Colin Yai

"The first five days (April 11-15) of the Thai New Year saw 253 deaths and 2,751 injuries in 2,581 road accidents - compared to 188 deaths and 2,786 injuries in 2,584 accidents over the same period last year. Drunk driving remained the major cause of accidents."

"Anusorn said the government's "Songkran Plodpai Tai Pen Soon" (Safe Songkran with zero death rate) campaign created public awareness of road hazards, stricter implementation of traffic laws, and the setting up of checkpoints to stop drunk drivers. This succeeded in lowering the number of accidents and thus saved money."

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Stats:

1. Injuries were of 98.7% compared to last year's toll, based on the above figures.

2. There were 3 less accidents, or a 99.9% comparison to last year's toll, based on the above figures.

3. There was an increase by 26% of deaths in comparison to last year, based on the above figures.

I'm sure this saved huge money, not!

-mel.

Of course there are statistics ,and there are statistics in Thailand ,A kinda FACT Vs FICTION

So the accident and injury rates are almost identical to last year, but the death rate is up 30% or thereabouts and a Government spokesman calls their campaign a success! These people must have PhD's in 'spin'.

The problem in Thailand is that there is little deterrent for breaking the law. It is pointless banning someone from driving when most people drive around without a licence anyway. They need to get tough. How about around these festivals (for a start), if you drive or ride without a helmet on a bike, the police confiscate your bike, never to be returned (the kind of thing that can happen in Holland/Germany). If you are drunk driving an automatic 3 months in jail, do not go home do not pass go do not get off with a 200 baht fine, go to jail, go directly to jail! There would be a couple of years of pain, crowded jails and overflowing vehicle compounds but the idea would get through.

Sheer commonsense Jim ,but when has that been the "order of the day " here ,"Mi pen ri " rules OK

Twelve Songkran's in and I'm really finding it difficult to enjoy it any more. The balance between fun and outright stupidity is now weighted very heavily against fun.

What Songkran I did see in Bangkok yesterday resembled some sort of aquatic Mad Max. Drunk people standing in the middle of Sukhumvit road, which is very often handles more traffic than a busy UK "A" road. Large swarms of people on bikes in gangs, drunk and covered in that powder. No helmets, obviously, but I did see one guy wearing a snorkel.

And then there's the trucks of people, all drunk. But, of course the drivers have volunteered to stay sober now, haven't they?

Although I spotted a few cops here and there over the past few days, yesterday I could see none.

Call me a grump. I think I'm pretty much through with Songkran's like these now...

AND so should every one else be with a gramme of responsibility to other road users!.

Personally writing I think the actual "body count" /Casualty/accident rates is way over those that are portrayed , "head onners" in the UK are extremely rare ,yet here they are the order of the day ,simply because (1) they overtake were they cannot see like on a blind bend or the brow of a hill , or (2) when turning right they invariably take the corner on the WRONG SIDE of the road!, the results of these insane moves are obvious.

If it was self-defence, he is not "guilty" of anything.

We'll see. Keep in mind the nice boy was just out for an evening stroll and then he started getting harassed by this crazed vigilante dude, and ended up dead. I am sorry. The killer must pay. You aren't naive. You know as well as I do that if the murdered boy had been upper class and white, there is no way the killer would not been charged right on the scene. Let him go to trial. Great. He should have been booked the night of the killing. I'll accept a not guilty verdict on trial. Will some of you guys accept a GUILTY verdict?

I for one will accept a guilty verdict sure and so will all on this Forum, the question you should be asking is will the local black populace accept it if Zimmerman is found not guilty , some how I doubt it!.

No, the question you should be asking is why you assume that 'the local black populace' are somehow less trustworthy than you.

I said I doubt it ,which Is my opinion, which is not quite the same as saying they will not accept the verdict is it, or am I not allowed to have an opinion if it conflicts with yours?!

They need to trash that stand your ground law too if people like Zimmerman think that gives him a license to stalk and shoot teenagers.

Another fantasy land statement from you Jingthing and given I might add without a shred of evidence , "People like Zimmerman" obviously you know him personally!

