Laws Can't Solve Road Deaths: Interior Minister

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

I don't know. First I don't want to be hurt or hurt anybody. I don't want expense, and I want to take care of my investment in the vehicle. Take care of all this, follwing laws is way down the list but will come naturally

 

A license is just a bit of plastic I stand in lines for. I quess it is about Attitudes.

[terryp]

same could be said about thailands crazy pill/crystal problem; as it just gets bigger and bigger each year

[speckio]

19 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

I beg to differ.

laws mean nothing if they cant be properly enforced....

[cookieqw]

19 hours ago, KMartinHandyman said:

Many foreigners ideas for enforcement of all Thailands issues are accurate but the root of the problem is when the government comes down hard the Thai people cry its over burdening and excessive punishment because they are poor and have no money or choices to meet the mandates. A vicious circle as the riding in the back of open pickup trucks crackdown highlighted.
The same for larger fines for infractions to send a message to the population that they can’t afford. The west will jail you if you don’t pay. Thailand is not willing to impose that on the people to send a message and lock up poor people who can’t pay ฿5000 for running a red light or no helmet or no license etc.
It’s a game of appeasement they both play. The government doesn’t get to stern and punish them excessively and the people don’t rise up against them and are willing to overlook the foolishness that goes on amongst the elite in power.
Simple as that, a quid pro quo.

well said

its the poor's way, the rich get benefits so should we

[selftaopath]

23 hours ago, terminatorchiangmai said:

One word ; EDUCATION !

One Word: CONSEQUENCES !

[selftaopath]

21 hours ago, connda said:

If they could pull there heads out of the sand and look at First World traffic policing methods, they could reduce the carnage.  They choose instead to make excuses.  TIT.

Agreed. However do you think Thais will EVER look beyond their own borders? Or admit others know better or have a more effective system? Isn't that against basic Thainess?  This is a big reason Thailand will remain stagnate and not prosper. The average Thai deserves so much more from the Thai govt. but .......

[jerojero]

Try understanding the value of deterrents Mr Minister. And pass laws accordingly. Then give RTP the tools, training and pay to enforce those laws. A hundred other countries have done it, why can't you?

[Tilacme]

3 hours ago, selftaopath said:

Agreed. However do you think Thais will EVER look beyond their own borders? Or admit others know better or have a more effective system? Isn't that against basic Thainess?  This is a big reason Thailand will remain stagnate and not prosper. The average Thai deserves so much more from the Thai govt. but .......

It prospers beyond the dreams of avarice where it matters, and that's not with the av Thai.

[selftaopath]

On 4/18/2018 at 12:32 PM, spidermike007 said:

Interior Minister Gen. Anupong Paochinda on Tuesday denied that this year’s apparent rise in road fatalities during Songkran were caused by a lack of police diligence at traffic checkpoints.

 

This absolute nitwit completely misses the point. It is not about checkpoints. All checkpoints do, is enrich the toy police and slow down traffic for a few minutes. It is about patrolling the highways, and catching people driving recklessly, you simple minded neophyte. If you had been appointed due to merit, you might have known that simple fact. It is known the world over, as a deterrent. That simply does not exist in the land of fatalities. 

 

Dumb, dumb and dumber. Continue sticking your head in the sand, you ignorant pencil pusher. 

I just had a thought.... I'd like to ask the "leaders:" How many accidents occur at CHECKPOINTS?

[hkt83100]

On 4/17/2018 at 8:47 PM, JOC said:

Like being good role models....?

No helmet 

No plate

No problem

Don't forget the illegal undersized tires, which are good for a bicycle. These mini-cucumber-peels are just ridiculous.

[Prairieboy]

On 2018-04-17 at 7:31 PM, snoop1130 said:

lack of police diligence at traffic checkpoints.

