Increasing license penalties won't stop accidents - fine drunks more instead, says poll

[webfact]

Increasing license penalties won't stop accidents - fine drunks more instead, says poll

 

Picture: Danook

 

A NIDA poll conducted at the end of last week gave a resounding thumbs down to plans to raise penalties for not having a driving license.

 

Thai people said it will only increase extortion and won't prevent accidents.

 

The authorities should fine drunks and those who go through red lights a lot more instead.

 

Some 71% did not agree with the proposed changes that would see fines increased to 50,000 baht and a possible three month jail term for not having a license.

 

And 67% disagreed with the 10,000 baht fine for not having a license with you. This one in particular would lead to more roadside fleecing by bent cops, people said.

 

Only 16% thought the proposals would reduce accidents. Half thought it might a bit but 32% said it would not make any difference at all.

 

Asked what would be the best areas to increase fines 66% pointed their fingers at drunks on the road. Some 11% said fine those who go through red lights more and 10% wanted more penalties for speeding.

 

The poll on August 27/28 had 1251 respondents 41% of whom drove their own vehicle only, 36% used their own as well as public transport and 22% were just using public transport. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-09-03

[Thaiwrath]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

The authorities should fine drunks and those who go through red lights a lot more instead.

I take it "a lot more" means not putting in their own pockets, but doing it the legal way ?

[Just1Voice]

Stop the fines completely.  Simply confiscate and sell the car, truck, motorbike.  
Do that and see how fast people start obeying the laws. 

 

[Redline]

A lost cause in the land of no accountability

[MRToMRT]

Did they ask the respondent drivers if they had a driving license? Fox, chicken, coop.

[steveyinasia]

Stop issuing fines to drunk drivers, lock the car up on the side of the road and haul their ass off to the lockup for the night.  The practice of being about the pay and "on your way" has to stop however we all know who is control on that little game.

[Justgrazing]

Does this attitude not high light why there is such an appalling casualty rate on the roads 'ere .. Rather than comedown on those without a license that kinda indicates they have not achieved a required standard of driving it is far better to fine people who are pissed and R L runners .. But surely they will argue because they have no license they were not to know you can't run the reds when pissed .. Rest assured the carnage will continue .. 

[FritsSikkink]

What about increase both fines.

[stanleycoin]

I can't tell the difference between a Drunk driver or Sober driver in Thailand

They behave the same on the roads.

Fast,  Selfish,  Stupid. 

 

[KhunBENQ]

Fully agree with the headline.

What difference does it make if one has no license or has this plastic card acquired by a laughable video watching, x-times repeatable multiple choice and circling on the traffic kindergarten.

 

Concentrate on the real mess.

Reckless driving/speeding, jumping the lights, drunk/drugged driving, underage bike racers etc.

Next step: introduce serious traffic education/training on the road.

Driving test on the road etc.

Planned date: mid century.

 

[Bob12345]

I suppose the authorities looked into this issue before proposing to raise the fines for driving without a license.

 

Like they compiled accident data and noticed more accidents happening with unlicensed drivers, found some academic studies confirming this, and noticed similar positive effects in other countries. Of course they communicated this with the general public, explained that .....

 

Oh wait...

 

It just a bunch of people who bribed their way into a position of power and needed to come with some propositions to explain their inflated bills for lunch.

[jvs]

5 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Stop the fines completely.  Simply confiscate and sell the car, truck, motorbike.  
Do that and see how fast people start obeying the laws. 

 

Sorry,1000baht or i have to take your motorbike.Yeah that would really work???

[727Sky]

Simple to fix for licenses. Start a drivers education course whiled the kids are in school. They receive a license after they graduate in the course. It will not stop the 8 million who drive without a license presently but would go a long way to making the roads safer in the future.

 

Presently a two day ordeal for someone to get a license is stopping many IMO from getting one when they only get one day off work at a time. Take a test and do a driving test all in one day would go a long way to solving some of the no license problems.

[from the home of CC]

Three months in jail for first offence of driving under the influence could go a long way in curbing this activity.

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Concentrate on the real mess.

Reckless driving/speeding, jumping the lights, drunk/drugged driving, underage bike racers etc.

Next step: introduce serious traffic education/training on the road.

Driving test on the road etc.

Planned date: mid century.

KhunBENQ echoes my feelings entirely. A licence is supposed to show you have learned the rules and can drive accordingly. Only proper driving education can stop collisions (I refuse to call them accidents) but enforcement keeps drivers up to the mark. I could drive 100kms in any direction from my house and never see a traffic police car. I drove from Doi Saket on Highway 118 yesterday, around the outer C. Mai ring road to join the 107 going north and the first speed limit sign was way beyond Mae Rim. 30kms with no suggestion of a speed limit on roads with U-turns, illegal highway parking, shops, schools, markets and banks; hazards galore and at times people doing 100kph. The only police I saw were picking up the wrecked bike after the accident with the rider in hospital.

My only question BENQ is which century?

[losername]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

What about increase both fines.

Totally agree but insert the word "all" as appropriate.

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, 727Sky said:

Start a drivers education course whiled the kids are in school. They receive a license after they graduate in the course.

