Study reveals shocking extent of dangerous driving in Thailand

[cookieqw]

this is an awesome study, they fitted all these vehicles with GPS tracking,  many many more i would expect without it, and when the results started rolling in nothing is done to stop it although by their own words it was shocking.  with all this information has anyone been brought to account ??.   unless they have actually done something its just another  -  five buses rolling down the highway with a police escort, to a resort to spend 3 or 4 days deliberating on the said info.  then maybe passed on to another group to do exactly the same. 

[nong38]

Perhaps they should stop thinking about submarines and Grippen fighters and spend the funds on police patrols on the road network! I know that would mean having to give up some tea money from purchases but surely the tax payers should come first and they are being knocked off at alarming rate.

[crazyawm]

It is necessary to remember one simple truth: Impunity breeds irresponsibility.

 

[Jimdandy]

Now what's the intervention plan to address this daily road carnage?

[brling]

12 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

In Europe they have addressed this problem over the last 40 years or so.

 

You can't change human behaviour or reduce the number of stupids.....they just made it difficult for the stupids to do what STILL comes naturally.

 

Companies that want/force drivers to drive overlong hours are put outside the law.

Speeding, drugs and hours are all regulated.

At the heart of the regulation of commercial drivers has been the tachograph and commercial licencing systems.  This together with a Euro-wide net work of expertly run testing stations have curbed the excesses of a cut-throat transport industry.

 

Thailand does nothing more than a nod and a wink to this.....thinking that blaming the drivers is the answer.

 

In Europe the drivers are still the same, they just can't be so stupid anymore.

 

As this process is a long one, it requires a consistent approach and as it involves reforms of law, police, road design tc etc it costs...... Thailand loses 5% of GDP to road casualties but they still refuse to address the problem in a scientific, rationalised and consistent manner.

Wow, so dont even  think of blaming the stupid Thai drivers.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

TAT's new slogan.

Thailand: The Most Amazing & Dangerous Thrill Rides In The World.

Just take a bus ride!

 

Since surviving two bus crashes and observing the lack of any skill by the majority of drivers here I know it didn't take a survey to prove the obvious that can be seen on any street, road or highway every day.

Let's face it, the carnage over Songkran is not significantly different to the rest of the year...

Without an effective police force and regulated inspections of vehicles and drivers this will not change.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by George FmplesdaCosteedback

[Airbagwill]

2 hours ago, brling said:

Wow, so dont even  think of blaming the stupid Thai drivers.

The main theory about road safety held by expats on Thaivisa seems to be that Thai people are stupid but expats are not, in fact they, the expats, are positively superb drivers who justly condemned all inferior races.

Little do they know that the concept of blame is no longer a part of the science of road safety. Which kind of puts them on a par with the stupidity of which they are attributing to  others.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Airbagwill

[Airbagwill]

2 hours ago, Jimdandy said:

Now what's the intervention plan to address this daily road carnage?

Firstly one needs the information then an analysis and following that, the implementation of a plan.

As the research appears to be a best casual and analysis scant, I fail to see how any constructive conclusions can be come by.

[jerojero]

Shocking to whom! Rather obvious with the hundreds of incidents weekly.

[Jimdandy]

1 hour ago, Airbagwill said:

Firstly one needs the information then an analysis and following that, the implementation of a plan.

As the research appears to be a best casual and analysis scant, I fail to see how any constructive conclusions can be come by.

My point exactly

 

[Sealbash]

Cellphones and Garmins can also do that, just give a sound if the driver exceeds the max speedlimit on that road.

And then Singapore got rid of these useless flashing lights and raised the speed limit for trucks and buses


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Lacessit]

On the Chiang Mai-Chiang Rai Highway 118, there are a few illuminated speed displays. Green if below the speed limit, red if above. AFAIK no-one has ever been fined for speeding through these displays, don't even know if there are speed cameras attached. Frequently turned off.

What's the point of having equipment to detect speeding vehicles if it's not used?

 

[LazySlipper]

19 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.

 

This is the solution, but just another pipe dream... needl3ss to say.

[JAG]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

On the Chiang Mai-Chiang Rai Highway 118, there are a few illuminated speed displays. Green if below the speed limit, red if above. AFAIK no-one has ever been fined for speeding through these displays, don't even know if there are speed cameras attached. Frequently turned off.

What's the point of having equipment to detect speeding vehicles if it's not used?

 

Ah, but on the same road, at one of the permanent vehicle check points (just before the top of a hill - gives the truck drivers a challenge), there is a particularly fine example of a larger than life dummy in police.uniform propped up in the middle of the road...

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by JAG

[BobbyL]

I have drove to Koh Chang and Hua Hin recently from Bangkok. Some of the sights on the highways here are incredible, and I don't recall seeing more than two or three traffic police in what would probably be about 15 - 20 hours of driving. 

[smew]

Simple solutions:

1. Make actual road driver license tests, not these Mikey mouse drive around license office and if you fail pay 500 baht to get you license bull shit

 

2. Proper medical examinations with drug tests and no license for 5 yrs if traces of illegals found

3. Remove front and driver side window tinting all vehicles without any exceptions 

 

4. Anger management courses for any one with recorded history of such issues: this will include 75% of Thai population as we as my own wife and about 4 out of 6 members of her immediate family 

5. Make license a subject to a point system: deduction for any infractions and if you are at zero you will lose license for one year, first offense and 2 yrs second offense and 5yrs etc etc

6. Now the hardest: get people driving without a license off the road: police must enforce the law this will never happened as entire police department requires to be dismissed with new incorruptibles and this is another issue altogether!!!

