With the way many Thais are so impatient to get on the BTS sky train in Bangkok, it’s not surprising a woman fell off the BTS platform today and in front of an approaching sky train. According to the Bangkok Post, the woman, who was in her 40s, was rushing to get into line so she could get on a train and somehow managed to fall off the platform and onto the rails below. A guard stationed on the platform was able to alert the driver of a train coming into the station before the woman was hit.
Moments after the incident, the woman was pulled from the tracks and was said not to be too badly injured except for some cuts and bruises. For the distance she fell (around 4 feet) and the fact a train was almost at the station when she did, she was very lucky I’d say.
Since I first came to Bangkok over a decade ago, I’ve thought it odd how Thais get on trains. Usually the most polite of people, when it comes to getting on trains (both the BTS sky train system and the MRT underground), Thais are incredibly pushy. They’ll try to push in front of you as the train doors open, even though you’ve obviously been at the front of the line for the last five minutes and, what’s very odd, a large percentage of Thais will try to push onto a train as soon as the doors open and while the people who are on it are still trying to get off. As a British friend of mine once said, “Why don’t they understand you can’t fill an already full box? You have to empty it first”.
So, to hear a woman fell off a BTS train platform because she was rushing to get into line for an incoming train isn’t that surprising. What is surprising is it doesn’t happen more often. For that, however, we can probably thank the excellent BTS guards who stand at the end of each platform and furiously blow their whistles if you get too close to the edge.