Drunk driving ‘a major cause’ of road accidents

[KC 71]

I got done 3 times in Blighty
Now I’ve got my licences back{ thai/uk)
I wont be doing that again!


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[anon467848]

Thais doing what they do best, being selfish, irresponsible and ruining lots of families lives & livelihoods.

 

I'm guessing that as 79% of the accidents are attributable to motorcycles, then a large majority will be low income, uneducated Somchai's with a brain the size of a pea. Together with the extra booze consumed during Songkran is an accident waiting to happen, quite literally....

 

Also, 7 provinces reporting zero deaths is hard to believe. Just shows you that the real death toll is much higher than what is being reported...

Edited April 17, 2018 by merlin2002

[Greenside]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

DRUNK DRIVING is seen as a major cause for fatalities after 323 people were killed and 3,140 others were injured in 3,001 crashes during the first five days of the Songkran seven-day accident-monitoring period (April 11-17), the Road Safety Centre announced yesterday. 

Not only should they ashamed of the statistics, the person who dared do a press release starting like that should be relieved of his or her job.  Entire departments seem to be run by children who refuse to see the painfully obvious when it stares them in the face.

 

I am sad for those innocent people affected by the negligence of the authorities who could solve many of the issues with simple measures and a fraction of the budgets spent on vanity projects of one sort or the other.

[sawadee1947]

5 hours ago, Thian said:

Harder punishment plus police on patrol doing policing is hardly needed.....why is that too hard to see for the Thai? I have never seen police doing there job well, they love to sit in open tents playing on computers.

they love to sit in open tents playing on computers.

 

If nobody forces them to do their job..... why they should not play with mobile phones????? 

[DieterWiehe]

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

An official body telling the truth? Their specialist subject is: stating the bleedin' obvious.

 

that is nothing new. give them a good salary if you pay Peanuts you get Monkeys doing the work

Edited April 17, 2018 by DieterWiehe

[XJPSX]

Holy smoke...just under 22000 people caught for drunk driving at police stops. Imagine the figure if there were no police! It would be a complete disaster. 

To me this just outlines the Thai mentality perfectly.

 

[VocalNeal]

This is one of those stupid threads like "water is a major cause of drowning" . So we should ban all water? 

[aussie11950]

Meanwhile, all other countries take drink/driving seriously.

http://www.tadstickets.com/drinking-driving-punishments-around-world/

[TKDfella]

Well, seems simple enough to me that if the death rate is up on last year and both years there was the 'increased policing' then whatever stratagem was used, just isn't working. But who am I to talk? I'm just a foreigner living here with an apparent lack of understanding 'Thai-ness' etc.  I wonder if the % increase in policing coincides with the % increase in deaths/accidents etc. Nah, I'd never make that one stick...would I?

[Humpy]

Will the true total of those killed include those who succumb to their injuries sustained in those accidents ? 

[HHTel]

3 hours ago, smedly said:

Thailand should send some people to the UK on a fact finding mission and adopt/implement  the same procedures laws and detection methods used there.

Be careful of those flying pigs.

[digger70]

It's No good to keep talking about this,,,, Everybody Knows What the problem is,,,All we need now is  An Massive Police Force That can do the Job of Policing all the Laws,,Not what we have now ,, A Clayton's Police Force that Can't (Won' t)  do their Job for what they get Payed to do.

[HHTel]

In the UK your car can be seized for a number of reasons.  One being driving without insurance.  The driver has 14 days to reclaim their vehicle by producing the correct paperwork, i.e. insurance, licence etc.  plus paying any fine.  Failure to do so gets your car crushed!!!

If Thailand brought in such a rule, there's a great opportunity to start a 'car crushing' business! 

[Lupatria]

2 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

When you combine selfish, speeding, reckless, law ignoring drivers, with a skinful of grog, is anyone surprised at the accident rate? Hardly needs a genius to work it out.

[bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, HHTel said:

In the UK your car can be seized for a number of reasons.  One being driving without insurance.  The driver has 14 days to reclaim their vehicle by producing the correct paperwork, i.e. insurance, licence etc.  plus paying any fine.  Failure to do so gets your car crushed!!!

If Thailand brought in such a rule, there's a great opportunity to start a 'car crushing' business! 

There's a thread here regarding someone interested in the same subject:  https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1032837-i-want-to-have-my-daughters-car-crushed-in-korat/

 

[hotchilli]

It's ok.. they'll all be taken to a temple, listen to a sermon from the monk, wai & promise not to do it again..

so next year will be the same.. as goes for any other festival time !!!

Until the deterrent matches the offence Thais will never change...

Try this...
Drink & drive = 6 months in a military camp (not jail)
one year ban & licence revoked...

100,000 baht fine!!!

 

See if that works better than a wai !!!!

