PHOTO: Sanook.com
A motorbike driver in the northern Thai province of Uthai Thani has died from injuries he sustained after he drove into a utility pole. Witnesses said they saw a face mask covering the motorbike driver’s eyes and they believe it obstructed his vision, causing the crash.
Mew, a 43 year old Burmese national, had bought the motorbike only 1 hour previously to the accident. It was reported that the motorbike was still covered in plastic wrap from the bike shop. The accident occurred on a curved section of the road and a 10 metre long tyre mark was found trailing up to the site of the accident.
Witnesses at the scene attempted to “wake the man up”, and a local recuse team administered CPR, but the attempts were in vain. Mew died at the scene before they could get him to a hospital.
Thai media reports that Mew’s friends and coworkers had gone to look for him after he had been missing from a local factory for longer than expected. They were dismayed to learn that the accident they came upon was that of their missing coworker and friend.
SOURCE: Thai Residents
Join the conversation and have your say on Thailand news published on The Thaiger.
Thaiger Talk is our new Thaiger Community where you can join the discussion on everything happening in Thailand right now.
Please note that articles are not posted to the forum instantly and can take up to 20 min before being visible. Click for more information and the Thaiger Talk Guidelines.
And his helmet was on backwards.
He was reportedly found 200 metres away from the motorbike.
And him being a Burmese National is relevant how?
RIP sir. Another life senselessly lost due to the unnecessary measures that have been put in place. I’m sure the lives lost due to governmental response to the situation is in the tens of thousands when you factor in suicides.
The rule to wear face mask when ride a bike is one of the most idiotic regarding Covid prevention.Zero justification.
“And him being a Burmese National is relevant how?”
No more and no less “relevant” than his being male, aged 43, and worked in a local factory.
Shame they don’t highlight the other 50 or so road deaths that happen on a daily basis in Thailand.
@Simon Small. Disagree as usual. His age has a bearing in as much that he wasn’t old and you can assume very capable of riding the motorcycle with reasonable eyesight and hearing. He being a factory worker related to the fact it was his coworkers in the factory who noticed “He” was late from lunch and hence made sense to refer to him as being male. The fact is he was either Burmese, Thai, Australian or Mongolian had no relevance whatsoever to the story. It’s just another example of the obsession Thai reporting has with nationality. It needs to stop.
It’s quite amusing to read the reports on the accident in the order they were written.
First, the original report from Sanook news, in Thai: “Pricha, a 42 year old local, said that he saw the victim lying on the road with a mask over his eyes. He thinks the wind blew the mask over his eyes.”
Next, Thai Residents, sourced from Sanook, who added that “witness believe the wind blew his mask that ended up covering his eyes … locals who witnessed the accident stated a mask was covering his eyes.”
Then here, sourced from Thai Residents, headlining “Motorbike death belived to be caused by face mask”, and that “Witnesses said they saw a face mask covering the motorbike driver’s eyes and they believe it obstructed his vision, causing the crash”.
FFS!
If you ride a bike, try to get the wind to blow a face mask that’s over your mouth and nose UP your face to cover your eyes.
With or without a helmet.
Unless you’re lying on your back, looking for a red moon, it’s virtually impossible, even if you try. Down, yes. Up, no.
FFS!
The bike was “crushed” on hitting the utility pole, which it “damaged”, “on a curve”, leaving a “ten metre long tire mark”, with the body found “about two hundred metres away” from the bike.
Sadly, the reason for the accident seems all too obvious.
@bt its says even more about those willing to follow it. The only time I ever wore a mask on a bike is when I was robbinh a bank. No I’m kidding.
Is when I forget to take it off afte walking out of 711
@Nigel it was relevant related to he being a factory worker as he was Burmese and not too old.
Yes @Ynwapa, it was replace the in the context of how he (hence man) was reported missing by his coworkers from the factory (relevance of factory worker). Totally irrelevant that he was Burmese. None whatsoever ever. You a habit Thai reporters have got in to. A sign of narrow mindedness I’m afraid.
@Nigel – No, it doesn’t need to stop. It is background information. What next? “Man dies in motorbike accident”? Then the pc brigade complain about “man”? Where would you be then?
Who, what, when, where, why and how. Get it?
Looks like this guy was wearing a mask but no helmet.
