Thai road carnage: A MILLION injuries and 24,000 deaths per year, official admits

[PETERTHEEATER]

1 hour ago, mercman24 said:

WHAT HAPPENED to the not riding in the back of pick up trucks i'll tell ya, nothing, Thais arrive here at Jomtien beach weekends with 6 to 8 kids and adults crammed in the back of pick ups right in front of the toy town cops, not a word is said.

Wow! You mean the crackdown failed? I'm shocked.....

[Laughing Gravy]

A bit of respect for the guy telling it how it is. Shame consistent governments totally ignore the facts. I wonder how long he will last in his position?  I do wish Thai authorities would stop using the term crackdown or hub, as they clearly don't understand the terms and it is embarrassing, as they never last.

[robsamui]

Absolutely nothing in the way of new information here! Despite the Thai govt massaging the figures, the World Health Organisation is wise to them, and last year (2016 figures) recorded Thai road deaths at 24,000 total.

 

That's 36 per unit of the population compared to civilised nations with under 3 per unit.

 

BUT - unlike civilised nations, Thailand only counts a road death if you are actually dead on the road - not if you die later of your injuries in hospital.

(The UK for instance allows for and includes hospital deaths up to 30 days after an accident.)

So it's anybody's guess what the actual total of the road carnage is each year - it's so high that even the Thai govt can't figure it out.

Edited October 28, 2017 by robsamui

[Pattaya28]

Drink driving is just 1 of many factors.

Cannot blame it all on drink driving.

Respect for road signage.

Red light jumping.

Pulling into path of other vehicles without looking.

No tail lights on motor bikes.

No safety helmets.

The list is endless.

Alcohol is just 1 factor.

 

 

[MaxYakov]

1 hour ago, canopus1969 said:

Calm down people, it's only a way to control the population numbers  

And the injuries that are 40 times the mortality rate, according to the OP (and with permanent disability running 4 times at 100,000/per year)? Poor as Thailand is can they really afford (what I call) this "motorbike disease"?

Edited October 28, 2017 by MaxYakov

[oxo1947]

5 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

WHAT HAPPENED to the not riding in the back of pick up trucks i'll tell ya, nothing,

That was always going to be a hard one---just about every family with a vehicle  has a truck & a large family.

Maybe  a move in the direction of taking it away from the police as they do in many other western countries.

[SlyouThai]

so many deaths... i dont understand , most of them have buddha amulets and such in the car.... doesnt make sense !

[pokerface1]

All I can say is remove the alcohol from the beer and don't tell them.

[Sakeopete]

Honestly what Thai problem isn't directly related to the lack of law enforcement. Westerners are not much better than Thais. If we had no effective law enforcement in any Western country the roads would be almost as bad.

[phantomfiddler]

Whenever I drive I,m not as drunk as some thinkle peep :) The biggest problem is that  a large percentage of Thai drivers are unable to drive sensibly when they are sober,

have absolutely no consideration for anyone else on the road, and take it as a personal insult if someone overtakes them

[mr_lob]

put some of those Aus/NZ style ads on in between those horrific soaps...should save some lives.

Having dealt with the aftermath of a triple-fatality (2 farang + 1 thai) accident caused by a dangerous 10 wheel truck driver back in February, I can tell you, those ads really hit home

[CGW]

3 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Enforce helmets to be warn, but will anyone pay attention, apart from the Buddha himself, Zzzz O''' zzz ?

If everybody in Thailand started to wear a "Thai' standard helmet today it would have very little impact on these numbers, 'quality" helmets "can" save lives, they do nothing for limbs and neck injuries that can also occur due to the weight of the helmet, especially in youngsters!

Enforcing the law would make a huge difference to these numbers, unfortunately you need a functioning police force for that to happen, don't hold your breath!!!1

[Dazinoz]

3 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

This only happen stupid farang country. Can not happen Thailand. 

