New Year road toll rises to 375 after six days

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, keithkarmann said:

Given that about 80% of the deaths on the road are riders on motorcycles (I think we know why) this leaves 20% deaths driving/riding othere vehilcles. If this figure of car only related deaths was put into the world statistics where would Thailand be then? I would suspect it would still be high in the charts but not close to the top. Many Western countries do not have so many motorcycles and the deaths for example in the UK are mainly due to motor cars or trucks. I am not defending the statistics of Thailand but there are probably more cars than motor cycles in Thailand but there are probably four times the deaths due to motor cycles.This is attributed to the lack of abiding by the laws of the road, lack of proper training, lack of driving licenses and the thinking that their Faith will protect them etc. Plus there are more motorcycles on the road due to a lack of a proper transport system away from Bangkok.

While I agree that the motorcycle death figures are depressingly high I would guess that you haven't travelled in a few other countries that I have.

 

Taiwan has a very much higher number of motorcycles than Thailand as do Vietnam and Cambodia 

 

Quote

578 motorcycles per 1000 populations and car ownership of 230 cars per 1000 population 

The higher death rate is possibly related to the faster roads in Thailand compared to Vietnam and Cambodia, certainly the way that Thai motorcycle riders act (and the care they take) is similar to that I saw in Cambodia.

 

in Taiwan helmets are universally used and in Taipei motorcycles are often segregated from other traffic.

[Artisi]

Does it really matter if it's 60 / 70  per day over a holiday period, it's more than treble what would still be considered an extremely high kill rate by any civilised standard, and unfortunately it's the norm for every day of the year.

 

Shame on the country of Thailand as a whole, the supposed law enforcement, and the individual people of Thailand allowing it to be ongoing.

[NextStationBangkok]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

According to statistics, for the same 7 day period last year, 478 people died, on day 6 this period its 375 people dead, so the 5% reduction they were hoping for is within reach come tomorrow, and its a step in the right direction, but 80% of accidents occurred from motorcycles, and there lay the problem, add drink driving 40% and 28.5% of speeding motorists.

 

So are they going to increase the penalties, and take away people's licences for drunk and speeding drivers, with jail time if caught driving without a licence.

 

We all know that the above has to be done, and add to that, that it needs to be enforced 24/7, otherwise these numbers will continue to blow out.

 

New Year Statistics for Past Years:

New Year 2010: 347 deaths, 3,827 injuries and 3,534 accidents
New Year 2011: 358 deaths, 3,750 injuries and 3,497 accidents
New Year 2012: 336 deaths, 3,375 injuries and 3,093 accidents
New Year 2013: 367 deaths, 3,329 injuries and 3,176 accidents
New Year 2014: 341 deaths, 3,117 injuries and 2,997 accidents
New Year 2015: 380 deaths, 3,505 injuries and 3,379 accidents

 

Thanks for sharing the data. Actually the % of cars increased, and the number of people travel, including the amount of tourists entering the country. Thailand has performed well in 2018 New Year.

 

I remember 10 years ago, it used to be 700+. But with increased traffic, it is improving.

[Daveyh]

Just a normal 6 days in Thailand ......... average of approx 62-65 deaths per/day...... seems about right. It would appear that whatever the authorities set out to do the outcome will always be the same ........ why?  It's the norm here & has been this way for years & years. People just seem unconcerned about it & very few seem very willing to act to stop it from happening, hence majority rules every time. Something really drastic needs to be done to make a difference & that will be unacceptable to the general public knowing full well about the mindset here. This carnage will continue as Thai's will not stop to discuss it seriously as they are too busy getting on with their own lives ......... however short it may be! I will never figure this place out ..... it's so unique.

[Stargeezr]

All in all still way to many people died again this year.

Geezer

[Daveyh]

1 minute ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

All in all still way to many people died again this year.

