35 Danes Died In Thailand Last Year

[sriracha john]

In a similar report to the thread:

Number Of Norwegians Dying In Thailand Doubled

35 Danes died in Thailand last year

Bangkok: Unofficial annual balance from the Danish Embassy in Bangkok has revealed that 35 Danes have lost their lives in Thailand in 2006.

Most of the fatalities are rather undramatic, but from the more dramatic scenes one killing is registered, which took place in December on the Island of Koh Samui.

The 34-year-old Dane John Terry Petersen was shot down and killed immediately in what looked like an execution. The police still held one suspect in custody and so far the motive is unknown. The case has not been bound for trial yet. *surprisingly not covered in thaivisa*

The roads of Thailand have also contributed to the statistics with five fatal accidents – all of them involving motorcycles.

"We always try to encourage people to remember to be adequately insured as well as to be really careful in the traffic, because the driving habits are so different from the Danish ones," scandasia.com quoted the Danish ambassador to Thailand H. E. Michael Sternberg as saying.

According to the statistics, most of the Danes have died from a heart attack or simply a natural cause. More accurately, the number is 29. The oldest one became 91 years of age.

"Many Danes are living permanently in Thailand, so the number is in that sense not surprisingly," Mr. Sternberg explains and continues.

"At the first glance, the number of 35 may look high. But if you consider that up to 120,000 Danes have been in Thailand during 2006, the figure of 35 fatalities and the course of death actually just follows the standard distribution of a larger Danish city within a year," the Danish ambassador added.

- Business Day

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It'd be quite informative if all the other Embassies released such statistics.

[sbk]

I believe it was discussed in the Samui forum here.

[sriracha john]

I believe it was discussed in the Samui forum here.

link = "kasi profile" (banned)

Sorry, didn't see it listed as a topic started. Was it in one of his/her posts? No matches on a name search for the person.

[sbk]

Sorry, shooting in Reggae Pub

[sriracha john]

Sorry, shooting in Reggae Pub

Thank you. Updated that thread to include his name for the first time.

[Prakanong]

Back in 99 we had to report the death of a British passport holder

We were told there were 10-12 a month dying by the Embassy Officer

Anyone have any later figures?

[Thai-Spy]

"At the first glance, the number of 35 may look high. But if you consider that up to 120,000 Danes have been in Thailand during 2006, the figure of 35 fatalities and the course of death actually just follows the standard distribution of a larger Danish city within a year," the Danish ambassador added.

- Business Day

=============================

It'd be quite informative if all the other Embassies released such statistics.

The estimated 2005 death rate for Danes was 10.43 per 1000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_death_rate

According to TOT statistics http://www2.tat.or.th/stat/web/static_index.php) in 2005 there were 103,787 Danish arrivals to Thailand staying an average of 14.46 days. This is the same in a sufficiently large and random population as saying 1.5 million person-days, or 4110 person years.

Working out the math: (4110/1000) *10.43 gives an expected number of deaths of 42.87.

Conclusion: The Ambassador is presenting facts not spin, and Thailand is just as safe (or dangerous) as Denmark once you factor out some things including infant mortality and the fact the poor travel less and die younger.

Of course the sample of tourists is not random (they are a self-selecting cohort) nor is it completely representative of the demographics of Danish society. But for a quick thumbnail of the situation it is close enough.

[Livinginexile]

It would be interesting to know the total number of foriegners that die in Thailand each year.

35 Danes alone!....how many other nationals.

Another interesting stat would be: How many Thai wives/g/f's claim their estates.

I bet the farang "suicides" would be close to 100% claims