Mum of UK crash victim joins campaign
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Looks to raise awareness after son died in 2010 bus accident
A British woman is taking part in a campaign to raise awareness in the United Kingdom about the risks of travelling in Thailand after losing her teenage son in a road accident here three years ago due to the lack of safety features on a bus he travelled on.
Rachel Robinson has called on Britons to exercise caution when travelling in Thailand, saying a large number of tourists from the UK are killed in road accidents here every year.
World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics reveal a high road casualty rate in Thailand – 39.1 per 100,000 people in 2011, which was the highest in Southeast Asia and third highest in the world. But Robinson and the WHO report did not have data on how many people from the UK were killed in accidents in Thailand in recent years.
Felix Robinson, 19, was killed when a bus he was travelling in collided with another vehicle in Ranong’s Kra Buri district on May 11, 2010. He was about to study economics at Manchester University in September that year. The young man, the sole fatality in that crash while many other passengers were injured, was an adept musician who taught music for free to Thai children living in the North.
Robinson said there were no seatbelts attached to seats on the bus her son was on, plus little tread on any of the bus tyres. She said many seats were unstable and the speedometer showed that the vehicle was speeding in excess of legal limits before the collision. A Brighton-based coroner, Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, said later that the collision was “entirely avoidable”.
The mother said her family was promoting awareness over poor safety features associated with public transport in Thailand as well as pursuing legal action against the company that operated the bus and the driver who fled the scene.
At a trial on April 29, which Robinson attended, the unnamed driver pleaded guilty – after hiding for two years. She said her family was considering filing a civil lawsuit against the unnamed company, but was still compiling evidence against the owners and bus managers, who discontinued the operation and opened a new company to continue operating the service.
She said she planned to meet with the Land Transportation Division and its local office in Ranong to query why the bus, which had recently passed an inspection, had worn-out tyres without tread on them.
With Thailand being a fast-developing country, she felt road casualties should be easily reduced through safety measures that should be adopted through strict and transparent enforcement by motor vehicle authorities. “Drivers should be trained and tested frequently, and safety belts and other safety features are made prime requirements for granting a concession,” she said.
