HOOD Robin

"Many of the victims - 39 - were underage, according to Education Ministry data linking road trauma statistics over the Songkran holiday to students. An inspector-general, Supphakorn Wongprat, said 30,027 minors had been fined or prosecuted among more than 110,000 offenders."

Can this be true? 39 of the 210 killed were underage, or almost 20%, which I assume would include passengers. But then it says 30,027 underage were fined out of 110,000 total, which is almost 30%. You can't be fined for being a passenger, so does this mean 30,027 underage youth were driving without a license? If so, does it suggest that 30% of the people on the roads were/are unlicensed underage drivers?

You bet it's true ! When they not gonna change the habbits here, it will always stay like this. They check the driver, no dr. license ? ok pay a 100-200 baht fee and continue their way... NO, they should take their motorbike and do'nt give it back before they have a license ! That will make sense !!! But again.... TiT

Barbaric!

No, just Thai.

We foreigners shuld not complain, among themselves they are worse.

So for you it's normal that an older poor Thai man (who was going to a funeral ! ) didn't like that they sprinkled water over him and therefore got killed !?

Helmet, helmet, helmet, always wear a helmet when riding your motorbike whether to quickly nip down to the 7/11 or whether to take a long ride on the highway. The amount of people killed in Thailand becauwe they didn't wear their helmet is staggering.

So if i wear a helmet, i won't get run over by a drunken car driver! People don't die because of not wearing helmets, they die from getting run over and coming off the bike due to the state of the roads or bad riding!

You are both right, but the intention of tukkytuktuk was OK, actually made sense !

They need to do something about all this reckless activity during songkran. These are unnecessary losses of lives.

What can they do ? EVERYBODY is (too much) drinking in TH, not only with Songkran.... This is going on for centuries... Again WHO is gonna stop this ?? Sad, but nothing else than the truth

We had a friend come up to Chiang Rai from Bangkok. That meant two trips to the airport and another day of driving around and we did not come across a single policeman or police stop during that time. Many buckets of water and many children standing in the middle of the road but no police. Hopefully they were somewhere doing something more important.

Well my friend, actually they DID ! i was also surprised as i know the bib's habitude.... But i have seen (big) checkpoints at several places. Even there was one where i live that reminded me at the big check points in our western places. i haven't seen before so many police guys at one checkpoint, also very clever the way they were acting, never seen before... again i was totally surprised ! Cars that almost arrived at the place couldn't flee anymore, too late, they closed in everybody, even motorbikes who always used to escape couldn't run anymore. Some of them tried, but the bib's where all over the place.

so i guess that this is the reason that there were less deads than other years. AT LAST some positive action of the government/police ! Bravo

Every time I have gone through I find myself racing from the airplane to get to the Immigration check in booths and when I get there there is maybe 1 or 2 people working in them. The crowd starts to get bigger and bigger then you see a few Officers stroll up to the booths leaving a slug trail behind them and then proceed to start doing there job also at slug speed.

90% of them look at you like they don't want you in 'their' country and are definetly in no hurray to get you through. At the same time you look over at all the "Thai Nationals Only" booths and all the Thai's have gone through already but do you think they open it to foreigners? Not a chance in yell. Not to mention all the un-manned booths.

They just hate giving more "government" jobs out because then they will have to pay them pensions, health insurance etc.

It's such an easy issue to solve if they only gave a dam_n.

That's the problem in a nut shell. The Thai way; don't give a dame about anything except them selves. That alone is 60% of the problem.

Unfortunately nothing else than the.... TRUTH

Good news story. The parents must have been absolutely distraught with worry about thier baby, I would have been climbing the walls. A young girl rescued from the being abused by sex tourists. Can't wait for all the comments about how human trafficking is a myth and the girls go into prostitution of thier own free will.

Whatever makes you think a precurement like this must be for sex tourists? Or is it the thousands of establishments that exist in just about every city & town in the Kingdom, dedicated to serving the HUGE domestic / local market (which have absolutely nothing to do with sex tourism) aren't really there & don't exist? Sex tourism is just the small tip of a far larger iceberg, with the domestic market for locals being the vast mass below the waves!

iang, you're hitting the nail at the head ! Everywhere in Thailand are brothels where no Farang ever comes! It's part of the daily "sanuk" games for the rich Thai, and of course high placed poo yai's... And those pimps who run those places are earning BIG $$$$

But of course this is supposed to keep quiet.

Same as Sydney. The crime rate has gone up immensely. I blame drugs, gambling and violent TV and movies

VERRY correct my friend. They should start with banning A-L-L that violence on Thai tv ( i'm afraid there will be nothing left to watch...). but this is really the root of all the murdering that happens in Thailand EVERY day ! Kids that can hardly walk yet have already to take part in the daily "relaxing", meaning watching for hours and hours at all those stupid and violent series. The more blood the better, the more violence the better, the more screaming and crying the better, etc...