If it was self-defence, he is not "guilty" of anything.

We'll see. Keep in mind the nice boy was just out for an evening stroll and then he started getting harassed by this crazed vigilante dude, and ended up dead. I am sorry. The killer must pay. You aren't naive. You know as well as I do that if the murdered boy had been upper class and white, there is no way the killer would not been charged right on the scene. Let him go to trial. Great. He should have been booked the night of the killing. I'll accept a not guilty verdict on trial. Will some of you guys accept a GUILTY verdict?

I for one will accept a guilty verdict sure and so will all on this Forum, the question you should be asking is will the local black populace accept it if Zimmerman is found not guilty , some how I doubt it!.

So he deserved to be murdered because he was tall for his age?

You really are the living end Jingthing , I was merely requesting a recent photo ,as I think the photo displayed in the thread is not accurate, nothing more ,nothing less .

Zimmerman is the victim?

he would have been during the time i lived opposite Sanford across Lake Monroe. then it would have been immediately clear and without any reasonable doubt that Zimmerman needed long term counselling because he witnessed that poor boy committing suicide and at the same time talking on his cellphone.

but times have changed. perhaps not yet in Birmingham, Alabama and Little Rock, Arkansas but definitely in Sanford, Florida. on sunday i talked to a law enforcement officer of a neighbouring county. his comments: "ah reckon y'all won't guess how many Hail Maries we said because it didn't happen here! what a mess."

Naam is there any chance you can produce the latest Photograph of this "young boy" according to some reports that he was 6 foot 2 ,hardly kindergarten material !. .

He was initially found to be insane, but that verdict was overturned so he will get his day in open court, so he will use this as an opportunity for his political soapbox. Whilst his actions were absolutely abhorrent they did not happen in a vacuum, which could have been argued if he was diagnosed as insane.

Yeah Dan ,the guy must have thought he had good reasons for doing what he did, and although I agree that what he did was beyond belief ,never the less I would like to hear his version as to just why he resorted to such totally inhuman methods to let his feelings known to the world .,just the same as I would like to know just why the US serviceman in Afghanistan who brutally murdered Afghan civilians not too long ago.

Three pages of posts and all we have from his detractors is ad hominem attacks on the man, he didn't kill anyone and couldn't be given that wonderful euphemism 'freedom fighter', though I do believe it was freedom from oppression and the protection of freedom of speech that the man stood up for. Still in the absence of any defensible argument the far left chooses to resort to profaning the dead.

At least we still have Pat Condell. to point out some home truths the lib-left don't want to hear.

Hey Dan , Many on "the left" simply refuse point blank to watch Condell,s Video's ,I wonder why??

Because they're rubbish.

How do ya know they are rubbish if you don't watch them?

The OP, if you re-read it, doesn't talk about what Mohammad did or didn't do. It talks about a political decision. It mentions that some people voted for it, others against it.

This thread will not be allowed to descend into an Islam bashing, rehash of events which are not even factually known to exist.

You know how it is, Haters gonna hate. Can't even have a rational talk about Islam, Muslims, Arabs or their Countries, without a bunch of bigots jumping out like monkeys to beat on their chest and throw crap around.

So do you think the death penalty for insulting someone who may or may not have ever existed is 'rational'?

Dan, I could think of many names to describe full blown Islamic Sharia law ,but somehow "rational" does not come into the equation!!

Hey Korat Pat Just been reading that quite a few black celebrities have been voicing there Indignation about "lack of justice" their cheerleader surprise surprise was none other than Oprah Winfrey , this tragic incident is looking more like a 3 ring circus by the Day.

Indeed, but Zimmerman was chosen as the neighborhood watch coordinator by his neighbors in the homeowner association and there is evidence that Zimmerman was attacked - the cuts on his head, the broken nose and the grass stains on the back of his shirt. Reportedly, two eye witnesses have said that they saw Treyvan on top of Zimmerman pummeling him. The hanging party may have a long wait.

Wouldn't his nose have been bleeding or left blood on his shirt if it had been broken? It's perhaps inconclusive but from the cctv pictures it hardly looks like he took a real battering or had cuts to his head.

