Study reveals shocking extent of dangerous driving in Thailand

[bristolgeoff]

happens everyday for sure,drivers in thailand  don,t have a good record.i see many thais just decide to turn right or left everyday.do not look and bang hit a car or bike.the damaged vehicle had no chance and the thai driver what u doing i was turning right.either they do a runner or stay.no study needed for that

[Get Real]

By all means. Please say something more that everybody must be aware of already. Like Santa Claus is a made up figure.

[Basil B]

Sorry but until Thailand has traffic cops in high speed pursuit vehicles, and effective penalties this carnage ain't going to stop.

 

Seems to me at present the only traffic cars and bikes are used to escort VIP's around the country.

 

And no point in taking licences off bad drivers because:

1. the driver probably does no have a licence
2. It will not stop them driving
3. It would need a National Vehicle Driver Licencing Centre to which the police would need real-time access.

Here in the UK we even have police driving around in HGV tractor units so the can see into the cabs of other HGV's to catch drivers using mobiles.

 

Thailand has a long up hill struggle to rid it self of the label "Country with the Worst Drivers in the World"                      ...when they take the issue seriously and actually do something more than just talking about what they may do.

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Basil B

[FitnessHealthTravel]

5 hours ago, jonclark said:

" a meth-taking driver who was speeding beyond the 60km/hour legal limit while driving on winding downhill road."

 

Maybe this could be marketed by TAT for all the adrenaline junkies around the world as a new tourist activity for the young, stupid and adventurous. 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure Red Bull will sponsor it!

[PEE TEE]

You can change the laws .... But NOT the people  ... waiting for next crash report as normal . 

[BadCash]

To me it's not very shocking or unusual that vehicles drive above the speed limit - happens in every country on the planet, and while 17 million occasions sounds like a lot, it must be put into context to have any meaning whatsoever. One also needs to consider that the speed limits on some roads are ridiculous and can't possibly be expected to be taken seriously (a long stretch of 30km/h on the ring road between Chaweng - Lamai on Koh Samui comes to mind). 

 

What is interesting, however, is that

 

Quote

cargo trucks travelled at an average speed of 101.58 kilometres per hour.

 

How was this average calculated?! Anyone who has ever tried to calculate their average speed will find that it is always much lower than one would expect - stopping for traffic jams, red lights, slow acceleration (especially for cargo trucks), etc. all lower the average speed significantly. Hence, an average speed of 102 km/h sounds pretty extreme to put it mildly!  

[CantSpell]

They cannot hit the brakes on this one, they are always faulty.. 

[boomerangutang]

speeding is only 1/20th of the problem.  I could list dozens of other life-threatening habits of Thai drivers, but it would hog too much space on this blog.  Actually, I think the top 4 bad driving habits of Thai drivers are, in order of gravity. . . . . . 

#1.  cutting blind corners.

#2.  going through red lights.

#3.  driving drunk.

#4.  speeding.

 

[boomerangutang]

Since moving to Thailand in 1998, I've become a honky (and yes, I'm a white guy).

I honk whenever going through a left curve.  I honk at most intersections.   My Thai friends gently scold me for being rude ('Thai people don't do that').  I'd rather be rude, than a smashed broken body.

[JOC]

You guys just don't get....

China had its one-child-policy

Thailand are using the roads to get the same result...

[Knobby37]

5 hours ago, akirasan said:

I wonder how much longer they can waste time with studies and newly formed panels before they actually do something to address the root causes? 

I won't hold my breath.

Getting it off their chest makes them feel better

[FunkyDunky58]

If the thai police could just get out of their air conditioned offices and actually patrol the roads, they would have KNOWN this years ago, and many deaths could have been prevented. Instead they announce the crackdown-du-jour, put up a checkpoint (somewhere in the shade) and pretend they are combatting road fatalities. I would have thought being named the number one country for road fatalities may have also given them a hint. In Australia all heavy vehicles are fitted with hub transmitters which feed data for review by the owning company. This data will evidence any time they lock up the wheels, any and every time they exceed the speed limit. But of course in Thailand that would depend on companies that care about safety as much as profits.

[NormanW]

I've been here 25 years and it's never been this bad. The mainreason is that there are simply more uneducated drivers and riders on the roads of which not all are Thai!!!

Be careful, it's a jungle out there! 

[stanleycoin]

2 minutes ago, FunkyDunky58 said:

If the thai police could just get out of their air conditioned offices and actually patrol the roads, they would have KNOWN this years ago

Oh come on.

You know they would melt as they are only plastic police men. 

[mbamber]

Well I am shocked Thai roads are dangerous !  how much T money did they get for that survey.  

[Russell17au]

2 hours ago, Kurtf said:

Everyone already knows that there is a problem with Thai driving habits. The ONLY  remedy is a police force willing to chase them down, give them financially painful fines or suspend their licenses. Of course that won't be much of a deterrent in and of itself because they will drive without a license so for those the fine will have to be vehicle confiscation. Then and only then will the death toll come down.

