Road deaths rocket by 3,000 as Thailand set to be named world number one in carnage, say academics

[FarangJon]

Nothing will change.

Thats a promise!

[Airbagwill]

28 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

No recession in Thailand where I've been. Loads of money in the towns and countryside. I haven't been to Issan though.

So there hasn't been a drop has there? QED

 

the last time there was a recession was in the 90s which saw a concomitant drop.

you could also check 2007 world recession that brought about drops in many countries.

[sawadee1947]

Following "Thailand moves forward" it's not really new news, isn't it? If you add to those figures the amount of people who died in hospital after having an accident it might be very much more than 30.000 a year.

So another HUB for Thailand.

[Airbagwill]

5 minutes ago, FarangJon said:

Nothing will change.

Thats a promise!

possibly the most ill-informed comment so far......has there have already been dramatic changes in Thailand over the last 20 years to assume from now on there won't be is just plain facile

[Kadilo]

22 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I just don't get why people come to live in Thailand and then try to turn it into the same over regulated PC c***hole they came to escape.

Look, it's THEIR country, THEIR culture and it's up to THEM what to do about it.

 

I'm glad that for all the TVF blather about imposing western laws and culture on LOS it's not going to make one iota of difference in reality.

 

Seriously, if people really feel their life is in danger on the roads, they have the solution in their own hands. No one is making any of us drive on the roads or even stay here.

  Because the Thais themselves recognize they have a problem, people on here have families and children, and it's a discussion forum. 

[Airbagwill]

1 minute ago, sawadee1947 said:

Following "Thailand moves forward" it's not really new news, isn't it? If you add to those figures the amount of people who died in hospital after having an accident it might be very much more than 30.000 a year.

So another HUB for Thailand.

You obviously don't know how the figures are collated - see above.

[Airbagwill]

2 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

  Because the Thais themselves recognize they have a problem, people on here have families and children, and it's a discussion forum. 

"

I'm glad that for all the TVF blather about imposing western laws and culture on LOS it's not going to make one iota of difference in reality.

" - nothing to do with culture- that old racist chestnut - culture isn't static it changes, but more so this is a matter of science - the moon, gravity etc. etc all do the same in Thailand as they do on the rest of the planet and sio is road safety - and calling it driving is just facile.

[Hugh Cow]

The number of deaths and injuries is staggering. Proper, strict enforcement is the only solution. Until that happens nothing will change. Recently I was in a taxi on a tollway with 80 KPH signs the Taxi driver was doing 140 KPH in an old Taxi that looked as if its' next service would be its' first. Then there is the mini buses. I'd rather play hopscotch in a minefield than travel in them.  Now where possible I travel by train and plane in Thailand.

[thaibeachlovers]

4 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

So there hasn't been a drop has there? QED

 

the last time there was a recession was in the 90s which saw a concomitant drop.

you could also check 2007 world recession that brought about drops in many countries.

Given I was in LOS for both events I am quite familiar with them. The one in the late 90s which was caused by greed in Thailand and ratbag ( IMO ) Soros was far more devastating than the 2007/8 one here.

In the past few years there has been far more money for the poorer people than in the past, but when money came in the smile went out, sad.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

  Because the Thais themselves recognize they have a problem, people on here have families and children, and it's a discussion forum. 

Carry on discussing then. 

I never said it should stop, just that IMO it won't make any difference and that people know what to do if they don't like it.

 

If I had family ( children ) here I'd probably take them back to my home country, but I don't expect the entire Thai nation to change on farang's behalf, as some seem to think they should.

When the THAIS decide they need to change they will. So far it's just grumbling.

 

[Billy Bloggs]

They keep saying there is a lack of money to do anything about it, get the police out on the roads and collect the fines for the dumb acts carried out every single day, dont ride past an infringement stop and hand out the fine, if they dont want to do that replace them, you will have enough money in a short amount of time to start to make a difference, then start on the real problems driver education, public transport etc etc.

 

Oh and one for me please its not a road safety problem as such but there is a lot of money in fines for the horrible noise that the super exhaust on crap motor bikes make.

[Thaidream]

While I would agree that This is a Thai problem for them to solve and surely do not need American or European police officers in Thailand-  I would hope Thailand would attack this problem based upon the studies already done-

 

-It will take at least a generation to change how Thais approach driving but the country has to start somewhere and that would be to pick the 2 most egregious issues and start there.

-Since motorcyclists  show the majority of deaths- they need to be concentrated on by the police stopping wrong way driving (ghost riders);  motorcycles driving without any lights; and motorcycles passing on the left.

-The number one cause of death is speed- people drive above the posted speed limit if it is posted at all; drive way too fast in rural areas and weave in and out of lanes at high speeds. 

