Phuket motorbike crash claims life of Russian tourist

Another tragic road death has hit Phuket.

A motorbike crash claimed the life of a Russian tourist on a rural road in central Phuket yesterday, The Phuket News reported. According to a report made to Thalang Police, a motorcycle with two foreigners flew off a small road and crashed, killing the driver on the spot.

Police and rescuers arrived on the scene to find the body of 36 year old Maksim Fadeev. Fadeev was wearing an open-face crash helmet, which unfortunately did not protect him from an injury to his forehead.

The team also found Fedeev’s younger brother, 32 year old Andrei Fadeev, at the scene. Details on Andrei’s condition were not reported, however, he was at least conscious and able to communicate with police and rescuers. Andrei was brought to a hospital.

A preliminary investigation found that the brothers arrived in Phuket on April 5, and planned to leave on April 15. They had been staying at a hotel in Patong and had a Honda Click scooter for outings.

On the day of the tragic accident, the brothers went to visit Bang Pae Waterfall in Pa Khlok. Police believe that Maksim, who had been driving, failed to navigate the road which he was not familiar with.

The Embassy of Russia in Thailand was notified about the incident.

This year, Phuket has so far experienced 38 road deaths, with 6,422 people injured in road accidents, according to the Thailand Road Safety Committee (ThaiRSC).

The ThaiRSC reported in January that as many as 939,713 road accidents were reported in Thailand last year, up 4.7% from 2021. Road accidents killed 14,737 people, and injured 924,799 last year, ThaiRSC said. The committee reported that 536 deaths and 7,885 injuries were among foreigners.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre reported 2,440 road accidents during the annual “7 dangerous days” (December 29 to January 4) when people head to their hometowns to mark the new year.

During this time there were 2,437 injuries and 317 deaths, with Surat Thani having the highest number of accidents at 79 and Kanchanaburi with the highest number of injuries at 81. Chiang Rai recorded the most deaths at 15.