Travelman868

RIP.

Along with the average 12 others that died that day on Thailand's appalling roads.

If Thailand is all about the money, when will the government, both national and local, start to seriously enforce road safety by imposing hefty and enforced fines?

A relatively small investment of a nation-wide computer system (Could be web-based, that keeps track of fines and offenders all the way to licence renewal etc), several hundred extra road cops, and the revenue will pour in. Strict enforcement....vehicle confiscation if caught driving with an unpaid fine, arrest for repeat offenders, and so on.

This kind of tragedy happens every day and it has to stop.

The official figure is around 80 per day but that does not include the ones that die later in hospital.

Yes they could introduce the computer but as most villagers do not have a licence it matters not. The fines in the country are 2/300 baht so around a days wages and double that in the cities.

They do need to do something, however the big stick will not work. They need to start driver training (scooter) for the kids 10+, be a good job for qualified Farangs as the BIB's not qualified. They need to be taught defensive riding and when they pass out be given a special licence. The little ones will be proud when they get the licence and that is likely to influence the other kids. ??

What about people who have made their plans for up to a year beforehand, particularly in their gap year?

Coach companies who have to plan months beforehand in order to bring in participants?

Hey it's tough not being drunk and/or stoned.

As for the coach companies it would give them a chance to do some maintainance

and driver training.

I have nothing against young people having a good time but if they cannot do this while in some sort of control ?

In the UK we now have a law that says, if a person (girl) is drunk, they cannot give permission for sex. There is no understanding that if the boy is also off his head he has no understanding of any language.

Putin is running this show.

He owes the EU a black eye.

Greece WILL be out of both the Euro and the EU by September.... tops. The remaining 7.2 Bn will not even last till half way through July and Tsipras will say 'thanks for that' then will default after.

He knows that if he cuts pensions any more and adds more VAT, the people who voted Sriza into power will turn on him and he also knows they will likely be out on their ears by the end of the year and that will be the very last time any of them ever taste power in Greece.

It will be political suicide, and if there is one thing that is certain in this life, a politician puts his career before everything else, no matter what the cost.

Athens will be getting into bed with Moscow.... I guarantee that. They will return to the Drachma and devaslue it to stimulate their economy. 5 years of troika controlled austerity has not worked and will not work in the future.

If the "haves" paid their tax then that would help. Then, I know a big fat pension is nice but ?????? ??

You know its weird, I always read on here people saying that land lords NEVER return deposits. However for myself having rented 5 properties and many of my friends I know of ZERO cases where the landlord has kept the entire deposit for no good reason.

Then you have been very lucky.

In Chiang Mai we can observe an increase in helmet use for riders and passengers. It can be improved even more, especially out of town BUT it is improving.

If I don't use a helmet I don't endanger anyone else but myself. So in my opinion that law doesn't make sense at all.

Does your accident insurance cover non helmet use or are you expecting family or the state to wipe your ass after catastrophic head injury?

What an idiot, this is why we have to have laws making people wear them. I would suggest the fool is either American or certainly not a proper motorcyclist.

Talk Talk Talk

Nothing more.

No Policing whatsoever by the Police.

The Police would prefer to play with their smartphones, as witnessed by all and sundry in Pattaya.

And Thais do not understand the protection a full-face helmet can offer, let alone the standard it is made to..

And those that wear safety helmets here in Pattaya, the actual safety level standard of that helmet is virtually zero.

So how on earth can the road deaths be reduced ? Impossible !!

Oh and I forgot. The Thai favorite Speed Speed Speed.

Thai helmet costs 300 baht so just there to keep sun off.

Also having more than one passenger, basic maintenance including checking lights are working and folowing the correct rules of the road.

In rural areas the traffic police go home when it gets dark so do not know if lights work or not. In the village I lived in the police did a helmet check 2 times per year. They set up shop in the middle of the village outside the main school. The first kids saw the cops and within minutes everyone had helmets on. The next day no helmets and 3 or 4 on a scooter.

trying to find where south pattaya is on my body. nope can't find it, anyhow get well soon, and beware of gun toting ladyboys. i never did understand the "lady" bit, they are men for christ sake.

I presume you normally walk around with a pointy hat on. AND know nothing about Thailand

Hmmm, no reply, so far.

So should Myanmar be concerned about Muslims? And are there examples of

Muslim countries doing simular things to non Muslims.

Has Myanmar banned the Qur-an or the Bible, burned and pulled down churches and mosques?

Has Myanmar said everyone has to become Buddist or be killed, I do not believe this has happened in Myanmar. Strangely enough it did not happen in Syria or Iraq before IS came on the scene.

Before the Human Rights activists get going just think about the innocent people murdered by the Muslim extremists :- 9 year old boy beheaded in South Thailand, 15 year old coffee boy shot dead in Syria after asking for payment. Plus 10's of thousands of others.

If Islam wants respect then they need to rejoin the human race. While I agree there will always be extremists, if these few are given protection by the many there will be distrust.

Teachable moment. What to do in case of a car accident? Run away. Most of the kids passed with flying colours...a few slackers let some minor cuts a scrapes keep them from their required task.

You silly person, you not see boys picking up lunch and homework ??

Both drivers must be blind, but one carrying school kids should be sent to jail for that. He must have seen car coming and still turned.

