In an incident so astonishing it could easily pass as a slapstick comedy scene, a Thai truck driver found himself on the receiving end of a gravity-defying fish tale. On May 7, around the bustling noon hour, amidst the salty aroma of Suphanawa Pier at Lock 6 in the Songkhonong subdistrict, Phra Pradaeng district, Samut Prakan province, fate dealt an icy, fishy blow. A 40-kilogram frozen tuna plummeted from the sky, landing squarely on the unsuspecting trucker’s head.
The Prakan Rescue Radio Centre’s 1669 hotline blared with urgency as the Por Tek Tung Foundation’s emergency responders rushed to the scene of this maritime mishap. There, sprawled in various stages of bewilderment and pain, lay Prayot, a 41-year-old driver of a formidable 10-wheel truck. A stone’s throw away, his massive Korean cargo ship sat tirelessly, lazily cradling 3,000 tonnes of stubbornly cold tuna.
Suffering from a ghastly 5-centimetre head wound, Prayot retained his consciousness, his face a tapestry of bewilderment and pain. Clad in a rather striking ensemble of a black and yellow shirt, blue long trousers, and mismatchingly vibrant black-and-blue socks, he was as much a spectacle as the fish that had assaulted him. Rescue workers swiftly patched him up with first aid and whisked him away to Bangchak Hospital for a more thorough repair.
Unperturbed by the drama, several block-like frozen tunas lay strewn upon the ground near where Prayot had kissed the pavement. Observers pieced together the sequence of events, imagining how, from high above, the fish simply slipped from the grasp of a net tasked with offloading its chilly cargo. Somsak, the pier’s 56-year-old caretaker, missed the aerial acrobatics but surmised what unfolded. “The truck,” he explained, “was poised ready to gulp down its fishy freight, bound for a processing plant in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon. As the driver swung open his truck door, a rebellious tuna pranced free from its net and belly-flopped onto his noggin.” It was the stuff of absurd maritime legend. Had the tuna descended with more zeal or aimed for a more vulnerable target, the outcome would have been far graver.
As the dust settled, officials began reevaluating the procedures for offloading cargo at the port. Safety reviews are underway to ensure such dramatic encore performances are limited to comedy sketches, not real life. Meanwhile, Prayot’s brush with a slapstick fate became a quirky tale of survival, a fluke of nature and machinery colliding on an otherwise ordinary day.
That poor guy, can you imagine just standing there and BAM! A tuna attacks you?! It’s like something out of a cartoon.
I know, right? But honestly, why wasn’t there better safety measures in place? This seems like something that could have been easily avoided.
Exactly! This is more about negligence than comedy if you ask me.
Must be karma for all the tuna sandwiches I’ve had, haha!
But isn’t it a shame that 3,000 tonnes of tuna are just lying there ready for processing? We need to reconsider how we treat our natural resources.
Don’t exaggerate, it’s all part of a cycle. People need to eat, and industries need to run.
I’m curious about the physics involved here. The tuna falling and the net failing—it’s a perfect storm of gravity and mishap.
Indeed, Nancy. The kinetic energy transfer in such an incident would be high, considering the mass and velocity. A bit of a marvel in motion physics.
I hope Mr. Prayot recovers swiftly. It’s both scary and funny, but anyone could have been seriously injured!
You can bet his next seafood diet will be land-based!
Why are people laughing about this? Workplace safety is no joke. This needs immediate attention before someone gets killed.
Wow, real life is imitating an old-school video game. Dodge the Falling Tuna, anyone?
I hope this is investigated properly. There’s gotta be someone accountable for such negligence.
In countries like ours, this would have led to a lawsuit. Does anyone know the legal repercussions for such accidents in Thailand?
Honestly, accidents happen everywhere. It’s just unfortunate that this one is downright bizarre.
I just hope this guy gets some compensation for his troubles. Taking a hit like that is no joke.
Totally agree, Harold. The psychological impact must be huge too.
A payout is one thing, but what about protecting future workers? That should be the focus too.
How does a tuna just ‘fall out’ with no one noticing until it hits a guy’s head? That’s a massive management failure there.
Did the fish survive after breaking free? Someone needs to make a cartoon out of this, haha.
My prayers go to the driver. He was just doing his job. Hopefully, there’s no lasting damage.
I’m amazed no one captured this on camera. In this day and age, everything is recorded.
This is something my wizarding friends and I would never believe without seeing.
Upon reflection, hopefully, this incident leads to better safety protocols. Let’s avoid having such ‘comedy’ in reality.