Police roadblocks are worthless and simply exacerbate traffic- forget the road checks and concentrate on a police presence targeting motorcycles and speeding cars.

 

Drivers education should be made a mandatory class in all Thai High Schools. In addition, there needs to be a radio and TV publicity campaign with hard hitting spots in the morning' afternoon and evening every day- explicitly telling people- they will die if speeding or driving a motorcycle the wrong way.

[TKDfella]

Yep , no surprises. There are major road works going on all around where I live, with bottlenecks, single lane traffic on sections of dual carriageways and still they bomb along as though the roads were empty. When the work started the work area wasn't well marked and when traffic started to drive through the work areas concrete barricades were erected. But last week I saw something new. It's along wait at the traffic lights due to bottlenecks but I saw several cars turn right at a U turn (just be fore the bottleneck starts)  drive straight across the road then proceed along the shoulder driving the wrong way. It's just crazy!

[thaibeachlovers]

9 minutes ago, Hugh Lao said:

The number of deaths and injuries is staggering. Proper, strict enforcement is the only solution. Until that happens nothing will change. Recently I was in a taxi on a tollway with 80 KPH signs the Taxi driver was doing 140 KPH in an old Taxi that looked as if its' next service would be its' first. Then there is the mini buses. I'd rather play hopscotch in a minefield than travel in them.  Now where possible I travel by train and plane in Thailand.

LOL, doing 140 kph in a taxi on a tollway is normal and to be expected. He's not going to make much money taking time on a long run, so he's got to get you out and back to another pickup. Of course you could have offered him more, a lot more to slow down- I guess you didn't do that.

No one that knows takes minivans unless there is no alternative.

[transam]

13 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

"

I'm glad that for all the TVF blather about imposing western laws and culture on LOS it's not going to make one iota of difference in reality.

" - nothing to do with culture- that old racist chestnut - culture isn't static it changes, but more so this is a matter of science - the moon, gravity etc. etc all do the same in Thailand as they do on the rest of the planet and sio is road safety - and calling it driving is just facile.

.....Chummy, the BiB taking cash from folk in LOS on mass for doing daft stuff on the roads will make an instant impact.....Money is the key....

[Kadilo]

Carry on discussing then. 
I never said it should stop, just that IMO it won't make any difference and that people know what to do if they don't like it.
 

To be fair that argument can be used for just about any thread that's put up.
I don't disagree with your view that nothing will change unless they want it too and although I do see small improvements there is a long way to go IF they are serious about what they say.


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[thaibeachlovers]

2 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

While I would agree that This is a Thai problem for them to solve and surely do not need American or European police officers in Thailand-  I would hope Thailand would attack this problem based upon the studies already done-

 

-It will take at least a generation to change how Thais approach driving but the country has to start somewhere and that would be to pick the 2 most egregious issues and start there.

-Since motorcyclists  show the majority of deaths- they need to be concentrated on by the police stopping wrong way driving (ghost riders);  motorcycles driving without any lights; and motorcycles passing on the left.

-The number one cause of death is speed- people drive above the posted speed limit if it is posted at all; drive way too fast in rural areas and weave in and out of lanes at high speeds. 

Police roadblocks are worthless and simply exacerbate traffic- forget the road checks and concentrate on a police presence targeting motorcycles and speeding cars.

 

Drivers education should be made a mandatory class in all Thai High Schools. In addition, there needs to be a radio and TV publicity campaign with hard hitting spots in the morning' afternoon and evening every day- explicitly telling people- they will die if speeding or driving a motorcycle the wrong way.

they need to be concentrated on by the police

 

Good idea, in theory. How many extra cops needed to enforce that- it's a very big country and the problem is nationwide? If they were employed, who's going to pay for them? Do you want to pay tax in LOS to employ more cops? I certainly don't, and most Thais couldn't.

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, Gunna said:

Or maybe it is all the idiots driving who bought cars under Yingluck first car scam - couldn't afford the car, couldn't afford to get lessons to drive and had to buy the driving licence and now can afford to maintain the vehicles and struggling to repay loans they should never been allowed to take out in the first place.

.

Enough of this nonsense. Since over 80% of these fatalities are on 2-wheels, there's no way that this has anything to do with any populist government, four-wheel car-buying schemes.

[Wiggy]

2 hours ago, csosdny said:

Start driving on the right side of the road! ??

Some of them already do!

[NanLaew]

59 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You can keep your US or German police far far away from LOS. We don't want those sorts of people oppressing the folk in LOS. I like LOS precisely because it doesn't have those sorts here. It's bad enough seeing all the pretend farang cops strutting around on Walking Street in their little black uniforms, without giving them any real power.

