'They were our heart and souls', say families of students killed in tragic Thai bus crash

12 April 2012

Families of the three London gap year students killed in a Thai bus crash today told how they had been left "desolate without them".

Almost three months after the tragedy, they say they are still barely able to speak of the events of that night.

Bruno Melling-Firth, 19, Conrad Quashie, 19, and Max Boomgaarden-Cook, 20, saved for months and had just started a "trip of a lifetime" in June when their coach, travelling from Bangkok to the northern capital of Chiang Mai, veered into oncoming traffic and was hit by another bus.

Polly Cook, mother of Max, said: "The three boys were the heart and soul of their families and friends. We are desolate without them."

"As Max's mother, I did everything possible to ensure his and his friends' safety; reading up the Foreign Office advice, packing all the medical equipment that I was advised to get for them and spending hours on the phone getting the best travel insurance. At no point during my research was I made aware of the dangers of travelling by road in Thailand."

Conrad's girlfriend, Elisa Smith, 19, was with the boys in Bangkok hours before they left for Chiang Mai and was on a plane home to London when they were killed. She said: "We bought expensive bus tickets from one of the most reputable tourist agencies in Bangkok.

"When we were in Thailand we made jokes about how ramshackle everything was. Bus seats not being stuck to the floor. Travelling in tiny fisherman's boats without life jackets.

"We all believed we were invincible but now we know we are not. The travel companies put profit over people and the risks you take out there are not worth it. This could happen to anyone."

Since the bus crash, the families have joined forces with another bereaved mother, Rachel Cooper, whose son Felix was killed on a Thai coach in May last year. This June, a coroner in Brighton ruled that the 19-year-old's death was "entirely avoidable" as the tyres on his coach were "illeg al".

She said: "Despite the UK pathologist and the coroner agreeing that Felix would have died instantaneously, the Thai authorities stated that he died in the ambulance, and his death will, therefore, probably not have been recorded in the Thai statistics.

"He was an amazing and talented young man who was killed as a result of the negligence of the bus company and the lack of enforcement of safety standards in Thailand. The tyres on the bus were bald yet the bus company responsible for his death were not questioned by the Thai police and they have yet to be held to account."

Thai travel publication TTR has recently published a damning analysis of local road safety.

"Tour buses between Bangkok and Chiang Mai are notorious for speeding and bus drivers are often under the influence of alcohol, pep pills and drugs," it read.

"There are frequent accidents and highway police take little or no legal action against the companies that are usually owned by elite or powerful members of Thai society who consider themselves above the law. The Ministry of Transport has to be taken to task for not tackling the horrendous death toll on the roads of Thailand."

The families of Max, Bruno and Conrad have instructed lawyers to pursue their own inquiries. Clive Garner, head of Irwin Mitchell's Travel Law team, said the firm had deployed investigators in Thailand to look into the case and ensure the Thai inquiry was sufficiently rigorous.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in