BANGKOK, Thailand -- At least 160 people were injured when two trains collided at a Bangkok subway station, police and eyewitnesses said.
Some of the victims were bleeding as rescue workers carried them up the stairs of the Cultural Center station to ambulances, according to The Associated Press.
Others, dazed and crying, were helped up the stairs to the street.
Hospital sources told CNN that at least 160 people were injured, eight of them critically.
Officials said a driver on one of the trains was seriously injured and was taken to an intensive care unit.
Once again it seems they have rushed a project.
The accident struck in rush hour, at around 9:30 a.m. Monday (0230 GMT), at the station in the heart of the capital.
It is the first accident on the $2.8 billion single-route 18-station subway that began running in August last year.
It was not clear what caused the crash, but all trains on the line have stopped running, police said.
Bangkok's singe line subway runs for 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) under the traffic-clogged streets of the sprawling city but so far is not very popular with commuters.
It is designed to carry more than 250,000 passengers a day, but only about 100,000 people use it.
The subway is run by the Bangkok Metro Company, a consortium led by property developer Ch Karnchang, and is part of a $7.5 billion, 110-km (68-mile) city-wide transport network aimed at resolving Bangkok's traffic woes by 2011.
No wonder my local station was closed without explanation.
When I was in America a guy told me to 'have a nice day' but I didn't, so I sued him
Is it not still ran by germans
My mate (sorry a chap my Mum pays to like me) was on it and said he went flying, he's okay though!
Riddle me this brother can you handle it
Your style to my style you can't hold a candle to it
Equinox symmetry and the balance is right
Smokin' and drinkin' on a Tuesday night
It's not how you play the game it's how you win it
I cheat and steal and sin and I'm a cynic
It's a bit worrying though. I mean people are already reluctant to use the new transport anyway. I would imagine it's going to be a long time before anyone returns to the subway. The contract doesn't finish until 2011. Could be the next millenium the way things are going.
Thais + technology = trouble. They cannot design, build, maintain, or operate anying above a horse cart without serious foreign intervention. Personally, I was wondering what took them so long for a major screw up. Most people working in the stations seem to have no clue as to what they are doing. Pity aside, Thailand is not ready for technology.
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Folks... many of you seem to forget the rapid technological acceleration Thailand has undergone... c'mon... 30 years ago, the best the rural rich had was a bicycle... What was the population of BKK back then?...
We have all grown up with Technology & thus have had time to adapt... The Thai will catch up...
I have met some (not many mind you) senior Thai's that would knock spots of their equivalent Western counterparts... Give them time...
diaw...
What a crock of shit - they spent about 3 years more than an equivalent project in the design stage and the architects and engineers are hugely experienced. I know the for the extensions they're trying to use more local guys (God help us).Once again it seems they have rushed a project.
There's nothing wrong with the design or the trains, its who's operating them that's the problem. I'm just amazed Thai (the airline) don't crash fairly regularly.
Are they being flown by Thai pilots educated in Thai schools?Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog
but some of these cheap-ass, newer airlines, causes one to wonder.
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What a sorry bunch of losers you are. If Thais and technology don't mix like you all say, why don't you just go home to Brighton or whichever hole you came from?
Are you telling me trains don't crash in the UK? Or planes don't fall out of the sky in the US? Or nuclear reactors don't leak in Europe? Humans make mistake regardless of where they've been born.
With tiny minded comments like these, it's a good thing there are lots of rules and regulations that make it difficult for you lot to settle down in Thailand. If I am to summarize and group all farangs like this lot here I hope they increase the alien registration fee 5-fold and make it alot more difficult for you guys.
And I pray none of you pissants are teaching at my kid's school. I'd hate it for him to learn from you sorry lot.
your old ma pays you to like other men?
sooooooooooooooo, she pimps you out?
how odd.
Added after 5 minutes:
i agree with marmite. there seems to be the same old expat-bores who are claiming that the subway system was cooked up by a bunch o' laokao-soused rice farmers in the northeast. think for a minute and stop falling back on the same old lazy stereotypes. the metro system was planned and built by internationally trained and taught experts, heavily aided by japanese engineers. the project will have met the same standards, both in safety and professionalism as any similar 'western' transport project.
many possible reasons for the crash i'm sure, and they all could have happened in a more 'civilized' country!
Our family is pretty strange! I like everyone, but my Mum needs to pay people to like me 'cos I'm totally fucking boring!
So more pimping him out than me!
ccowpad said:
difficult to settle down in thailand....
what? difficult how exactly??
I think he meant the Visas etc. and the fact that it's nigh on impossible to know you can stay here forever and forever and forever! We're guests is all!
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