Why does Thaksin's dolly doesn't do anything about this !? Is she (and the other government wanke_rs) too busy took wan with calculating the tea money (or if you like the "corruption money") that they have to share between each other instead of solving the REAL problems !?!? i'm afraid it will NEVER change.... And in the meanwhile the killing on some innocent people continues for some pennies.... poor banana kingdom

Hmmmm... the only difference between here and home is the fact that the drivers usually flee the scene here. Considering the number of motorcycles on the roads here, I would bet the average number of motorcycle fatalities by percentage is quite a bit lower than it is at home. Not to mention bikes are generally traveling at higher speeds at home than they are here. Then again, helmet laws are stricter at home so.......

Still sad though...especially because he was just cruising along....could happen to any one of us...anywhere.

RIP

Where is your "home".... SILVERSTONE ?

Every hotel/guesthouse which is using the poor standard of two-wires electric should be closed immediately and checked before re-opening. Too many accidents happened already, not just in the pool area, but also in bathrooms with improper wired waters heaters. Sometimes the heater is installed not even half a meter from the shower-head

If they gonna do that, then 90% of the tourists in Thailand have to spend their holidays somewhere else as it is so common in LOS (land of sadness)

The first thing they need to do is get rid of the GREED factor there. Then they might be able to do something.

Who is supposed to do that ??? NOBODY is capable....

Pfffffffffff .. nothing will ever change ... I havent travel to Phuket for yearssssss and dont intend to go there anymore .. there are so much better places.

Last time i was in Pocket was... 3 months after tsunami, but as a longstayer i also don't want to go there anymore with all those creeps !

Snap poll.

Will Thailand ever run our of excuses?

N-E-V-E-R....

Very sad. I hope all the injured people come out of this okay.

"He was obviously not paying attention, or he would not have plowed into the car, sending it into the crowd. This is manslaughter."

Maybe one of us din't pay attention when we read the article. I don't see where anyone died in the second accident. I think a death is one of the requirements for manslaughter. Did I miss that part?

"As farang you are always guilty, even if you are not..."

I'm happy to say that my experience in accident situations has been the opposite of what you are saying.

Well, than you were very lucky my friend! JulesMad is right ! Many of us were already in such mafiosi "accidents" where the only intention is to suck the money out of us, the Farang ! And the BIB are what happy to intervere and show their consern to the farang... FORGET IT, most of them are part of those mafia !!

So follow that guy's advice and NEVER stop when you see a motorbike on the ground and next to it some Thai person being the victim, and in the immediate neighbourhoud somebody waving with his/her arm to please stop and give some help... Don't stop as YOU will be the one who's gonna need the help !!!!

You can criticise Thais, but many states in the USA don't have seatbelt laws and the residents feel safer that way. Thousands have even had airbags deactivated after scare stories about children being injured by airbags (which were the result of not wearing seatbelts or child seats being fitted incorrectly).

It's all about perceived danger. In fact I've seen western families ride around on scooters with their helmetless kids stood up at the front. They'd never do that in their homeland, but partly that's because they are not allowed to. I would bet if western driving rules were relaxed to Thai levels, you'd see a massive spike in road deaths in Europe/USA too.

People can't be relied upon to do the safe thing by choice, as often what they want to do they regard as bending the rules, rather than breaking them, and don't regard it as unsafe.

Of course if the two to a scooter rule was properly imposed, it would present something of a problem for Thai families where the scooter is the only transport they have. One of the things that struck me about Thailand is that there are no small cars anywhere. You go from scooter to Toyota Corolla, with nothing at all inbetween.

We are not talking about USA or other Western country, but we talk about Thailand where we live and where we don't want those drunk drivers and imbecils to kill us or our beloved ones !!!

You've got to value your life in order to live it. Why Thais continually insist on riding in the back of trucks like chickens is beyond me. Very dangerous.

Have brain size of chicken maybe thats why??

Anyway Nontahburi no deaths isnt it still partly underwater?

Why is it that every time I read an article on this forum and then scroll down the page only to find some so called expert on everything who just has to make negative insulting remarks about Thais??? Your Remark: Thais have a brain the size of a chicken!! Buddy!!! get a life!! it is obvious that you have a hate for Thais? So why are you in Thailand?? Why do most of you people continually run down Thai People?? at every opportunity you get??

I totally understand that the road accident statistics are horrendous and totally unacceptable, Any Death or Injury is unacceptable but from what I have seen and experienced while driving in Thailand is that most of the problem lies with the Traffic Police...............Lack of numbers, very poor traffic management and obviously not enough driver education when the issue licences. Tuk Tuk drivers obviously go to Kamikaze school before they start work, Taxi drivers are not much better, Truck and Bus drivers seem to think that they totally own the roads, but worst of all I have experienced is the drivers on up country road particularly between Korat and Kon Kaen who tend to drive at 35-40 k/m per hour holding up traffic and creating long convoys behind them! these drivers are the ones that cause most accidents by making the drivers behind them impatient who then take a huge risk by overtaking and in most cases results in an accident.