Regardless of where the mask may have been this incident shows clearly how moronic people in Thailand are. Wearing a face-mask driving a motorbike prevents you from nothing, wearing a helmet can save your life.
Is wearing a mask outdoors the ultimate fresh air tax if you’re caught without one? We always joked in the past about one governments will tax the air we breathe and now everyone has fallen for this.
” @Nigel – No, it doesn’t need to stop. It is background information. What next? “Man dies in motorbike accident”? Then the pc brigade complain about “man”? Where would you be then?”
Exactly, @Geoff. It goes beyond absurd, to beyond stupid if you think it’s somehow justifiable to give his age on supposed health / physical grounds (all assumed), that he was a factory because his fellow workers had reported him missing (they hadn’t) or that he was a man because he was referred to as “he” not “they”.
All of tenuous “relevance” on those grounds at best.
Of at least equal relevance on those grounds is that he was Burmese, since they drive on the other side of the road to Thailand.
“Relevance” hardly matters in media reports, or they’d be very dull – what matters is “interest”, and to most normal people who aren’t desperately trying to appear less racist than they very clearly and constantly are (even in his last comment), nationality and background is of natural interest.
” @Nigel – No, it doesn’t need to stop. It is background information. What next? “Man dies in motorbike accident”? Then the pc brigade complain about “man”? Where would you be then?”
Exactly, @Geoff. It goes beyond absurd, to beyond stupid if you think it’s somehow justifiable to give his age on supposed health / physical grounds (all assumed), that he was a factory worker because his fellow workers had reported him missing (they hadn’t) or that he was a man because he was referred to as “he” not “they”.
All of tenuous “relevance” on those grounds at best.
Of at least equal relevance on those grounds is that he was Burmese, since they drive on the other side of the road to Thailand.
“Relevance” hardly matters in media reports, or they’d be very dull – what matters is “interest”, and to most normal people who aren’t desperately trying to appear less racist than they very clearly and constantly are (even in his last comment on Thais being narrow minded), nationality and background is of natural interest.
“Is when I forget to take it off afte walking out of 711”
You’ve unwittingly put your finger on exactly why the law is and has to be so broad-brush, @intlbankster.
The law doesn’t allow you “to take it off after walking out of 711” just because you’re walking towards your motorbike.
If common sense could be relied on it could, allowing motor bike riders to pull their mask down or remove it when away from other people, but common sense can’t be relied on.
The only two people I’ve seen without masks among other people in public in the last couple of months have been on their way to getting on / off motor bikes in busy, crowded areas.
One took his mask off coming out of 7-11, walking to his bike, although he was surrounded by other people.
The other had ridden his bike to the hospital without a mask and he walked past at least twenty people while taking his mask out of his pocket.
Both, unfortunately, were farangs, and as they were the only farangs I’ve seen in the last couple of months that’s 100%.
Article states that he bought the motorbike only one hour before.
It would be reasonable to think that he was still unfamiliar with the motorbike. I would think that is more likely than the mask blowing over his eyes and causing the accident. I ride motorbike every day since covid, wearing a mask as required by law, and not once has the mask with elastic straps blown out of position.
But I do think that people should not have to be mandated to wear mask while driving motorbike bicycle or exercising outdoors if they are a few feet away from others.
“… Is when I forget to take it off afte walking out of 711”
Exactly why the law is / has to be as broad-brush as it is, since unfortunately there’s always a number who otherwise won’t apply it with common sense.
If common sense could be relied on it would allow you to pull down or remove your mask on a motor bike once away from a crowded area.
But you can’t rely on common sense, so the law isn’t that you can “take it off afte walking out of 711” even walking to your motorbike as there’ll always be idiots who’ll ignore the law.
In the last couple of months I’ve seen this twice.
Once someone doing just that, taking their mask off walking out of 7-11 to their motorbike despite the busy area, and once someone walking from the car park to the hospital, walking past around twenty people while taking their mask out of their pocket.
Both unfortunately farangs, and the only two farangs I’ve seen in a couple of months, making it a 100% record.
” @Nigel – No, it doesn’t need to stop. It is background information. What next? “Man dies in motorbike accident”? Then the pc brigade complain about “man”?”
Obviously, @Geoff, it’s of interest just like age, employment, gender, etc. and it’ absurd to pretend it’s not “relevant”.