Geezer

Yes, the stats are frightening. Just one fatality on the road in europe demands a lengthy investigation as to why it happened resulting in improvements to road safety. Here no one cares & the police certainly have no mandate, hence a repeat of the same mistake by motorists is repeated time & time again. The whole highway code here is pathetic. No one should be surprised why the roads are so dangerous here ............ even to pedestrians.

[Airbagwill]

27 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

While I agree that the motorcycle death figures are depressingly high I would guess that you haven't travelled in a few other countries that I have.

 

Taiwan has a very much higher number of motorcycles than Thailand as do Vietnam and Cambodia 

 

The higher death rate is possibly related to the faster roads in Thailand compared to Vietnam and Cambodia, certainly the way that Thai motorcycle riders act (and the care they take) is similar to that I saw in Cambodia.

 

in Taiwan helmets are universally used and in Taipei motorcycles are often segregated from other traffic.

Thailand is a perfect storm for motorists.

In Taiwan thy have good roads an efficient traffic police and admin, and an extremely high vehicle ownership figure (over90%) which indicates a wealthy society. implementation of the 5Es to a certain degree

Vietnam has the motorcycle as the principle form of transport. Cars are still the minority on most roads

Thailand due ti it's indigenous 4 wheel motor industry, has a lethal mix of 2 and 4 wheel transport and because of poor road design, insufficient separation of vulnerable road users.

In the end it boils down to the WHOLE picture and the 5 Es.

[Airbagwill]

41 minutes ago, KhunMhee said:

As in a previous post. Vehicles per 1000 Thailand ranks 73rd. at 206. If you look at death per capita Thailand ranks 2nd highest. It's a huge problem here and I just hope soon people realize that they need to review the Drivers training and look for harsher penalties on major offenders.  

again cherry  picking your favourite road safety aspects and ignoring the whole picture will have little effect.

[PAIBKK]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Drunk-driving contributed to just over 40 per cent of the accidents, while violations of the speed limit accounted for a further 28.5 per cent.

Thai thinking: "Because 40% of all accidents were caused by drunk drivers and 28.5% by speeding offenders. After using the calculator it says: 60% of the accidents were caused by by sober drivers and 71.5% by driving normal, slowly or too slow."

 

Thai logic: So it will be safer when driving drunk and speeding !!!

[Odysseus123]

1 hour ago, sawadee1947 said:

Where is that big difference.....? 61 or 66 0r 70. It's far too many who die by the incompetency of this govt to enforce law.

Whilst I agree with what you say-basically because i think the "carnage"or "slaughter" as I call it is consistently under reported in Thailand..so you can pick any old number you choose-I must disagree with you on one issue and that is that the current Thai Gov't is solely to blame.

 

It really isn't because the Thai "social contract" never seems to have involved either responsible drinking or responsible driving-under any government,let alone this one.The lack of such a contract involves everyone including my drunken Thai family...sans brains..sans discipline...sans responsibility for any sort of risky behaviour if they can get away with it.

 

No gov't can really enforce such a crackdown effectively because 99% of the population wishes to retain its anarchic ways-in all fields of human endeavour.

[Russell17au]

1 hour ago, FitnessHealthTravel said:

Actually it is 70.5 people on average die in road accidents but the figures measured here at 'dead at scene' not deaths in Hospitals or on the way to Hospital.

The figures that are quoted here do include those that die in transit to hospital and also in hospital, these figures are updated each day, but those figures will stop at the end of day 7. Anyone who dies in hospital after day 7 will not be included in the count

[shy coconut]

35 minutes ago, PAIBKK said:

Thai thinking: "Because 40% of all accidents were caused by drunk drivers and 28.5% by speeding offenders. After using the calculator it says: 60% of the accidents were caused by by sober drivers and 71.5% by driving normal, slowly or too slow."

 

Thai logic: So it will be safer when driving drunk and speeding !!!

I think that is how statistics work, in a round about way.

All figures can be manipulated to suit an agenda.