[Jeremy50]

1 hour ago, samsensam said:

 

the vast majority of locals dont have a great education (even if they have been to university), awareness or experience of anything different this way of behaving is 'normal' and therefore within their expectations of how life is and so have no incentive to change.

 

what is disappointing is some thais have been educated and have lived abroad, they have seen and know it doesn't have to be this way and yet they do absolutely nothing to drive forward change for the better. i was saddened by the ex PM who lived in the uk for most of his life and was educated to a high level, i felt he would be a catalyst for positive change but he achieved noting.

He achieved nothing because he wasn't allowed to, or rather he wasn't given enough time to. He could have worked wonders for this country, and still might one day. I remember being in a school staff room, and all the Thai teachers talking about him and feeling embarrassed because he spoke fluent English and had been to Oxford, I couldn't understand the scorn they had for the man, as if he was in some way 'unThai'   The next thing you know, they had voted in silly little Yingluck, who could speak not a word of English and spent the next few years enriching herself and her cronies. This is what you are up against.

[Thian]

1 hour ago, dcnx said:

Meh. Let them die. There is only one way for a “up to me” society to learn, and it’s the hard way. If they want to drive drunk, let them. In fact, I would support a national drunk driving day once per month just to thin the herd.

 

Year after year these reports and warnings come out but they never help. You can’t teach them and they are unwilling to learn or change. So death and injury it is. It’s their country and the people have clearly spoken, they want it.

 

Sooner or later they will figure it out.

Almost all the Thai that i know well are highly educated and still drink a lot before they drive home.

 

The bad thing about it is that they might kill other people as well..and i blame it all on the police and selfishness of the Thai.

[peperobi]

 

Everyone knows that problem for many years already!

Why is it not possible to taking care all the year about that very bad matter but only on New year, Loi Krathong, Songkran, and other festivities?

The police must be always present and force the peoples to respect the law!

[oldlakey]

3 hours ago, khwaibah said:

 

We told you sooooooooo.

They have got off lightly up to now, apart from the dead and injured of course

[poyai111]

By far the greatest component of these road deaths is the motorcyclist component - in excess of 30% -over 20 per day! A scorched earth policy to reduce their anarchy would be desirable and effective if the police were to be effectively motivated.

[oldlakey]

3 hours ago, selftaopath said:

I am certain Thais would choose the carnage to continue rather than abide by the rules of the road. Self discipline v corruption they will choose corruption EVERY TIME. 

No argument from me, but I just wish the Muppets would go away and stop asking why you dont have any compassion 

[Felt 35]

42 minutes ago, Sakeopete said:

Honestly what Thai problem isn't directly related to the lack of law enforcement. Westerners are not much better than Thais. If we had no effective law enforcement in any Western country the roads would be almost as bad.

I tend to agree. However before anything will change here, upbringing from home, education, consideration and attitude to others both on and of roads will have to be changed 180 degree but as long as the Governments priority is promote driving with bigger roads, more vehicle sale and with that simply telling people to buy and /or use your vehicle more and only law enforcement is 2x7dangerous days annually nothing will change.

[Basil B]

4 hours ago, z42 said:

Incidentally went to Cambodia recently and the driving standards and attitudes there are even more pathetic than here

You can blame that on Pol Pot as he got rid of any one with any intelligence, whats Thailand's excuse???

[Sydebolle]

As long as the police doing booze checks set up their posts next to ATM machines in order to pay the fine without receipt (Pattaya noting THB 20'000/incident) there is never anything to change. 

Treat everybody same and apply Western traffic violation criteria. Get seriously juicy fines (for the state); depending on how much too much or in case of a repeater = slammer. Alternatively impound the vehicle for, say, three months at THB 10K/month - works wonders, trust me. 

But who wants to stop the gravy train feeding the BiB .......... 

[quadperfect]

Its just about evolution. Once this country and many other in asia evolve enough they will adopt coherent driving practices and police forces to even the numbers.

Lets say 30 years or so.