All the police checkpoints in the world won't solve the problem - mobile patrols out and about on the road are needed - an obvious police presence on the highways is required - a checkpoint  every 20 or 30 km only controls the traffic in the vicinity of the checkpoint - 500 m down the road the speeders are speeding - the mobile phone users are back on their phones etc until the next checkpoint!

[Ossy]

On 4/17/2018 at 7:31 PM, snoop1130 said:

Laws Can't Solve Road Deaths: Interior Minister

Maybe not, but his resignation and replacement by someone who has the balls to kick ass, amongst his sleeping police force might go a long way towards making Thailand's 'couldn't care less' drivers mend their ways. He's as clueless as all the other generally useless generals.

[a977]

On ‎17‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 8:59 PM, maximillian said:

Nah, the good policeman is only driving a confiscated Scoopy to the junkyard...

Whoops! forgot my helmet maybe I can borrow one from rider next to me, Oh hang on he hasn't got one either so maybe we don't need to wear helmets. Stupid law anyway only means I will have to do my job that I'm being paid for.

[Airbagwill]

On 4/17/2018 at 10:04 PM, Odysseus123 said:

A very fine post.

 

Yes, the anarchic behaviour of the lower ranks is written in invisible ink into the social contract."You let us collect all the money and we will let you behave like a bunch of irresponsible clowns.Fairs,fair."

 

What Thailand really lacks is a relatively well educated,disinterested, bureaucratic class that can act as an honest broker between the two extremes and so the absolute chaos will continue..

The idea the harsher laws or more severe penalties will reduce carnage is so naive as to be risible.

As pointed out most most Thais are simply too poor to pay draconian fines and the rich will simply get round it.

In countries with low death rates fines and penalties don't work alone, they are part of a raft of measures introduced over decades that have gradually reduced the crash injury and death rates.

So they are NOT as some would seem to suggest an immediate panacea or quick cure for Thailand's road woes and need to be considered a lot more carefully within a full and comprehensive policy to reduce road deaths.

 

This is not, as some would have us believe, just a simple matter of telling the police to "do their job"....

 

Consider how this would happen and how it would be implemented ....

Thailand has a huge police force, at 250,000, over twice the size of the UK force, for instance. Thai police are a paramilitary force with virtually no training in road safety or traffic management, no proper gathering of stats, no analysis of crashes, no knowledge of traffic laws.

 

So the first thing you need to do is set up and train a new police force inroads safety. Reform from the ground up or top down.

Then there has to be a set of enforceable laws..... The current situation is a complete mess ... So the authorities would have to totally reform traffic laws and how they are enforced.

Once this is set up you need a court systemvseparate and unconnected to the police and an administration to deal with imposing and enforcing penalties and fines. This all involves a major reform; the separation of police and judicial powers....... I'm sure that will fly through the legislature????....... This needs to be written into the new cinstitution.
When you want to enforce road laws you also have to set up roads that are within these laws and where the laws match the roads and can be easily interpreted.. They need proper definition; signage, markings and lanes so everyone knows what laws they are breaking. Otherwise you could have court cases rolling on for years debating if some rich Thai was in actual fact driving "recklessly"....I.e. You have to define terms like ".reckless" to have concrete at law.

Once this is all set up you have to eliminate corruption in enforcement, so systems of monitoring and complaint need to be established.

Simultaneously you need to install an egalitarian system of admin to follow up and collect fines. This is usually primarily the courts not the police... I.e. separation of powers again.

 

As said, before you can start prosecuting and fining people you need a well laid out and defined road system with good signage, lane markings etc etc and this all needs to be maintained.....so you will have to employ people to maintain the roads in a condition where the laws can be enforced.

Then while all this is being set In place you need a long term national publicity campaign nationwide to ensure the public know what is going on and basically instill a new mind set in the populace.

People from the UK will remember TV ads telling people what to do....There was also considerable thought given to what to do to help emergency vehicles.

 

So those who think that an overnight tightening up of the law will help are simply deluding themselves. It is far, complex than that.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2018 by Airbagwill