[Russell17au]

19 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Whilst I agree with what you say-basically because i think the "carnage"or "slaughter" as I call it is consistently under reported in Thailand..so you can pick any old number you choose-I must disagree with you on one issue and that is that the current Thai Gov't is solely to blame.

 

It really isn't because the Thai "social contract" never seems to have involved either responsible drinking or responsible driving-under any government,let alone this one.The lack of such a contract involves everyone including my drunken Thai family...sans brains..sans discipline...sans responsibility for any sort of risky behaviour if they can get away with it.

 

No gov't can really enforce such a crackdown effectively because 99% of the population wishes to retain its anarchic ways-in all fields of human endeavour.

I agree with your top two paragraphs but I disagree with your last one.

A gov't can enforce such a crackdown effectively if someone in there has the balls to do it. It has happened in other countries, it can happen here, all it takes is to have the balls to ensure that the road laws as they are currently written are enforced by a competent police force and not say " oh, but, the poor farmers don't have any money", well those poor farmers can kill just as many innocent people on the roads as the rich snobs from Bangkok.

[Essaybloke]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Total Thai shambles ! Considering the amount of Police checks and stop points and energy and money that went into reducing the figures significantly, it seems Thais are quite happy just to kill themselves - and innocent others. Maybe Prayut should stay in control of these imbeciles as they clearly cannot take care of themselves ! 

Huh.....Prayut's in control?  Of what?  

[khwaibah]

Bangkok Post front page. Final count 48 for day 7 for a total of 423 dead.

[Airbagwill]

56 minutes ago, PAIBKK said:

Thai thinking: "Because 40% of all accidents were caused by drunk drivers and 28.5% by speeding offenders. After using the calculator it says: 60% of the accidents were caused by by sober drivers and 71.5% by driving normal, slowly or too slow."

 

Thai logic: So it will be safer when driving drunk and speeding !!!

throughout the world the average for "alcohol involved" is about 33%. But I have a feeling that "drunk drivers" is not an actual thing.

the normal way to describe a crash would be that alcohol was involved - this doesn't even mean drunk driver - it means that someone involved had alcohol in their bloodstream.

so one wonders if this is a matter of bad reporting or bad judgement by the compilers of the stats or bad reporting by the police who are not a able to make a judgement such as "drunk" which is purely subjective.

[Airbagwill]

 

1 minute ago, khwaibah said:

Bangkok Post front page. Final count 48 for day 7 for a total of 423 dead.

= 60 per day = national norm...

[Yme]

Citing DLT figures, Reuters says the total is 426 for the six days or 71 people a day so this year could easily exceed last year when the figures come out. Standby

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-accidents/new-year-road-deaths-surge-in-thailand-despite-safety-campaign-idUSKBN14O0CB

[Russell17au]

Here are the figures for the previous 5 years with the day 7 figures plus the updated figures for the previous 6 days

Here is a breakdown and a comparison for the last 5 years that I have done of the road carnage figures on a daily basis with a comparison total for the 7 days.

  Please note, all deaths are recorded regardless of whether it happened at the scene of the accident or not. If someone died a few days later in hospital, they are added to the tally, as long as it is within the so-called “7 dangerous days”.

  Please note, that anyone that dies after the 7 days from injuries received during the 7 days will not be added to the total figures. This has been the practice for the previous years as well. So anyone who was injured on day 1 and dies from today onward will not be include in the 7 day figures.

The information for this has been acquired from several source's including MSN, The National, Bangkok Post, ThaiVisa News and Richard Barrow

[Jorgendk]

I cannot help thinking how many of the injured, are permanent brain damaged due to not wearing helmet.

You can easy get server brain damaged without actually getting killed. But in many cases of that, might be worse that being killed ( in my mind).

I know that a helmet do not save you, if you go 100 Km/h into a lamppost, or get run over by a bus, But it does save you in many other cases.