[Redline]

Nothing will be done in the land of no responsibility 

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed. 

[off road pat]

On 02/04/2018 at 7:52 AM, GarryP said:

Just a thought, but if drivers can't drive within the speed limits, couldn't manufacturers limit the speed of vehicles. I am sure we have the technology to do it. Say you enter a 40km speed limit area, your vehicle is automatically restricted to no higher than that speed as it passes a post indicating the speed (a signal is sent to your vehicle as you pass).  The only vehicles with speed control bypasses would be emergency vehicles. 

hmm,...You are way too smart for the Thais !!!

[soistalker]

Up to you.

[soistalker]

11 hours ago, off road pat said:

hmm,...You are way too smart for the Thais !!!

How about getting monkeys to drive for the Thais? There are lots of monkeys in Thailand. They couldn't be any worse at driving. Let's give the monkeys a chance. 

[Artisi]

On 4/2/2018 at 12:35 PM, bluesofa said:

kNot 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?

 

But bear in mind, farang know <deleted>, Thailand is different.

[Airbagwill]

On 4/3/2018 at 11:06 AM, smew said:

Simple solutions:

1. Make actual road driver license tests, not these Mikey mouse drive around license office and if you fail pay 500 baht to get you license bull shit

 

2. Proper medical examinations with drug tests and no license for 5 yrs if traces of illegals found

3. Remove front and driver side window tinting all vehicles without any exceptions 

 

4. Anger management courses for any one with recorded history of such issues: this will include 75% of Thai population as we as my own wife and about 4 out of 6 members of her immediate family 

5. Make license a subject to a point system: deduction for any infractions and if you are at zero you will lose license for one year, first offense and 2 yrs second offense and 5yrs etc etc

6. Now the hardest: get people driving without a license off the road: police must enforce the law this will never happened as entire police department requires to be dismissed with new incorruptibles and this is another issue altogether!!!

 

Those who believe the solutions are "simple" are simply deluding themselves.

The fact that you concentrate on only "drivers" rather than road users and road safety would indicate you have seriously underestimated what the problems are.

It is all very well numbering a list, but nothing on that list will have any effect on road safety.

 

Suggesting baseless or arbitrary calibrations for punitive measures such as fines and banning road users is a totally pointless exercise if the fundamentals of road safety are not addressed first.

[maake55555]

They use to have devises years ago in America, I think they were called "goveners" or something like that.  Knew some one who said he had one on his car and it worked pretty well so he said.

[Keesters]

On 4/2/2018 at 12:22 PM, 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.

The fine is not high enough. Speeding has on so many occasions resulted in the death of passengers. Disabling a speed inhibitor is a bit like premeditated murder of the passengers and if caught the fine should be equal to the compensation that would be paid to the crash victims. 40 million baht should do it.

 

[Airbagwill]

11 hours ago, maake55555 said:

They use to have devises years ago in America, I think they were called "goveners" or something like that.  Knew some one who said he had one on his car and it worked pretty well so he said.

Limiting the maximum speed of a vehicle is easy...both during and post production.

On commercial and passenger vehicles in EU it is the norm.

What they do is limit the MAXIMUM speed of a vehicle. This prevents them exceeding the vehicles' nationally imposed limit and is effective for instance on long major roads like motorways.

One has to see speeding in context though. Whereas in a certain percentage of crashes speeding can be a major factor, it is not the case in EVERY crash. Also exceeding the national limit is not the only kind of speeding.

Speed is usually considered a factor when the vehicle is being driven too fast for the particular conditions at the time.....and this can be a lot lower than any governor imposed limit on the vehicle.

So whereas governors may be useful in a few cases of speeding they won't work in most, and speeding is not the only cause of accidents so the total effect is unlikely to be very dramatic.

On the other hand, redesigning the roads to make crashes firstly less likely and secondly less damaging can have a major effect on road death numbers.

[Airbagwill]

1 minute ago, Keesters said:

The fine is not high enough. Speeding has on so many occasions resulted in the death of passengers. Disabling a speed inhibitor is a bit like premeditated murder of the passengers and if caught the fine should be equal to the compensation that would be paid to the crash victims. 40 million baht should do it.

 

Fines are just a pie in the sky suggestion.

To impose an effective system of fines one has to reform the legal system, the police and the design marking and signage of all roads. One then needs to establish courts to impose the penalties and administration to collect the fines and detect and pursue those who default.

As to suggesting how much fines should be .....is most countries the courts and the legislative decide that on a mixed system of fixed penalties and judicial rulings. Again no organised legislation exists at present.

I think sitting behind a keyboard is not the best place eidefroster from which to impose  apparently arbitrary penalties on incidents we have little or  no detailed information on.

As the RTP st al are insufficiently equipped and trained at present  to do this themselves, any prosecution of drivers is likely to be ineffective, prolonged and imprecise... but as there is no court designed to cope with this sudden onslaught of litigation, it's a moot point.

[Cancerian]

Do they have traffic laws here? News to me. You see school children 3 or 4 on a bike no helmets riding past cops directing them at intersections all the time. Besides it keeps the population down. It also creates jobs. It's also 26,000 less people competing for the available jobs each year. Eases up the congestion on the roads. The advantages of the high Road toll are endless