But for now its just part of the deal living in asia. Life is cheap here.

[glasswort]

3 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

A pretty nasty video but unfortunately it will not be viewed by the those that need to see it. Perhaps it should be shown as part of the driving licence issuance procedure instead of the inane Thai soap type of video that is currently shown. On the other hand shock tactics are unlikely to make any difference to Thai driving attitudes.

[CGW]

27 minutes ago, peperobi said:

The police must be always present and force the peoples to respect the law!

Why am I struggling with these three words being in the same sentence;- police, respect & law?

[Airbagwill]

For most Thaivisa members this is an opportunity to vent their erroneous beliefs that Thai people are inherently stupid.

Just because a TV member drives.. or drove.....everyone is suddenly an expert on road safety..... or what they erroneously consider to be “road safety”

The drink drive lobby puts it all down to alcohol the speeding lobby claims speed, yet they all overlook the elephant in the room which is the entire driving environment.

 

If this was introduced into the UK the death rates and figures would immediately rise to be the same........

 

 Passing a test does not make you a great driver, driving for 20 years without an accident doesn’t either. Driving a truck doesn’t either - it is studying road safety that makes the difference and as most people don’t even recognize it as a “thing” how can they be expected to comment.

Just look a the comments on this this they are almost all about a driving, mostly cars or motorbikes with no reference whatsoever to the road environment or other road users or government policies - just glib sound-bites about drivers who are drunk...... it doesn’t even approach the problem.

 

What makes roads safe is government regulation.

Build safe roads design them in a way that prevents idiot driving.

Build and use safer vehicles (805 in Thailand are vulnerable road users)

Enforce laws - to do this you need to train the police and BUILD PROPER ROADS

Train drivers and OTHER ROAD USERS - not just for a test - learning road safety is a life long process - learning how to drive is not learning road safety.

Provide a proper emergency service - lord knows how many people die from insufficient medical attention in Thailand.

...and finally set up and train a body to examine measure categorize and analyze every single accident fatal or otherwise so that we can learn how these things really happen.

 

If the Thai authorities embrace ALL those points then they will make progress - otherwise they are just rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic

 

 

[MarkusAUST]

The way I see it is that Thais view road rules as something more akin to guidelines and simply have no understanding of the consequences of driving crazy or driving drunk.

Perhaps when the courts start to dish out 100 hours community service to drunk or dangerous drivers, working in the local mortuary, they will get a chance to truly see the results of their actions, and then you just might start to get through to one or two of them.

[johnnytuc]

3 hours ago, swoods58 said:

Wow. That video will make me drive more carefully. 

Agreed but wouldn't make any difference to a Thai

 

[Happyman58]

When you have a police force that has no control over drivers, does not enforce the laws, Breaks the laws themselves, Are very corrupt, and dont even know the laws themselves what chance is there really? When i go driving my car  i always prepare for the worst. 24,000 dead and 1 million injured and nothing is done about it.

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, mercman24 said:

WHAT HAPPENED to the not riding in the back of pick up trucks i'll tell ya, nothing, Thais arrive here at Jomtien beach weekends with 6 to 8 kids and adults crammed in the back of pick ups right in front of the toy town cops, not a word is said.

And this blatant disregard for their own life and irresponsible happy weekend behavior that has absolutely no impact on your life expectancy bothers you how exactly? As their national anthem says...

 

3 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Vietnamese police are dynamite on helmets. I suspect most of the fines go into the hip pockets but at about US$10 a hit it has got them wearing helmets. 

Spot on observations. The Thai 'Boys in Brown' are absolute novices in the motorbike driver shake-down stakes when compared with their desert-fatigue colored Vietnamese counterparts. I think the seemingly passive compliance also has a lot to do with the 'hit' from those rather impressive black and white batons that are part of their uniform as well.

 

For those that doubt Cadbury's assertion, just enter 'vietnam traffic police' in google search, select images and prepare to be enlightened.