I'm familiar with the right of innocent until proven guilty. It's just strange to me that you can kill someone and simply say it was self-defence, without any police investigation until there's an outcry.

Yeah But why did the public "outcry" take so long??

There have been 120 murders in Chicago so far this year (2012).

Why are Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson (who is from Chicago) not expressing outrage over this issue and beating their collective chests over it?

Maybe because the majority of shootings in Chicago are black on black, not Hispanic on black.

...and it is an election year.

_____________________________________________________

Chicago Shootings: 3 Dead, 7 Wounded In Overnight Friday Gun Violence

Posted: 04/14/2012 1:45 pm Updated: 04/14/2012 3:23 pm

Three people were killed and seven others injured in shootings Friday evening into Saturday morning in Chicago, continuing what has already been a bloody spring in the Second City.

David Loggins, 52, of the 6500 block of South Champlain Avenue, was shot in the neck at 1:23 a.m. Saturday in the 6400 block of South Langley Avenue, police say, and was pronounced dead at the scene, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The Chicago Tribune reports that a 31-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the torso in his cab near the intersection of Racine Avenue and 69th Street. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center and pronounced dead there at about 3:45 a.m. His identity has not yet been released.

http://www.huffingto..._n_1425694.html

http://www.huffingto..._n_1420382.html

In this particular case because the person who did the shooting was immediately released by police after having done so. Perhaps the other cases you mention are being treating as suspected homicides. There is a difference. Though there have been other cases in Florida where 'stand your ground' has been successfully invoked. These cases are funny or depressing depending on one's view of the law in question.

You have missed my point.

This entire fiasco following the death of the unfortunate young man, is political fodder in an election year.

Black people are getting murdered daily in Chicago, mainly by other black people, and there is no outrage or public cry to stop the slaughter. The silence from the Democratic left is deafening.

Calling Zimmerman a "white Hispanic", as the media did, is precisely an attempt to divide the races even further than they already have been during the past three years.

Please, please, please! Somebody tell me ONE other instance where a Hispanic has been named as a "white Hispanic" by the news media.

Anybody???

Yeah Obama is desperate for the "black vote" again, I strongly suspect that the whole shabang is Political, maybe I am wrong who knows ,but IF my suspicious mind is correct this adds an whole new dimension to "gutter politics" its quite obvious that intense pressure was brought to bear by the likes of Al Sharpton and his ilk to bring about a prosecution , maybe Zimmerman is guilty who knows ,certainly no one in this forum is sure either way ,I just find it rather Sad that someones freedom or incarceration could well be sacrificed or gamboled with on the alter of The American political popularity stakes !.

I have been living in the Middle East and South East Asia for over 30 years.

I never heard of this guy and I had 15 Indians working for me at one time in Saudi.

He is, very simply put, another ego inflated actor that seems to think he matters in the world order.

I presume, you are just not interested to open your eyes and ears enough and you did not speak much in private with your Indian workforce.

Maybe try above next time and do not be so envious or do you know Mr Shah Rukh Khan? Regarding your last sentence, you must know him!

But you wrote, you do not know him.

-chukd-

Regarding your last Post, I can understand your point of view, but why not just Google than?

I had never heard of the guy until this silliness got blown out of proportion. I assume your comment about me knowing him previously had to do with what I said about his ego? Jingthing was kind enough to point out in an earlier post that Khan was a film actor in Bollywood. Having watched movie actors in TV interviews out of morbid curiosity in the past I had become aware all of them had vast egos. Why was I to assume he is any different? Seems I was right based on his indignation at being held up at Immigration for a whole two hours. I was held up in Chicago one time for two hours because I gave an Immigration agent a smart remark. I cooled my heels and went on my way. BFD.

I seldom discussed Indian romance movies with my Indian help. I promise if I ever go back to work and have some Indian employees, I will have a weekly marshmallow roast around a campfire and we will discuss the subject.

My horizons will be broadened.

Edit in to change a few words.