I cannot believe that you made such a silly comment after watching the video.

The driver of the school van turned into the other cars path, what was he supposed to do "fly"

How much Thai know-how went into making those? Thailand provides cheap labor to make things that were invented in the West using machines and techniques that were invented in the West for factory owners from the West.

So they weren't made by Thais? Who did make them then?

China. Just a thought "how many things have been invented in the USA" ?

There are no US reservations on Thailan. The US is firmly committed to not restoring US/Thai relations until they have an elected government by the people for the people. That does not mean some appointed crony pm constitutes a freely elected democracy.

Democracy = Huge expense of election, partly paid for by people who want something for themselves or their companies.

Benign Dictator = Same outcome as above but without the expense of election and no bribery.

??????

Look at those rubber trees. I'm guessing by their size that they are about 10 years old. This isn't recent enchroachment. Previous park officials from 10 years back should be investigated for their role.

I don't think they are 10 years old because they do not appear to have been tapped and they are too small.

The park officials are obviously doing a good job if 60% of the park land has been nicked.

Only in Thailand??

What an old fool!!

First trying to buy sex from women he met on the street, and when making it worse by reporting them for stealing, making sure the whole world will know about his stupidity!!

Instead of just putting it down to a lesson learned!!

Crikey, they stole his platinum wedding ring, that's the irony.

No not iron y platinum ???

She's cheap compared to Tony Blair.

The Phuket governor will be so pleased.......3 billion will go a long way to improving his lot....!

I think your being very mean. ??, mind you 3000,000,000 x 1000 business=

3,000,000 each or after the governor has taken his bit so about 35 baht.

If it was a tourist you would have thought that someone from his home country would have noticed he was missing and never came home from his Thailand holiday.

There's been a few gone missing recently. The Bib's are trying to see if they have filled their quota of suicides.

Why is a flight Lt. driving a tourist van?

I can fly, oops no he can't

As has already been pointed out this is a daily occurrence. Of course the driver would have done a runner but he was trapped.

I don't understand why people just sit and say nothing.

This is old news albeit very poorly written. The assault happened over a year ago and the parents of the assailants have done many things to try to get their kids off. They have been named and shamed in the USA and Australia.

Trying to work out why this is news today?

The article says the Aussie boy recently arrested !!!

The parents of the American boys are obviously top tossers

Could only happen in Koh Samui. Hang on, 2 vicious thugs, could it be maybe maybe not.

WOW there quick. Rubber trees take 7 year before they give a yeld. I wonder how old the trees in the background are!!

The "or a 20,000 baht fine" is what renders the punitive system completely useless. In a country where judicial corruption seems to be rampant, this renders the system useless. Best thing to do with the owner is to tie him by the ankles and push him off

They have 3 days head start, if they don't think they can get out of it with a slap on the wrist or bribes then they can leave till the statute of limitations runs out like the Red Bull killer.

He had a week or so to sort out the tea money, so it's his own fault. Red Bull boy's daddy was on the ball.

Most probably were half of them just bystander, women and children.

While bombing them also all the goods, houses, animals etc of many families destroyed.

So most probably by killing 5.000, they turned 20.000 people who didn't care and just wanted to have a good life into sympathizers.

It is just amazing how little the USA learned since they supported the Islamists in Afghanistan when it was against the Soviets.

With all these billions of taxpayer money spent, they could have made the region rich which automatically reduce all fanatic tendency.

Or they could have invested it into alternatives to the oil from this region. Without western money they would ride their camels like 2000 years before. Just need a fence around.

Or just not doing anything would be better....Saddam Husein, Gaddafi and Assad took care of the problem.

I used to be very Liberal but it is not possible to treat these people as normal human beings. Their ONLY object is to go see Allah and take many innocents with them.

IS and the like want to form an Islamic State, fine then what. Do we think they will then sit back and treat their people humanly ? Of course not, they will then embark on getting "their brothers and sisters" around the world to cause more problems.

I do however believe that it is a good idea that as many as possible (Islamists) are in one place.

I'm not optimitic on how this is going to turn out. Perhaps they will fully embrace Cambodian culture, learn Cambodian, and the locals will be happy to integrate them into their society? Or perhaps they will feel isolated, economically desperate, and that migrating elsewhere is their only choice.

Muslims do not itigrate. Why are most of the refugees and migrants in the world of this "faith" The 800,000 Rokingya Muslims have been causing problems in Burma since 1972. Australia is a large country with a small population, they do not want these people causing more trouble there.

I'm obviously the odd man out here but I absolutely detest people (of any nationality) who prey on the loneliness of others to scam money from them. If this Thai man was genuinely looking for love or simply a better life for himself...... who of us is any different. I would certainly not like this to have happened to either myself or someone near to me. It is the lowest of the lowest acts on this earth. When the scammers received the money I hope they both crawled back under their slimy rock for a long long time to come.

I am sorry for the outburst.....my motto " Whatever you say....say it with love" failed me badly on this occasion but this type of thing probably vexes me more than anything else I can think of.

I am one of the lucky ones...over the years I have become a little "street wise" and feel so sorry for people who have to go through the pain of being "had" like this. In some cases peoples life savings and even more have been lost.

I have to agree. This world is full of scammers and when they are caught they just get a slap on the wrist. Lock them up and throw away the key.