But if its like most Thai educational facilities everyone will be given a pass regardless of their knowledge and for some money will ensure it. It has to be long, comprehensive and rigorously enforced to be any use. The one day licence is equivalent to cutting it off the top of a box of cornflakes.

[jaiyen]

So what the Thai people are saying is that they don't think it is neccessary to have a licence. Thats why they are scared of a fine for not having one

[bkk6060]

35 minutes ago, Lungstib said:

But if its like most Thai educational facilities everyone will be given a pass regardless of their knowledge and for some money will ensure it. It has to be long, comprehensive and rigorously enforced to be any use. The one day licence is equivalent to cutting it off the top of a box of cornflakes.

Maybe where you come from or in your mind, but not in Banglamung.

I was there a few weeks ago and they were failing people left and right.

Telling them to come back another day.

So, I hope that box of cornflakes lasts awhile.....

 

[mok199]

change the name from Thailand to Thunderdome and stop the redicurous purposals,promises ,probes and pie charts...

Edited September 3, 2018 by mok199

[hotchilli]

The problem is simple: 

the majority of road police are corrupt.... busy topping up bank balances rather than enforcing the law.
Increasing fines, introducing a points system, jail time, crushing cars, licensing etc etc etc is all a waste of time if the police do not do the job for what they are employed to do!!

Nothing will work, new laws or whatever because at the end of the day the police are corrupt!

The Thai population know that if you increase fines the bribes will increase proportionally, it will not decrease offences in the slightest!!!

[Expatthailover]

Never stopped teddy Kennedy.

[CLW]

Probably the 67% that not agree did not understand that the fines will be collected by a court and not the police.
If they pay a bribe to the BiB to avoid that it's not my problem.
First they should ask themselves for the cause which is not possessing a driver's license.

[bkk6060]

41 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

The problem is simple: 

the majority of road police are corrupt.... busy topping up bank balances rather than enforcing the law.
Increasing fines, introducing a points system, jail time, crushing cars, licensing etc etc etc is all a waste of time if the police do not do the job for what they are employed to do!!

Nothing will work, new laws or whatever because at the end of the day the police are corrupt!

The Thai population know that if you increase fines the bribes will increase proportionally, it will not decrease offences in the slightest!!!

A very naive lack of knowledge typical small box comment.

You could put the entire LAPD here and it would make a small dent.

The police are not the drivers...DUH!

The problem is the engineering of the roads, lack of education, people on their phones.

You cannot have a cop on every street 24/7.  Any place in the world.

The cops here write plenty of tickets for violations. Thais and Falang.

Hope you can figure it out......the cops any place do not create accidents........

[Chrisswe]

3 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

I can't tell the difference between a Drunk driver or Sober driver in Thailand

They behave the same on the roads.

Fast,  Selfish,  Stupid. 

 

It's all about RESPECT , respect the Law's, respect other peoples, responsibility, attitude , judgement , but the deep siknes of proudness and jealousness hamper all kind of normal human behavor , this new fine penalty will definitly not solve the problem !! 

[Chrisswe]

3 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

I can't tell the difference between a Drunk driver or Sober driver in Thailand

They behave the same on the roads.

Fast,  Selfish,  Stupid. 

 

Agree after 21 years on the roads in this country, Iam allways happy to reach my destination ,, thanks to my Swedish driving-licence .

[essox essox]

8 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Stop the fines completely.  Simply confiscate and sell the car, truck, motorbike.  
Do that and see how fast people start obeying the laws. 

 

totally agree....especially if the driver is found to be drunk...also take the driving licence of such a character....

[utalkin2me]

That is what they do in the US. It is such the perfect subterfuge for them. Omg it is all such a scam. Get a dui and you are lookimg at 10k lost, easy. And they get to say the finacial punishment is severe because they care, which they don't. 

 

The answer always lies in financial gains for govt entities for some odd reason. Amazing how that works. 

 

Why not just take driver's licenses away for a year from people who get a single dui? I can't think of any city that does not have buses or other forms of transport. Corporate america does not want that though because the insurance companies lose a customer and so do the police. There are better ways to handle it, and it just proves the govt exists to bend you over. 

[Bob12345]

3 hours ago, jaiyen said:

So what the Thai people are saying is that they don't think it is neccessary to have a licence. Thats why they are scared of a fine for not having one

Exactly, its these kind of polls that shows the astute observer the "true" Thailand.

 

It was the same with the poll some years ago where a majority of people indicated they have no problems with corruption... as long as they profit from it themselves.

Thats the attitude that will make sure nothing will change.

 

Same here... you cannot imagine a poll in a developed western country where people indicate it is not a big problem if people drive around without a license.

No way it would be acceptable. You would immidiately think about the risks, the insurance not being valid, the possibility of causing accidents, the lack of insight how traffic works resulting in harming yourself, and getting fined for breaking the rules.

 

In Thailand these things do no exist. Many are not insured, getting a license does not mean you have any skills, accidents happen by chance and karma and have little to do with skills and insight, if you kill someone you can still run away, if someone kills a family member you can get a nice sum of cash, and police will take your money no matter if you followed the rules or not.

 

The road fatality stats will not improve soon.

[amdy2206]

And the people who disagreed ---- did not have licences, or had no intention of getting one!!!!

Ha ha. This is Thailand.