kwilco

Take a look t the past tests in various States in the USA, Belgium and several other countries in Europe and around the world - a driving test is a single one day event - in no way does it guarantee good driving for life. Many people one this site took really simple driving tests yet they feel their experience makes tham 'experts" in theoir eyes - in fact what they call "experience" is just the accumulation of bad habits. Even in UK you can have a licence for those who "can't change gear" - and that goes for the majority in the USA...

Yes – I’ve seen these new figures - but if you look up other sites you will see they say UK and Thailand are broadly the same. I must say I'm inclined to look at these figures with interest but you must bear in mind they are a one quote wonder and even if accurate don't support your hypotheses. - As you admit you don't read up on road safety - you seem just cherry pick your favourite one quote wonder. However it does highlight the poor gathering of stats in Thailand and the public's naive following of whatever nugget the media decides to throw up that suits them. You need to understand how confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance work. Even if th figures are accurate it doesn’t contradict my hypothesis. The figures you quote give a daily crash rate as 6 to 7 times higher than the UK, but a death rate 12 times higher which is still a massive discrepancy. As yet the criteria for these collisions in Thailand is not set - in fact according to the wording it may be no more than an estimate - in the UK the opposite is true as they have decades of accurate comparisons to make. THE next problem is how they are categorised - i.e. - death, serious injury minor injury or insurance claim. If for instance you look at the official figures for successive Songkhrans, you'll see the daily collision rate is around 350 in both countries. You use for the UK a secondary source when you could have used the National government source updated in 2023. For you Thai source you are using "As many as 939,713 road accidents were reported in Thailand last year, up 4.7% from 2021, the Thailand Road Accidents Data Centre for Road Safety Culture (ThaiRSC)" THis is from here - but at present it's in Thai only https://www.thairsc.com/eng/ This is a new single source from the relatively new institution which I can't cay is wrong but it needs to be reviewed - the UK source has been running for about 70 years. I certainly have a problem with the phrase "As many as " What people fail to understand is the basic difference between the UK and EU countries and Thailand is not the collisions themselves. it is the lack of protection offered by road safety systems in Thailand The problems are education, enforcement, engineering (road and vehicle) and importantly emergency and finally evaluation. Hence the huge discrepancy in statistics and people's ability to interpret what they say. Anyway it would appear your opinion is pretty worthless as you admit when it comes to being serious about road safety " I promise I won't be reading it?"[-RR]

If you believe that story.

If the rider doesn't have a full M/C licence it wouldn't make any difference.

depands on what insurance the other party had - they may argue he was driving illegally. ...and I doubt if the other party will accept any blame anyway.

Only minimal insurance coes when you pay the road tax - very few rentals have anything more than that.

the minimum "road traffic act" insurance that comes with a M/C covers anyone regardless of blame for emergency only But of course the bike has to be taxed in the firt place - without that he's due for another 10000 baht fine

I wouldn't believe a single word reported in the press - there needs to be a proper crash report. Something the local police seem incapable of doing. Of course if he didn't have a full D/L and IDP the 3rd party would say he's not covered either.

bit late for that...

..and does that signify to you?

The problem is you don't know how to look at an accident...you have no argument just irrelevant comments and repeating them doesn't make them any less irrelevant. Whatever the driver said both your premise and conclusion are just childish, incorrect and irrelevant as I pointed out in my first reply which you don't seem to have either read or understood . You made a silly comment, get over it, learn from your mistake and move on

THat works fine until it's you....

As I said the plural of anecdote is not data and you fail to understand even the basics of stats or how to draw a sensible conclusion from them. The media is hopeless on reporting matters of road safety in THailand they only use one of the mant stats available i.r. deaths per 100k of population. In fact with what you are talking about COLLISIONS per miles/km travelled (billions) is by far a clearer way of looking at it. I have driven further than you in both UK, Europe and Thailand and one thing I observe is that it is much more difficult to observe any accident in UK brcausehthe first res[ponders are so much quicker than in Thailand and the usual practice is to block off the road and take measures against "gawpers". I should make it clear also that it isn't the number of collisions it is the perception and interpretation that is so inaccurate on this thread.

As I said the plural of anecdote is not data and you fail to understand even the basics of stats or how to draw a sensible conclusion from them

You need to look at my post on analysing RTIs. Your comment shows you aren't looking at it holistically. We don't know what caused the accident. However, how serious it was depends on a lot of "techunical" factors....the state of the vehicles, the condition of the road and the safety features included in the design of the road from surface tho roadside objects to lighting etc etc. One of the problems in Thailand is not the collusion but what happens in the seconds minutes and hours after the collision

You need to understand the stats. And how to analyse and interpret them. One needs to understand how they are gathered and how they can be used to draw some conclusions but not the amateur rubbish you read here . Depending on which stats you look at it becomes clear that it isn't the number of collisions it is the number of injuries and fatalitiesnper collision where Thailand falls foul. A lot of the anecdotal comments are just confirmation bias from people who simply don't drive enough here or at home to make any realistic comparison. Remember the plural of anecdote is not data

Are they specifically resurfacing the area damaged by the oil desk or is this general maintenance?

Yes a "label". I don't know what this particular bus was...I can't see from the photos. However many buses on Thailand have bodywork build locally on old or secondhand chassis. So the engine and chassis may be Mercedes or any other make but the rest of the vehicle is locally built. To what standards is unclear.

The more you post the more you reveal you lack of understanding of the issues. You fixate upon things about which you know nothing. You are making uneducated guesses and drawing inferences that are just risible

what does that even mean?

do you remember Taksin bailing someone out a few years back? Maybe that will help?

THis is how the ruling elite get rid of people they don't agree with - just keep throwing spurious charges at them which keeps them out of power....no need to assassinate or imprison one of their own

So you witnessed this?

You think that in any way is an argument to my post? The fact is your post is an example of how people totally misread an incident even if what the driver said was true...if you READ my post you'd understand why either way your post is not tenable. Just because you don't like it doesn't give you tge right to ask me to stop. This is a discussion about an accident and my point is that many on this thread including yourself seem to have no idea how to assess an RTI even yor conckusion that "If that's true than the bus driver must go to jail for being an idiot driver" This just indicates how little you seem to understand about this topic.

You will also know that road markings are tested for friction properties - never seen one here - the lines themselves are a danger - especially to motorcycles. people look at th wide new roads here and have no idea how far they fall behind international safety standards.