Nice one Chuck,at least it brought a smile to my face

Nuerath your post #66 appears to fly in the face of Endures post#45 who said and I quote "With out the person (Zimmerman) who did the killing at least being detained and questioned about the circumstances in which they killed" of course its normal police procedure to write down and evaluate the Evidence , Apparently the Police must have deduced that Zimmerman had nothing to answer to and therefore released him without charge ,

I love the photo attached to the O.P article, it somehow seems most appropriate.

Yeah Dan The Donkey got the Hat for "services" rendered !

However, there is far too much haste in rushing to judgement.

Which is surely the root of the problem? The fact that the police rushed to judge Zimmerman as innocent and just let him walk in the first place. This 'stand your ground' law works simply by having someone say 'I felt I was threatened'. End of story?

Yes the 'stand your ground' law is very consequential - I can't imagine that there would be very many black men who won't now feel very threatened if followed by a non-black male. I suppose they will all be looking to be armed C&C. Consequences to follow.

Threatened? read UG's post#49!!.

Replying to your post #57 Chuck ,I refer you to your post#19 for the answer ,which in my view was quite evident by the "line up"displayed and the remarks given by President Obama which was in my view pathetic , this decision to prosecute at such a late date is obviously political with the Election not far away , with strong racist undertones thrown in.

I, like probably millions of others look at a picture of the deceased and see someone that is non threatening and not to be flippant, but a nice looking kid.

Those pictures were when he was a child. Look at some more recent ones.

yeah right! looks like one grown-up mean, threatening and criminal n-word which should be shot at sight especially when wearing a hoodie.

i lived for 15 years across Lake Monroe on which Sanford is located. the local news were quite often loaded with racial tension and discrimination although the city has a substantial number of black citizens.

The only person involved in this encounter who was known to have employed the "n-word" was Trayvon Martin himself, who apparently used the handle, "No_Limit_Nigga", on his Twitter account.

Any Answers to this revelation Naam? , you are quick to make baseless allegations ,but slow on answering any one questioning your views!.

I, like probably millions of others look at a picture of the deceased and see someone that is non threatening and not to be flippant, but a nice looking kid.

Those pictures were when he was a child. Look at some more recent ones.

yeah right! looks like one grown-up mean, threatening and criminal n-word which should be shot at sight especially when wearing a hoodie.

i lived for 15 years across Lake Monroe on which Sanford is located. the local news were quite often loaded with racial tension and discrimination although the city has a substantial number of black citizens.

An Amazing summing up Naam ,of course you have all the details of the case at your disposal!!

Yeah UG Naam has all the evidence to hand and Zimmerman is Guilty

Wrong, they want the guy to be found Guilty irrespective of the Evidence.

That might be true and you can't expect the family to be objective. They want someone to pay. The man who shot the gun would be the obvious suspect, yes? I agree with the idea of having the trial, of course. Bring it on. I bet he's convicted of at least manslaughter.

Yeah you said it right ,they want someone to pay, the whole scenario stinks to high heaven ,the police must have thought they had no case against the guy ,if they had why the time lapse before he was charged?, nah this is a purely political decision ,and the decision IMHO came from the very highest level ,not the police or prosecutors .

Are you seriously saying that someone can be killed without some sort of investigation? Without the person who did the killing at least being detained and questioned about the circumstances in which they killed? Or is it only black boys named Trayvon who don't need their death investigated?

Maybe the police thought it was an "open and shut case" of self defence which would appear to be the case until immense pressure was brought to bear from "high up" ,and how do you know that an investigation was not held at the time of the shooting,or for that matter that he was not questioned ,you don't do you?,and with respect how the bloody hell can anyone prove or disprove what was or was not going on in Zimmermans mind at the time of the incident?

Wrong, they want the guy to be found Guilty irrespective of the Evidence.

That might be true and you can't expect the family to be objective. They want someone to pay. The man who shot the gun would be the obvious suspect, yes? I agree with the idea of having the trial, of course. Bring it on. I bet he's convicted of at least manslaughter.

Yeah you said it right ,they want someone to pay, the whole scenario stinks to high heaven ,the police must have thought they had no case against the guy ,if they had why the time lapse before he was charged?, nah this is a purely political decision ,and the decision IMHO came from the very highest level ,not the police or prosecutors .