[runamok27]

When I was growing up in the states the police did nothing with drunk drivers, so a lot of people drove around drunk. Then they slowly started cranking on the drunk drivers and it’s a lot better now. The funny thing is we call Thai’s idiots for drunk driving but people in the states didn’t stop drunk driving until the penalties got so severe that you had to be a true idiot to drive drunk. My point is, people aren’t all that different. Even seat belts, nobody wore them until they started fining people for not wearing them. It wasn’t some breakout of common sense that did it, it was the threat of punishment. Look at texting while driving, an extremely dangerous act, you can’t drive a mile without someone driving erratically while texting in the states.

[Lupatria]

9 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

It's ok.. they'll all be taken to a temple, listen to a sermon from the monk, wai & promise not to do it again..

so next year will be the same.. as goes for any other festival time !!!

Until the deterrent matches the offence Thais will never change...

Try this...
Drink & drive = 6 months in a military camp (not jail)
one year ban & licence revoked...

100,000 baht fine!!!

 

See if that works better than a wai !!!!

...and no exemption for high ranking officials, HiSo's, untouchables and members of the forces.

[AsiaHand]

Yes,and in order is #1 Drunk Driving #2 Speeding,#3 is The Thai sense of self importance  or the "Get out of my way" syndrome.

[FitnessHealthTravel]

The population will cull itself.  Left alone most will destroy themselves when alcohol is involved, that's the nature of the poison.

[smedly]

4 hours ago, easyozzi said:

Should it not be ......... Drink driving and ............... poor driving test standards, half the classes these days are sleeping during the induction videos. Got to start at the beginning, if people aren't being taught how to drive correctly then road carnage results.

 

Driving at excessive speed, jumping red lights, texting while driving, poor lane management, zero consideration for other road users.

 

Poor vehicle maintenance - seems every bus crash is the result of failed brakes - or drivers stoned out of their heads, at that to the list too.

 

Over loaded vehicles. if you need to transport ten people, then get a mini bus - but without addressing the above multiple deaths is still then end result.

good post but people over estimate the value of driving lessons and testing, it gives you a very basic skill level of being able to control a vehicle safely and understand the rules of the road, when someone passes a test in the UK for example they are by no means suddenly expert drivers, that is a something that happens over time - ask an insurance company who will decrease your premiums as you increase your experience on the roads.

 

The problem in Thailand is a simple one, no proactive law enforcement 

 

The other points you made are valid but again it comes down to enforcement of rules and standards.............brakes are only as good as the material parts used, when I used to race it was very important to be fitting the right high quality parts designed for purpose, I suspect in Thailand that busses for example are being fitted with the cheapest brake material and parts that they can find and the result is obvious, even on my superbike the difference between cheap brake pads and proper high performance parts is night and day, that goes for tyres, fluids etc etc, two tyres for my bike cost 3 times as much as 5 for a car ....................... go figure 

 

The current government would rather spend Billions on Military equipment they don't need (I have a good idea why) than spend it on the police and other agencies that do need it and badly, be interesting to see an independent audit of the Submarine financials and were the money actually went and to who - I have my own thoughts on that

[natway09]

21,828 drunk drivers found,,,,,,,

You obviously can't teach an old dog new tricks !!!

323 deaths on the road & what makes the headlines some lady flashing her credentials ?

Time for Thailand to start to rationalize 

[Chris Lawrence]

Are you sure?

[thaimelody]

Drunk driving causing accidents - No shit sherlock

[DM07]

The rest is just "driving"!

Seriously...you couldn't make this crap up, if you tried really, really hard...

[PEE TEE]

Drunk driving yes.  dead brains yes. together  even bigger recipe for disaster........... Thailand needs a traffic policing 24/7 this they do not have only stupid road checks for no helmets and paperwork . How many of you have been stopped for speeding . no lights and all the offences i see every day by the hundreds   . Never have car of bike checked for safety like bald tyres ect. 

Just carry on the same and watch the deaths get higher.   

[NoshowJones]

Yes, just keep the vehicles of the drunken scum then give them back after a few days. Problem solved.

[nausea]

Pretty much on a par with the UK then, 40 odd years ago:

 

"But between 1969 and 1975, the proportion of crashes where alcohol was a factor climbed steadily to exceed 35%. It seems that despite the legal framework and the introduction of the breathalyser, driving while under the influence still wasn't taboo."

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29894885

[Megasin1]

an earlier poster said it and its true everywhere, until the penalties are so severe and enforced that only the incredibly dumb will drive under the influence then nothing will change and it's exactly the same in your home countries, only very severe penalties deter drunk driving to the point that only the really dumb people do it... and even then they have to be in place for a while to have a positive effect, its people everywhere, they are lazy, its just that in western countries now the drunk drivers have to balance the risk of driving against what will happen to them when they are caught.

[wvavin]

On one said we have drunkard and on the other side we have a lazy, greedy and useless cop. This country would never move forward. not in another 4 to 5 generations at least if they are lucky enough.