Even by the same contrived measure, that age is “relevant” as it assumes health and a factory worker “relevant” as his co-workers had reported him missing (they hadn’t), it’s more “relevant” as Burmese drive on the other side of the road which could have contributed to the accident.
It’s simply an opportunity for one of the most narrow-minded bigots commenting here to accuse Thais of “narrow mindedness”.
@simon small AKA bootlicker Issan John, do you really follow every rule how stupid it might be or do you have more than air in the hairy thing which sits on your neck ?
@Simon Small –
a good example of the law in action was demonstrated to my wife and i last year, we walked past the beach and watched about 15 people being loaded into the police wagon,
i asked the wife why are they being taken to police station ?
i was told cannot sit on beach, why? to close,
so now they are jamming them in that truck? surely they are closer together in the truck and they had a nice breeze on the beach, now they are near piled on top of one another, if they have not been infected they will be by the time they get to police station ??? that’ll teach them aye.
In Thailand, a new criminal group has emerged that cooperates with the Electric Poles criminal gang. Previously, only Electric Poles attacked drivers, but now Masks also attack. A very dangerous country for peaceful and law-abiding citizens.
I have to say that when I first came to Thailand, I was amazed by the health and safety risks I could see….everywhere. From motorcyclists not wearing helmets, to motorcyclists wearing helmets that offer so little protection. To a husband, wife and two small children riding on one 50cc motorscooter (the husband wore a helmet…for the four of them). To overhead powerlines that start overhead and then droop to the ground and crackle with electricity. It’s an occupational health and safety nightmare! Part of me is warmed by the thought of the freedoms we westerners had when we were kids, now gone. Part of me lamented the “Nanny States” so many in the West now belong to. But the reality is another person has died on the road. Wearing a mask while riding a motorscooter is ridiculous. The rule of maskwearing for everyone is a means of making things easier for police to enforce. If everyone has to wear one, it’s easier to spot those who don’t! I really would like to see a much higher standard of safety equipment for motorscooter riders. Better helmets, jackets, gloves, knee guards etc. But instead of making these mandatory, how about subsidising the purchase of them to make them more accessible for everyone. The motorscooter is, after all, the primary means of transport for so many Thai…and the odd crazy farang like me :))
Totally wrong @Simon Small. My comments are all about stopping the nationalistic discrimination we see on show frequently in Thailand. The report can be just as interesting. If you don’t find the fact that this man was in an accident and the events surrounding it without his nationality that he wasn’t Thai, then I feel even more sorry for you. Why then is it ok to simply report “A man dies in pond” when it is a Thai national who is the victim. But when it’s a story involving a person who isn’t Thai, it has to be highlighted. If nationality is key for you to be “interested” then why not include the nationality of people in every report. It was an irrelevant fact that is put in there simply to feed in the ongoing and continuous discrimination. The problem is @simon small, people like you have simply accepted it or found a way to deal with it by ignoring it. It’s not just Thailand where this is unacceptable. In my own country I also complain when such racist irrelevance is used in reporting. Finally, you make a comment that I’m racist simply for saying Thais are small minded when it comes to such matters. Are you really telling me that’s untrue and that Thais are less interested in the world outside of their country than most? It wasn’t a racist comment at all. It was a fact based on many years of observing the people in Thailand. If you haven’t seen it then you need to get out more and mix more with local people. It needs to stop and you know what. It will stop when Thailand develops as it surely will in the future. You are just a dinosaur who fails to see the problems such racist reporting causes.
@Nigel, Stay strong with this one man, you are in the right here. One piece of advice though if I may. Don’t waste your time debating with people like @Simon Small. You won’t change people like him. I perceive him as an old school kinda guy who just sees it as normal to comment about a persons nationality for no good reason. Dividing people and compartmentalizing them may seem innocent,. however it plays in to the hands of those who are less forgiving. Good luck with your efforts to drag The Thaiger in to 2021, but don’t waste your breath on fools.
I’ve been wearing a face mask while driving a motorbike since ever. Because i don’t want to breathe all the fumes. No need the law to tell me. Just common sense. Of course i wear it over my mouth and nose, not over my eyes. But you know, the man was a newby bike driver thus he didn’t know…
Agreed @Praew. Whenever I ride my motorbike I always wear a PM2.5 face mask to protect from the fumes and smog particles. They are however specifically designed for bike or motorbike test. This poor guy probably was wearing a normal blue surgical mask?