40 Km./h and a small push from a car, or another motorbike might be enough to kill you if you do not where a helmet. That has been proven in many western countries.
In Denmark you would not be able to drive 5 Km without a helmet, without getting stopped, fined, and having to walk home.

I believe that the law about not riding in the back of a pickup should be enforced, But I also understand some of the hardship it might cause for some.

I can however not see any hardship caused by enforcing the law about helmet 100%.

And not only by setting up roadblocks. 90% of the motorbikes see the roadblock, and joust goes another way when it is set up.

 

[peter48]

A simple and quick solution make helmets compulsory as in Europe so that heads  are protected as they smash the concrete roads or are hit full on by fast metal vehicles. Stop people carrying kids on bikes.. 

 

Mind you I could count endlessly Farage on bikes with no helmets in tourist areas. Is it the Sun, alcohol or sheer idiocy that stops young Farage males thinking these roads will not smash my brain or skull . I will just join in the sunny carnage because I am here and no one bothers. The emergency services will get my damaged head and body into their hospitals quick just like home as in Scandinavia, UK, Germany . The trauma teams will rescue us ...some how I don’t think.

[Italian guy]

5 hours ago, lvr181 said:

Obviously nobody took any notice of your 'first quote'.   

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

any change appears to be a little for the better, but it remains to be seen if these figures are statistically significant.

 

The fact is the daily average all year in Thailand is somewhere between 60 and 80 deaths.

As the country persistently fails to produce complete statistics, it remains a job for outsiders to make sense of the partial information available and try to draw a more accurate picture.

 

The fact is that all countries in the "West" have a drop in fatalities and injuries over holiday periods, so how is Thailand's drop in comparison to worldwide figures?

 

The daily figures used herein are from the royal Thai disaster department.... the annual daily average, according to the disaster department ( the same source) is 27 a day.

 

when reading the daily butchers bill from this source, one must forget about the 60 to 80 number (78) ....that’s an average from a different source, without a daily breakdown over this period ( apples for apples)

 

so.... holiday figures, according to the official thai recordings, are significantly higher... but may yet be less than last year.

 

that said... this is no great achievement, because last year was exceptional bad, even by Thai standards. Last year the BiB failured in an amazing (thailand) way.... their transport department ( whatever responsible minister) should have been roundly pilloried for his/ their performance. (Fired!)

 

this years campaign.... which is probably going to be proclaimed a success, if death numbers are less than last season... has been arguably as ineffectual as any, given that the second highest deaths since 2010; was 380.

 

post 49 above gives the applicable comparison... good one Russell. ?

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by farcanell

[lvr181]

1 hour ago, Airbagwill said:

throughout the world the average for "alcohol involved" is about 33%. But I have a feeling that "drunk drivers" is not an actual thing.

the normal way to describe a crash would be that alcohol was involved - this doesn't even mean drunk driver - it means that someone involved had alcohol in their bloodstream.

so one wonders if this is a matter of bad reporting or bad judgement by the compilers of the stats or bad reporting by the police who are not a able to make a judgement such as "drunk" which is purely subjective.

Yes, "drunk" is subjective until tested, BUT the police are very quick to state 'suicide' when farang die and no autopsy - so no surprise when they say "drunk". TIT 

[Russell17au]

2 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

throughout the world the average for "alcohol involved" is about 33%. But I have a feeling that "drunk drivers" is not an actual thing.

the normal way to describe a crash would be that alcohol was involved - this doesn't even mean drunk driver - it means that someone involved had alcohol in their bloodstream.

so one wonders if this is a matter of bad reporting or bad judgement by the compilers of the stats or bad reporting by the police who are not a able to make a judgement such as "drunk" which is purely subjective.

