Thread: 9 Killed in Racetrack Horror

PATHUM THANI : Nine people were killed and 11 injured when a drag racer lost control and slammed into a crowd of spectators at racetrack Bangkok Drag Avenue in Khlong Luang district on Saturday night.





The accident took place about 11pm.

It was the biggest annual event held at the private racing venue located along Khlong 5 road with thousands of people, mostly teenagers, in the crowd. The race began at 7pm and was supposed to end at 2am.

The driver of the racing car, Tossapol Piamyai, was hospitalised. He and the race organiser have been charged with reckless action causing death and injury, said provincial police chief Pol Maj-Gen Wittaya Prayongpan.

Boonlert Gongpa, 30, who narrowly escaped injury in the accident, said he was watching from ringside and waiting for his team's turn to race.

He said it was a 400m race between two cars. In the right lane was a modified sedan steered by a driver from the Moh Seng team.

Shortly after the race started, the Moh Seng driver lost control of his car and veered from his lane into the left.

He slammed into a concrete pole, the car flipped over and slammed into the crowd. Six other racing cars were damaged.

Mr Boonlert said four of his friends died on the spot.

Provincial governor Preecha Butsri ordered the racetrack closed until police wrap up their investigation.

Provincial commercial and public works offices would inspect the track's registration papers and the way it was built.

Police said this was the first accident on the racing track, which has been in business for five years.
The racetrack is where former social development and human security minister Wattana Muangsook held a racing event for teenagers to tackle street-racing in 2005.

Bangkok Post | General news | Nine killed in racetrack horror

The driver facing Jail ????? WTF?





Racing car kills nine in Thailand


Nine Thai racing fans were killed and five including the driver injured when a car crashed and flipped over a barrier into a crowd of spectators at a Bangkok race track, police say.

Lieutenant Colonel Wanchai Chaengaree, a senior police official at the scene, said the car lost control soon after the race started late on Saturday night at a track on the northern outskirts of Thailand's capital.
"One of two racing cars lost control when it left the starting point, hitting a barrier and running into the crowd of spectators," he told AFP on Sunday.
Six men died at the scene, while three others died later in hospital, he said. Five people including the driver were treated for injuries.
Wanchai said the driver will be charged with negligence resulting in injury and death to other people. The maximum punishment is ten years in jail and a fine of 20,000 baht ($A936).

Poor planning. I can't imagine that spectators weren't protected by wall and fence.

Idiots.

From Thaivisa...

After witnessing the accident last night i feel i should add this.
Bangkok drag avenue is a 1/4 mile drag strip with good safety standards and on site mobile medical teams.

The driver "fled" the scene in an ambulance, after being pulled from the car which was on fire whilst he was inside it.

The Nations quote
"The race was a special event, held once a year for teenagers to race among themselves."

In reality this was an organised event sponsored by Goodyear, in which they spent over 4 million baht bringing a NZ dragster to race down the 1/4 mile and promoting it as the GOODYEAR DRAG PARTY, now it looks like the corporate dont want any association to this evenings sad and tragic ending.
A message of sympathy and condolences for families and those concerned should be forthcoming, instead its portrayed as teenagers out of control.

Hopefully these people didnt die for nothing and the owners will improve on the tracks safety .



and another eyewitness....



I was there, too. What a sad, sad day for Thailand, not only because of the loss of life, but because of the behavior of the police, track officials, and most especially the spectors afterwards.

The car was in the right lane and veered to the left as if it might have broken the left axle, hitting the concrete barrier on the left side of the racetrack at high speed. Although it was only 300 meters into the course, this was an _extremely_ powerful car with perhaps as much as 900 horsepower running sub-10-second quarter mile times. I think it was about equivalent to a US NHRA Sport Compact class car. It could easily have been doing 150 miles per hour when it hit the wall. The initial impact toppled the 5000-pound concrete barrier, instantly turning it into a launch ramp causing the car to fly into the spectator area, heavily impacting several spectator cars and the people between them before returning to the track to rest upside down on the concrete barrier. I don't know how the driver could have survived the crash, as the final impact crushed the windshield pillar almost all the way into the driver's seat.

I actually participated in the event so I was mildly interested in the safety preparations, and I counted only one ambulance on and no helicopter. No more than five minutes before the crash I commented to my partner that there wasn't enough safety equipment further down the track, that they needed a 4-meter-high chain link fence with an inward curve at the top, and that I wouldn't go stand down there. I commented that if a dragster went into the crowd it could potentially kill over 100 people. She no doubt thought that I, as usual, was being overly risk-averse. Then BANG! Even before we heard any reports I said that was one of the worst crashes I've ever seen. After we heard the reports, I knew it was one of the worst crashes in world motorsport history, far worse than the famous Group B Portuguese Rally crash of 1986.

Once race officials knew the extent of the injuries they announced that the race was canceled, and hordes of specators jammed all access roads. It took a significant time before the squads of ambulances started arriving, perhaps twenty minutes or more. I saw traffic jams of ambulances immobilized by thoughtless spectators, with no efforts being made by track officials or police to clear the road. In the end I was running through the traffic jam, screaming at people to get the F*CK out of the road so the ambulances could get through. Nobody moved. Not one person even pulled over.

Checking my camera's photo info, I see that the last photo before the crash was taken at 22:12, so the crash was at about 22:17. I have photos as late as 23:34, AN HOUR AND 17 MINUTES LATER, showing arriving ambulances stuck in traffic. But by then, all the remaining injured were dead.

What a country.

Originally Posted by zehner

What a country.

Yep the driver should not be facing jail the officials should be.