In Germany do they fine people more than they make in a month for a simple traffic offence, or put them in prison for speeding?

I can't say what I really think of your post, but we don't want that sort of thing in LOS.

I agree. No you don't.

[Kadilo]

.....Chummy, the BiB taking cash from folk in LOS on mass for doing daft stuff on the roads will make an instant impact.....Money is the key....

I got stopped and fined 400 baht the other day for allegedly speeding. Well it started off as 100 baht then the interest from walking from the car to the guy collecting increased it to 400.
To be fair they were stopping thais as well.
The look I got when I asked how fast I was going and could I see the image told me it was time to move on.............

Tiny steps.


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, NanLaew said:

Enough of this nonsense. Since over 80% of these fatalities are on 2-wheels, there's no way that this has anything to do with any populist government, four-wheel car-buying schemes.

Given that it may be cars hitting m'bikes and killing the riders it may indeed be due to the rise in car numbers.

However, I doubt there are any valid stats as to cause of death to know one way or another. I was almost killed on my m'bike by a car driving imbicile in Chiang Mai. I was also almost killed while walking on the side of the street ( no pavements ) in Hua Hin by another car driving moron.

In my experience as a m'bike rider, the biggest hazards to m'bikes in Thailand are cars.

[NanLaew]

36 minutes ago, KiChakayan said:

I don't see why living in Thailand should stop me from pointing at what is blatantly wrong. And look, in this  case it is a Thai who's been doing the fingerpointing..

Yes, and when the authorities that have the power to actually change things ask Dr. Withaya what he has achieved by bringing this lamentable state of affairs into the public eye once again, he can honestly claim to have sufficiently riled up enough foreigners to get a 14 page TV thread in less than 17 hours.

 

That and probably an uptick in the friends count on his FB account.

[Kadilo]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

In my experience as a m'bike rider, the biggest hazards to m'bikes in Thailand are cars.

Not the craters in there road? They scare the life out of me when I'm on my bike. Given I'm not an experienced biker. 

[Thaidream]

Part of the issue is the  'me first' concept- and the rest need to get out of the way and let me have my way.  It's the same mindset that makes people want to get into an elevator first before others get off or cut in line at a 7/11.  These people have no concept of social order and are basically selfish and unless social cohesion is taught in schools, the wat, and the home nothing will change unitl people are forced to pay in someway. They need  a type of 'shock therapy'.

[garbolino]

some weeks ago a question was posed "will increasing the training period of 5 hrs to TEN increase/make driving better in Thailand"???

Answer is obviously a BIG NO.....

Thais need 10 months or yrs to learn how to drive and adhere to the laws of the road...

[BHW]

Just back from Khukhan all within the hour, bike & side car did U turn in front of us when he saw a police check point if not for my wife's quick reaction & good brakes would have cleaned him up, 2 trips from the hospital come to red light first time 2 bikes went against it & one the 2nd time, on the main road home sat behind a truck with trailer on a long bend then a rust bucket pick up passed us & the truck.

 

Is it any wonder !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nemises]

Enough of this nonsense. Since over 80% of these fatalities are on 2-wheels...

 80% or 45% ?

 

The OP says:

 

 

 

 

[mrmicbkktxl]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Given that it may be cars hitting m'bikes and killing the riders it may indeed be due to the rise in car numbers.

However, I doubt there are any valid stats as to cause of death to know one way or another. I was almost killed on my m'bike by a car driving imbicile in Chiang Mai. I was also almost killed while walking on the side of the street ( no pavements ) in Hua Hin by another car driving moron.

In my experience as a m'bike rider, the biggest hazards to m'bikes in Thailand are cars.

Nonsense,motorcycle drivers are most of the time to blame for accidents,no dl,no light,no brakes,no nothing,wrong side driving,speeding,drunk or high just to name a few.If the police would  do their job this s..t would have an end soon.They should give tickets for the smallest issues,that's the only way how Thais will learn

[Bannoi]

4 hours ago, agudbuk said:

So agreed Thailand driving is abysmal.
Steps that could be taken.
On the road training and testing.
Enforcement of moving traffic violations . Dangerous overtaking, driving on the wrong side of the road, DUI. Overloaded vehicles. Speeding.
Make the speed limits realistic on main roads 30kph on a 3 lane highway 24/7 because a school is in the area will not be complied with.
Discourage U turns. More roundabouts and educate people how to use them.
Enforcement of driving without a licence/underage
etc. etc..

I agree with you about the roundabouts especially on dual carriageways where doing a U-turn puts you in the fast lane I have seen many accidents because of this.

 

I feel if at all possible ban U-turns on dual carriageways, a large roundabout would be one option they could use it would have the effect of slowing the traffic and allow traffic to exit in the slow lane.