, but panicked and ran away when the fire went out of control before he could get any help.

Authorities were investigating if the fire might be caused by negligence by the bus company as well as the driver, and will press charges against all parties responsible, acting police chief Kitrat Phanphet said at a press conference.

While an initial investigation suggested that the driver was not speeding, police found 11 natural gas canisters inside the bus that had a permit to install only six, Kitrat said. Many Thai vehicles use NGV — also called CNG, compressed natural gas — for fuel.

Police have not officially concluded what was the cause of the fire, but have said the driver told investigators he was driving normally until a front tire malfunctioned and set the bus off balance, at which point it hit a car and then scraped against a concrete highway barrier. The sparks from the friction might have set off the highly flammable gas canisters, and ignited the blaze, police said.

Kitrat said the fact that the driver did not immediately stop after feeling he was losing control of the bus could be grounds for negligence.

An inspection of the bus found that its emergency exit could be opened, but it wasn’t clear if it worked properly, said chief of police forensics Trairong Phiwpan. He also said they did not find any emergency window breakers.
...

Bodies of the children and teachers who died in a Thai school bus fire return home for funeral | AP News

It's no wonder the drivers flee the scene when the finger is pointed at them whenever these accidents occur.

[harrybarracuda]

You don't need to be Mystic Meg.

The driver will take the fall, a fine will be paid, and business will carry on as usual.

Sorry, I mean "fine".

[nidhogg]

Jesus. The number of times I have been on a bus exactly like that. There but for the grace of God, I suppose.

RIP to the lost ones.

[Edmond]

How are they going to ID the remains for the families to receive the correct body, DNA? What's the time frame for that? Hopefully not the same crew as the Koh Tao murders or they might all come back as Burmese.

[Shutree]

I hear that many government workers will dress in black tomorrow, Friday, as a mark of respect.
I don't know if this will be followed by the general population. Could be.

[harrybarracuda]

How are they going to ID the remains for the families to receive the correct body, DNA? What's the time frame for that? Hopefully not the same crew as the Koh Tao murders or they might all come back as Burmese.

Dental and/or DNA. Can take a week or two.

[misskit]

Has the name of the bus company been published?

[klong toey]

http://https://www.bangkokpost.com/t...-gas-cylinders
The licence of its Sing Buri-based operator, Chinnaboot Engineering (Thailand) Co, has been suspended pending further investigations