And then you have the other Kamikaze (Bone Heads) on motor cycles, I call them bone heads because obviously they think that riding without a helmet is safe??

So in summary, Better Policing, Better driver education, and more suspensions for drivers/riders that break the law, But the chance of seeing that happen soon would be the same as visiting a snow ski resort in Arabia!

Also being an Australian where road rage is very common, I have never ever seen road rage in Thailand

So I have had my say...............................But Fellas, how about less criticism of Thai people and more positive type posts and maybe, just maybe the powers to be may read your positive posts and take notice!!

i think this guy can't stand the truth..... Most of them DO have brain size of chicken !!! So what's wrong with telling the truth !? I also love this country, i also stay here long time, but still it's very sad to see all those drunks on the road and 4-5-6 people without helmets on motorbikes, young school kids racing with each other over the full width of the (main)roads on those motorbikes with 2 or 3 on that motorbike without any helmet or other protection, only a white school shirt and a blue or brown school short... just bringing innocent people/kids in danger!!!! AND ALL THIS IN FRONT OF THE POLICE who let happen..... But when a farang passes by even WITH a helmet, they will stop him and check his license, or other stuff, only to get the $$ out of him. And this is all.... NORMAL in this beautiful country, but yeah..... the brainless chicken also are situated in highest levels, starting by the government, so unfortunately nothing else than a snowball effect....

Pretty poor research.. missing... oh important thangs.... age groups, male vs females, time of day, So what every happened to the female teenage without a D/L..she walked right...

Yeah..... what actually happened to her ? Can anybody tell me as i didn't follow this story for a while....

i would not be surprised that she's...... driving again a car with a mobile in her hand... TiT

It is the role of government to stop this carnage; Europeanise its drink driving laws for a start and impose helmets and seatbelt laws to protect Thai children. But its not just the moral argument that the government should do this but also the economic and social argument that such massive carnage does so much damage to people's lives and their families. . Moreover it would make Thailand more attractive too to investors, retirees, international students & academics and vistors because it lifts Thailand to a higher level and just offers that better environment which is evident in some other Eastern societies

OOH SO TRUE !!!!!!!

"about 40 per cent said |they did not believe in the Law of Karma and in doing good."

Law of Karma ... is that like the Law of Gravity?

i didn't know TH had any law...

This guy is jealous cos he doesn't understand anything about computer/internet

i was surprised he didn't mention that so many youngsters spend Day and NIGHT in internet shops, only for playing games where they learn to.... KILL other people, injure/torture etc... others. This is EVIL for Thailand. But nobody cares about that as... it's part of the culture ? Brains ? Hard to find between banana's and mango's

Incredible fiscal discipline.

This is only possible in Thailand

Printing more money for such reasons. The only thing will happen is that more millions will stick to some fingers of bastards who don't really care about sending funds to people who really need it. This are really scrupulous b*st*rds, mostly housing in Parliament

The Russians expected ring doughnuts, and got meat and two veg instead.

I can't imagine that they're too pleased to have their names in the paper, and on the internet, I'd imagine they're in for some serious pi_ss taking when they go back to mother Russia.

WOEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...........

Som nam naaaaaaaaaaaa

"If your going to Pattaya, be sure to wear some plates in your knickers"....... :jap:

I hope the police send the bill for this mans hospital treatment and his damaged motorbike to these kids parents (as opposed to the victim or his insurance company). I'm sure that the parents when faced with a bill for a foreigner in ICU at Bangkok hospital and a foreigner motorbike rental repair bill. (even split four ways) will be more than a little annoyed and teach the kids the error of their ways.

i'm afraid you're dreaming

Would like to hear the tourism minister again.

The floods will not have an influence on tourism.

Yeah right.

They still can not admit that they did many things wrong in the past 1-2-3..... years (and still do) and that that's the reason that people stay away from TH. Also other negative things like arrogant taxi drivers, jetski's... in cooperation with the corrupt BIB's will not bring back the tourists who came here before one time....

i have to admit that the pics of the floods which can be seen all over the world do not advance tourist to come here, but believe me, this is NOT the main reason!!! They must keep their hand above their head and look WHO is under it....

The good Pol General knows where the overcharging is taking place (from complaints??) and has obviously reacted accordingly. No charges laid, but a fair percentage of the profits appropriated.

Next we wil have the pattaya jet ski crowd coming in....

Unfortunately it's the truth...... BASTARDS !!!!!

IMO - It is only a matter of time before all of Bangkok gets flooded

No one in charge has a clue how to stop it or how to redirect the water

You are probably correct so why not offer them some advice or are you the same as those in charge? Not A clue on What to Do.

@ Mijan: cha cha... why you get upset? Not everybody is pretending to be an expert like those..... experts! Not one of them is capable to do something as it's too late. This is the tragedy with Thailand... they always START THINKING WHEN IT'S TOO LATE !! Unfortunately a bunch of idiots never can be teached.