A 69-year-old British expat plunged to his death from a plane Wednesday afternoon while taking part in a skydive with the Thai Sky Adventures diving centre located in Sri Racha district near Pattaya.
The victim has been identified as James McConnell, an experienced Scottish skydiver with reportedly over 40 years of experience and a “much loved member of the skydiving community in Pattaya.”
Songkran isn’t even over in some parts of the country but the official counting period for road deaths, accidents and injuries over the “seven dangerous days” of the week-long Songkran holiday period has already come to an end.
So with yet another ambitious road safety campaign in place and following a record 442 people killed last year over Songkran, could the daily road death count be substantially reduced this year? As usual, don’t hold your breath.
Experts at a conference promoting a motorcycle safety campaign have said that Thailand is no. 1 in the world in motorcycle accident deaths, with 5,500 bike riders dying annually on Thailand’s roads.
As a result, they have now called on Thai motorcycle manufacturers to use available technology to limit speeds to 90 kilometers per hour.
In some kind of bizarre freak accident, a Swiss national reportedly drowned whilst cleaning a communal swimming pool in a small housing estate in Pattaya. The 58-year-old expat, identified as Mr Peter Heinz Ballmann, was pronounced dead at the scene at around 3 p.m. on Sunday and left the victim’s Thai wife “devastated.” Continue Reading
A 72-year-old Chinese tourist on a group holiday with her elderly husband drowned in the sea off Jomtien beach at around 10 a.m. on Sunday. The fatal incident happened opposite Jomtien Soi 5 and was reportedly “not the first in the area” in recent time. Continue Reading
An unidentified young foreign tourist thought be a Russian national was hit and killed by a fellow Russian motorist as he crossed Jomtien Beach Road making a video call on his phone. The fatal accident happened opposite The Now Hotel on Jomtien Beach Road just before 3 a.m. on Sunday. The yet unidentified victim carried… Continue Reading
We’re certain it’s not completely new to you that pedestrians aren’t always safe on the streets of Pattaya. So the following story may just serve as an extreme reminder that you should always keep an eye on the traffic before crossing a road in Thailand. This rule doesn’t apply just during heavy daytime traffic but… Continue Reading
An elderly Italian national was killed Sunday afternoon by a sharp tree branch that had suddenly snapped off and fallen onto his head on Jomtien beach. The fatal accident happened opposite the Jomtien Garden hotel as the foreigner was strolling along the Jomtien beach promenade with his Thai wife. Continue Reading
478 people were killed and 4,128 injured in a total of 3,919 road accidents during the so-called “seven dangerous days” of the New Year holiday period from December 29, 2016, to January 4, 2017. In comparison with the same period last year, the number of deaths increased by 25.8%, the number of people injured by… Continue Reading
A young Russian motorcyclist was crushed to death by a tour bus at the Dolphin Roundabout in Naklua at about 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. According to witnesses quoted by Pattaya One, Mr Sergei Sugadaev was riding along Naklua Road on the left hand side of a coach (…) when the driver took a sudden and… Continue Reading
Speedboats have been temporarily banned from carrying passengers between Pattaya and Ko Larn island after a small vessel carrying 23 Indian tourists sank Thursday afternoon. The speedboat reportedly sprang a leak on the way back from Ko Sak, a small island near Ko Larn, approx. two kilometres off the coast of North Pattaya, causing the… Continue Reading
A 40-year-old Russian tourist crashed his rented motorcycle in heavy rain just after midnight on Sunday after he had his gold necklace snatched by two drive-by thieves and he gave chase to the two suspects. Luckily Mr Andrei Ananev and his wife, who was riding pillion, were both only slightly injured after they lost control… Continue Reading