But not only GPS tracked buses and trucks which would be a small percentage of the accidents in Thailand, include motorbikes being overloaded with more than 2 passengers and not wearing helmets, plus all the pick ups with all the people sitting in the back and all the idiot car drivers

[observer90210]

This story reminds me of certain costly taxpayer funded studies in Europe....where after a long series of tests, values, numbers,  they conclude and prove something that was already more then obvious for society......but guess that's how some institutions survive......in the meantime innocent or careless people continue to die...

[mike1967]

Best not go to Cambodia then. 

[mbamber]

I believe Glasgow University students did a report many years ago that concluded "Living is Bad for you Life"

[PerkinsCuthbert]

6 hours ago, mok199 said:

Amazing Tireland

It's the breaks (or brakes).

[Ceruhe]

Study? I would'a told 'em in a minute without pay...

[The Teacher]

6 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Not sure which is more shocking here: the results of the study, or the fact they needed one at all to discover what epxats here have known for years?

 

Yes a similar publication was done last year for the tourist season, someone is worried or they were short a media release this week 

[moe666]

6 hours ago, DoctorG said:

OK, so they know the 7 most speeding highways, but what will they do about it? Nothing is the short answer. Other countries might try flooding these areas with speed cameras and highway patrol cars, but what will thailand do?

We can tell you haven't been out on the highway in a while, they do have cameras set up on the highways. Recently drove to Bangkok and then to Kanchanaburi and back to CM. Cameras on the 1 highway, the 4, and the 340. Get out and about before making a post you know nothing about. Patrol cars nah.

[0815]

8 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Thai are not going to change their driving habits on their own, so the only solution is to install tamper proof speed limiters on all forms of public transportation, i.e. trucks & busses.  Inhibitors that will totally disable the vehicle's engine if anyone tries to disable it, along with a 50,000 baht fine and at least one year in jail for anyone attempting to disable one.  Plus, anyone caught using drugs while operating these vehicles face a mandatory 5 years in prison and 50,000 baht fine.  If the children won't behave on their own, then they have to be forced to.

Keep on dreaming ...

[jimster]

" It also found that cargo trucks travelled at an average speed of 101.58 kilometres per hour.  " What? But not in Thailand. "Cargo trucks" by that I think articulated trucks or tractor trailers with 10 or more wheels being meant almost never travel very fast in Thailand and certainly not at such a high average speed. It's quite rare to see one traveling more than 80km/h. They travel very slow by international standards. By contrast, Australian road trains roar past cars at 110km/h even managing to do decent speeds going uphill, whereas Thai trucks tend to slow to a crawl. Ditto for American trucks - they will do 75mph or 120km/h on the expressways/interstates.

 

Hell even I have struggled to maintain an average speed of 100km/h over a longer journey in Thailand - even if you're doing 120-130 on certain stretches, trucks overtaking other trucks, traffic lights and break stops bring down your average speed to around 80km/h and average driving speed to around 90km/h at best.

 

Also, it's pretty absurd to put the blame on speeding for every accident when there are a myriad of other causes. Drug abuse, intoxicated driving, fatigue, brake failure, reckless passing/overtaking etc. are all major causes of bus/truck accidents in Thailand. In fact, on mountainous roads it's usually a combination of one or more of these factors that causes an accident rather than speed.

[wvavin]

Can the situation be improved by statistic? Stupid!

[CeeGee]

A few years ago we were in chiang mai visiting the wife's son, we went out with him and his girlfriend for a nice meal in the country, he drove as I did not know the way.

As is the Thai way, there was a bottle of Johnny Walker on the table, the wife and I both drank beer and the girlfriend drank coke.

By the end of the meal, the bottle was half empty.When it came time to go back to our hotel,I said I would phone for a taxi.

Total consternation then ensued, girlfriend,"whats wrong, he only drink half the bottle and he have coke with it", wife "you think my son not good driver". After about 30 mins I gave up trying to explain why I did not think it was a good idea for him to drive after drinking half a bottle of whisky and said I wanted a taxi because I had an upset stomach.Face saved all round and he drove back slowly because of my "upset stomach".All concerned were reasonably well educated Thais but you cannot argue with that type of mindset .As an aside, the son got his licence whilst he was in the army so I am not sure what kind of test he had to go through,if he had one at all.

[richard_smith237]

My Wife never had a test and was driving to school at 16 years old... 

She's had 2 car accidents while drunk (both before I met her!) 

 

A friends father in law turned up drunk at his house the other day,  how he drove I don't know. A lovely guy, who claimed taxi's were too expensive - his justification for it being ok to drink drive. 

 

I don't know any Thai's (who drive) and haven't had an accident while drunk. I don't know any Westerners who have. 

 

 

The underlying attitudes and lack of social responsibility have a long way to go before there is much improvement. Thailand is very much at the beginning of a transition phase when it comes to road safety. It will take generations, as it did for us.

 

I suspect for many of us older than 40 years old, it is quite likely our parents used to drink and drive. 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by richard_smith237

[Jonmarleesco]

It took a study to establish the glaringly obvious.

[Daveyh]

Hot air again! Don't hold your breath anyone ............... it'll never get sorted IMHO.