Chinese Driver Killed in Fatal Expressway Accident

CEOCambodiaNews · Post by **CEOCambodiaNews** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 3:28 pm

Cambodia News, (Preah Sihanouk Province): A Chinese man was killed when the car he was driving crashed at around 3 pm on February 19, 2023, on the Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville expressway, at km 132 + 600 in Kampong Seila District, Preah Sihanouk Province, heading toward the coast.

A preliminary police report said that the black LANDCRUISER car, with license plate Phnom Penh 2AX-1188, was being driven by Chinese national, TANG SHUMING, male, 52 years old, when it left the road and crashed into the storm drain. No other vehicles were involved in the accident, but the driver was killed outright, and three passengers, 2 men and a woman, also Chinese, were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

Doc67 · Post by **Doc67** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:34 pm

What happened to the guard rails that were in the pretty pictures we saw? Are there any at all on the road?

Also, someone should tell that daft sod to get out of the road, his trusty light sabre is no defence to someone doing 100mph and texting.

newsworthy/phnom-penh-sihanoukville-exp ... expressway

Post by **Freightdog** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:55 pm

The pics of that accident look a little odd- as do many in Cambodia,

First, there does not appear to be any windscreen or side window damage. And the car does not actually look that badly damaged on the drivers side, but does appear to have some fairly pronounced scrapes.

There are two tyres shown sitting apart from the wreck.
One appears to have the drive shaft sticking out, suggesting that It is still attached to a wheel.
What is odd is the rear wheel. The centre of the wheel appears to be still attached to the hub, which is attached to the car. The tyre is empty. And there is what looks to be a section of rim sitting with some other debris.
It will be interesting to see if any details of what happened leading to the accident, come out.

I was looking at some wheels on a few large SUVs and pickups in Phnom Penh just recently, which had what looks like some homemade bling attached. The attachment had required some extra holes to be drilled on the inner and outer ends of spokes, and these bits of brightly painted bent metal were attached. Totally home made. Probably not balanced, and just as probably compromising the structure of the wheel.

Rims normally deform, rather than break into pieces, so it would be interesting to see the rest of the rim. (Although BMW had a recall a while back for rims that were failing under cornering loads, if memory serves.)
Looking at a great many of the rims available or fitted to various cars, there’s something of a trend in putting ultra low profile tyres on oversize wheels on cars that were intended for a totally different type of wheel. It would not surprise me at all to see that aftermarket wheels being marketed and fitted here, don’t conform to any manufacturing or testing standard

Doc67 · Post by **Doc67** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 10:27 am

Freightdog wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:55 pm The pics of that accident look a little odd- as do many in Cambodia,

First, there does not appear to be any windscreen or side window damage. And the car does not actually look that badly damaged on the drivers side, but does appear to have some fairly pronounced scrapes.

There are two tyres shown sitting apart from the wreck.
One appears to have the drive shaft sticking out, suggesting that It is still attached to a wheel.
What is odd is the rear wheel. The centre of the wheel appears to be still attached to the hub, which is attached to the car. The tyre is empty. And there is what looks to be a section of rim sitting with some other debris.
It will be interesting to see if any details of what happened leading to the accident, come out.

I was looking at some wheels on a few large SUVs and pickups in Phnom Penh just recently, which had what looks like some homemade bling attached. The attachment had required some extra holes to be drilled on the inner and outer ends of spokes, and these bits of brightly painted bent metal were attached. Totally home made. Probably not balanced, and just as probably compromising the structure of the wheel.

Rims normally deform, rather than break into pieces, so it would be interesting to see the rest of the rim. (Although BMW had a recall a while back for rims that were failing under cornering loads, if memory serves.)
Looking at a great many of the rims available or fitted to various cars, there’s something of a trend in putting ultra low profile tyres on oversize wheels on cars that were intended for a totally different type of wheel. It would not surprise me at all to see that aftermarket wheels being marketed and fitted here, don’t conform to any manufacturing or testing standard

It's highly likely that none of them will, and they will be made in China. I used to import alloys to the UK and cracked wheels were not common but did occur, usually pushed to the limits by local conditions or the driver. The design of the spokes obviously affects the wheels' integrity under extreme loads and what the designers want and what the engineers can build is where aesthetics and safety collide. Factor in poor materials, zero product testing and zero consumer protection laws, and I can easily see dangerous wheels on the local market.

The issue of oversized wheels and low-profile tyres is another problem. The diameter of the tyre should stay roughly the same, regardless of wheel size (if you want your speedo to work) so the bigger the wheel, the narrower the profile of the tyre. When you take an SUV that came with standard 17" or 18" wheels (because they bought the most basic model) and then fit 22" wheels, the tyres will end up looking like an elastic band. If it hits something hard like a kerb or a pothole, there is so little cushioning effect available the wheel takes the full force. This is when you become a crash test dummy. Drilling wheels to add bling is just plain stupid.

As a rule of thumb, if the makers don't fit it, nor should you. And for a country like Cambodia, stick to the original OEM design and manufactured wheels, not aftermarket, and fit the best tyres you can afford.