As a rule animals and Bangkok motorways are generally not a good combination. Often congested and jammed, when traffic conditions are light few Thai drivers can resist the urge to blow the cobwebs out of the engine by tramping the accelerator to the floor. Woe betide slow moving vehicles, people, or animals who get in the way. Despite the slim chances of a survival, a small white kitten which trespassed onto a Bangkok motorway has had a remarkable survival.
The cell phone video above depicts light traffic on a Bangkok motorway. A broken-down public bus being towed on the left of the screen diverts attention away from the right side of the three-lane road where traffic is moving at an incredibly slow pace given the traffic conditions. Those looking carefully might notice a small, white object moving onto the lane marking dividing the two outer lanes.
Suddenly a vehicle in the left lane switches on its hazard lights, veers to the right, and stops, blocking the two left lanes. A person leaps out of the front passenger side and the small white object, later identified as a small white kitten, can be seen rapidly moving from the dividing line between the second and third lanes… to beneath the stationary car.
The driver of one of the blocked vehicles, along with a black pickup in the left lane, simply turn on their hazard lights and stop. The driver of one vehicle gets out, followed by the driver of the blocking vehicle, while the occupants of the pickup merely turn their hazard lights on and wait.
It should be noted that there’s nothing unusual in this. Bangkok drivers will often flick on their hazard lights and perform unexpected manoeuvres on the road, including, but not limited to, blocking traffic in order to summons roadside fried chicken or banana vendors, or just about anyone selling anything. Other drivers, equally guilty of doing the same thing at some time, see nothing unusual about this unique Thai road etiquette.
After a brief scramble beneath the car the kitten is pulled from beneath it and spirited away by the occupants of the vehicle which blocked the traffic. How a kitten got onto a multi-lane Bangkok motorway hasn’t been explained, but one can’t help wondering how many of it’s nine lives it used up today.
Video posted to Facebook by Kru Khwanjai