You are dead set right, there is no such thing as a drunk driver, the official term is driving under the influence of alcohol and it does vary by the % of alcohol that is in the persons blood system, the road side breathalyzer only indicates that there is alcohol present but that must be further confirmed by the major breathalyzer machine and then further by a blood sample from a hospital. Thailand do not seem to have the proper equipment to be able to operate a proper breathalyzer station. Alcohol can come from many medications and even common cough syrups and cough lollies have a % of alcohol in them. That is why they need the proper breathalyzer machine and the blood sample, and I would say at a guess that none of those that were stopped for "drunk driving" were taken and put on the proper machine to get the accurate alcohol reading.

[maxcorrigan]

3 hours ago, Russell17au said:

I agree with your top two paragraphs but I disagree with your last one.

A gov't can enforce such a crackdown effectively if someone in there has the balls to do it. It has happened in other countries, it can happen here, all it takes is to have the balls to ensure that the road laws as they are currently written are enforced by a competent police force and not say " oh, but, the poor farmers don't have any money", well those poor farmers can kill just as many innocent people on the roads as the rich snobs from Bangkok.

Agreed, but the rich snobs will face no punishment and they know it, the poor farmer might not unless they are rich of course!

[Airbagwill]

3 hours ago, Russell17au said:

I agree with your top two paragraphs but I disagree with your last one.

A gov't can enforce such a crackdown effectively if someone in there has the balls to do it. It has happened in other countries, it can happen here, all it takes is to have the balls to ensure that the road laws as they are currently written are enforced by a competent police force and not say " oh, but, the poor farmers don't have any money", well those poor farmers can kill just as many innocent people on the roads as the rich snobs from Bangkok.

A government "crackdown" is very unlikely in the present situation.

To be effective it needs a legal system that can handle it.

This doesn't exist.

It needs operatives trained in road traffic handling.

It clearly defined laws (in Thailand laws often contradict each other).

It needs a judiciary that is separated from the executive.

It needs an administration that can cope with fines, penalties and collections.

It needs clearly defined roads, uniform and consist markings, signage etc.

In fact there simply is no way that a "crackdown" could last for more than a few days. 

What is needed is a persistent and long term campaign that addresses all aspects of road safety.

Most EU countries have taken 40 years to get from death rates similar to Thailand to where they are today....and they are democracies with relatively stable governments.

[sawadee1947]

3 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

Whilst I agree with what you say-basically because i think the "carnage"or "slaughter" as I call it is consistently under reported in Thailand..so you can pick any old number you choose-I must disagree with you on one issue and that is that the current Thai Gov't is solely to blame.

 

It really isn't because the Thai "social contract" never seems to have involved either responsible drinking or responsible driving-under any government,let alone this one.The lack of such a contract involves everyone including my drunken Thai family...sans brains..sans discipline...sans responsibility for any sort of risky behaviour if they can get away with it.

 

No gov't can really enforce such a crackdown effectively because 99% of the population wishes to retain its anarchic ways-in all fields of human endeavour.

I agree with you in terms of responsibility or better in no responsibility whatever matter it might be. But....if the police would be outside 24/7 and would do checks at any time of the day.....I promise there would be improvements soon.

[Airbagwill]

1 hour ago, peter48 said:

A simple and quick solution make helmets compulsory as in Europe so that heads  are protected as they smash the concrete roads or are hit full on by fast metal vehicles. Stop people carrying kids on bikes.. 

 

Mind you I could count endlessly Farage on bikes with no helmets in tourist areas. Is it the Sun, alcohol or sheer idiocy that stops young Farage males thinking these roads will not smash my brain or skull . I will just join in the sunny carnage because I am here and no one bothers. The emergency services will get my damaged head and body into their hospitals quick just like home as in Scandinavia, UK, Germany . The trauma teams will rescue us ...some how I don’t think.

There is no quick simple solution.

I covered E for emergency a while back. It has to be a major factor in road deaths in Thailand.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Airbagwill

[sawadee1947]

4 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

the difference is down to the fact that Thailand doesn't actually gather road safety statistics in a professional way. They have to be collated from various sources.

and what is your point ?