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[Rimmer]

Road checkpoints enforcing traffic safety

PATTAYA:--Police and volunteers are strictly checking local transport during Songkran.

 

The Banglamung Land Transportation Department joined the military and police to conduct road checks on public transport and other vehicles starting April 11.

 

Director Noparath Sochainakorn manned a checkpoint on Central Road near The Park Pattaya where vehicle checks, safety checks and traffic law reinforcement were being carried out to reduce accidents during the Thai New Year.

 

He said buses, minivans and taxis were the main targets, but authorities are also stopping private vehicles seen breaking the rules of the road, such as carrying too many people in the back of a pickup or driving without motorcycle helmets.

 

Read more: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/road-checkpoints-enforcing-traffic-safety-207676

 

-- © Copyright Pattaya Mail 2018-04-20

[impulse]

Half of the traffic jams and the rear end fender benders I witnessed on the road over Songkran were caused by the checkpoints.

 

Until they get out of their stationary positions and start enforcing moving violations, the carnage will continue.  Made worse by the checkpoints.

 

[mok199]

so predictable...did we see this coming or what.....memo to the photo opp cops...stand down,you're not fooling anyone anymore..

[Golden Triangle]

And as it's all over now, the cops will be back in their air con offices with their feet up counting the weeks takings until the next time 

[Boon Mee]

As a reminder, it's always better to speak English with the BIB as they will move you along more quickly. 

[natway09]

Impulse,,,,,, thank you, I now have a believer .

The only way is to get out among the people driving in mufti vehicles to actually see how these idiots drive.

No good parking a police car on the highway, or more roadblocks,,,, the morons behave themselves then.

And strictly enforce my new rule for mini vans & buses    90 KPH    FINISH

[Lungstib]

 You can check a driver has got a license, its a document he carries in his wallet. But this doesn't mean he knows how to drive. For 50 years there has been no test of the ability to drive. The driver at the traffic checkpoint does not carry a sign on his forehead thats tells you he is about to commit a major driving error in the next hour. Too fast, too close, wrong lane, wrong way, not looking, not awake! You may as well throw the keys to a bunch of 14 year olds because they have the same driver instruction as the 44 year old. None. We are talking 98% of Thai drivers, no driving test.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, Lungstib said:

 You can check a driver has got a license, its a document he carries in his wallet. But this doesn't mean he knows how to drive. For 50 years there has been no test of the ability to drive. The driver at the traffic checkpoint does not carry a sign on his forehead thats tells you he is about to commit a major driving error in the next hour. Too fast, too close, wrong lane, wrong way, not looking, not awake! You may as well throw the keys to a bunch of 14 year olds because they have the same driver instruction as the 44 year old. None. We are talking 98% of Thai drivers, no driving test.

 

I was a menace the first year I started driving, in spite of going through an excellent driver's ed program and passing a pretty comprehensive driving test.  Fortunately, I was so afraid of the cops, getting pulled over, $$$ tickets and high insurance rates that I spent my first few years practicing to avoid getting pulled over.  Which, not so coincidentally, are the same skills that help avoid accidents.

 

The problem with accidents as a learning tool is that they come along so rarely, and have such dire consequences.  Cops with RADAR?   There could be one behind every bush, and they rarely cause injury.  That's what Thailand needs.  Enforcement. 

 

More evidence of the need for enforcement is all the expats I see going native and driving the wrong way, weaving lanes, speeding and generally "going native" in spite of having had the best driver's ed and toughest driving tests that the nanny states could impose on them.   There is no way they could have driven like that back home, and kept their licenses.  Yet, after a few years in Thailand without enforcement...

 

Human nature is to act in a manner that maximizes the perceived benefits.  Without regular enforcement, those perceived benefits seem to be maximized by driving like a crazy person- you get to your destination faster.  Right up until that rare, but devastating accident.  Catching an occasional ticket (or fearing one) is a great wake-up call- before it turns tragic.

Edited April 20, 2018 by impulse

[Benmart]

6 hours ago, impulse said:

Half of the traffic jams and the rear end fender benders I witnessed on the road over Songkran were caused by the checkpoints.

 

Until they get out of their stationary positions and start enforcing moving violations, the carnage will continue.  Made worse by the checkpoints.

 

Proactive, mobile traffic enforcement does not seem to exist here. Moving violations require moving police units, a concept that has not dawned on this lot. Untrained, unwilling and uninterested perhaps?

Edited April 20, 2018 by Benmart
Spelling error

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

The problem with accidents as a learning tool is that they come along so rarely, and have such dire consequences.

Exactly. But we have 26,000 dead every year taken by a 'learning tool' (as you put it) because they didn't learn in the first place. Hundreds of thousands of accidents, more than any police force would wish to deal with. You expect cooks to learn how to cook, electricians to learn how to live wire things, builders to know how to construct but then you give the keys of a 120kph, 2-ton missile to an untrained operator. No wonder it all goes wrong.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Lungstib
spelling

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, Lungstib said:

Exactly. But we have 26,000 dead every year taken by a 'learning tool' (as you put it) because they didn't learn in the first place. Hundreds of thousands of accidents, more than any police force would wish to deal with. You expect cooks to learn how to cook, electricians to learn how to live wire things, builders to know how to construct but then you give the keys of a 120kph, 2-ton missile to an untrained operator. No wonder it all goes wrong.

 

You seem to think you can learn to drive in driver's ed. classes.  My own experience was different.  It's only after I passed my test and racked up many hours of driving in the real world that I became a competent driver.  It took years of experience, with the learning curve very front end loaded.  And during those years when I was developing my habits, I was so afraid of the cops that I practiced, not to avoid accidents, as much as to avoid getting pulled over.  Why?  Because I was young and broke (a student) and bulletproof and accidents were much less frequent than speed traps.

 

Drivers in Thailand develop their driving habits without the benefit (?) of the cops making sure they don't develop bad habits.  And human nature is that they pick up habits that maximize the benefit to themselves.  Those include speeding, lane jumping, driving the wrong way and other means of shaving time off their journey.  Which is great.  Until tragedy strikes.

 

Unlike chefs, electricians and builders, there is no apprentice program before they turn someone loose behind the wheel.  But make no mistake, none of those endeavors can be mastered in a class.  That takes years of experience, under proper guidance.  In the case of driving, that guidance comes from enforcement.   No matter how good the classes are, or how tough the test is, enforcement is a huge part of the answer.

 

[mikebell]

14 hours ago, impulse said:

Drivers in Thailand develop their driving habits without the benefit (?) of the cops making sure they don't develop bad habits.

How very true.  Bored cops on overtime staring at their phones whilst supposedly checking traffic does absolutely nothing to quell the carnage.  It astounds me to think people in authority think it does.