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Almost 11,000 killed on Thai roads so far this year


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Posted
On 10/24/2018 at 10:21 AM, kwilco said:

 

Again an over simplistic interpretation of what is happening There are who stats that relate to traffic numbers/density and KM travelled per vehicle or per person but if you want to go Thai bashing, it's best to ignore those figures as they show the problem is far more=e complicated than just "bad driving".

you are talking utter nonsense!traffic numbers/density so there isnt any of that in any other country?yet they dont have the horrific death toll on their roads,also im not thai bashing i love thailand &thai people but its a fact they are terrible drivers& the facts of over 11000 deaths back that up,bleedin hell mate have you even been to thailand? ask anyone who lives in thailand & they will tell ya they are horrendous drivers,because of there shocking attitude to driving &safety.

 

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, paulikens said:

you are talking utter nonsense!traffic numbers/density so there isnt any of that in any other country?yet they dont have the horrific death toll on their roads,also im not thai bashing i love thailand &thai people but its a fact they are terrible drivers& the facts of over 11000 deaths back that up,bleedin hell mate have you even been to thailand? ask anyone who lives in thailand & they will tell ya they are horrendous drivers,because of there shocking attitude to driving &safety.

 

You don't even start to understand.

Your computations would shame an eleven year old.

The worst drivers in Thailand are the ones that think because they can drive a car they are experts in road safety.

I suppose because you've been to hospital you think you're a doctor?

Edited by kwilco
Posted
2 hours ago, paulikens said:

you are talking utter nonsense!traffic numbers/density so there isnt any of that in any other country?yet they dont have the horrific death toll on their roads,also im not thai bashing i love thailand &thai people but its a fact they are terrible drivers& the facts of over 11000 deaths back that up,bleedin hell mate have you even been to thailand? ask anyone who lives in thailand & they will tell ya they are horrendous drivers,because of there shocking attitude to driving &safety.

 

Your lack of knowledge of road safety is so all-encompassing, it would seem you can't even appreciate how little you understand.

Posted

Only an idiot would dance in the head of a pin claiming “road safety “ without defining it and bad driving are not the same ! Let’s put a new one in your vocabulary . “Driving safely “ and under definition we can add “ something millions of Thais can’t do “


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

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Posted
On 10/24/2018 at 4:21 PM, kwilco said:

 

Again an over simplistic interpretation of what is happening There are who stats that relate to traffic numbers/density and KM travelled per vehicle or per person but if you want to go Thai bashing, it's best to ignore those figures as they show the problem is far more=e complicated than just "bad driving".

You're probably right. The road design is horrible.

 

Cause of deaths or not, thai people do drive horribly. Why? Because they have very little training and they lack safety first attitude. Among other things...

Posted
3 minutes ago, hobz said:

You're probably right. The road design is horrible.

 

Cause of deaths or not, thai people do drive horribly. Why? Because they have very little training and they lack safety first attitude. Among other things...

They drive horribly because the cops don't do their job. Drivers in any country would be just as bad if the police didn't keep them under the thumb.

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Posted

It’s clear from the majority of posts on this thread (and elsewhere) that people have no appreciation of the scale and complexity of the problems of road safety both in Thailand and from a world perspective

 

Clutching at over simplistic straws in the hope that they may be solutions is just counterproductive.

 

This attitude also exists throughout the Thai administrations of the last 3 or 4 decades. Which is particularly devastating in a country with a motor industry in the world's top ten.

 

People think somehow because they can operate a motor vehicle it somehow makes them an “expert” on road safety.

 

I first drove in Thailand in 1994. Since then, I have driven regularly in the country and on moving here 16 years ago, I've averaged about 35,000 km per year as both part of my job and recreation.

I've driven extensively in Thailand but also in Malaysia and Laos.

Apart from here I have driven  in Canada and the USA, Morocco, all over Western Europe and Australia. I regularly would clock up to 90000 MILES p/a in the UK and Europe.

 

Quite apart from that I worked for the road traffic office of a major city in the UK.

I'm not just a driver, I have had a quarter of a century’s academic interest in road safety and the science thereof.

I'm not a driving instructor either...these people are taught by rote to regurgitate a highway code to the average unthinking driver in order they may pass a vehicle driving test. Many have little or no idea of how their instructions relate to road safety in the big picture….they just know if the students keep to the guidelines they'll get a licence. This also results in drivers trained before to drive in their home country but know idea of the underlying theory.

 

Many expats seem to share a common delusion about road safety and their superiority over local drivers.

Then many people who, lamentably unread on the matter (a cloddish and unsophisticated interpretation of road safety statistics indicates this) seem to be under the impression that having “driven in Thailand”  are then qualified as what is crudely referred to as an “expert”. In reality it would be better to suggest they simply don't have the knowledge or skills to observe and analyse correctly what is going on around them. The result of this is  they simply disregard critical thinking and resort to personal observation, confirmation bias and prejudice. Sadly they are simply too uninformed even to realise the shortcomings of this and how little they understand.

 

Road safety is a bigger than you think and more complex than the populist (even racist) media would have you believe. It is clearly too big to tackle from basics in a forum such as this with the current readership.

I'd suggest that anyone wanting to form a valid opinion, needs first to read up on the subject…. After few months you'll begin to realise how little you know, unravel your preconceived notions and then begin the task of forming a reasoned opinion based on critical thinking and a rounded body of evidence.

 

I look forward to that time.

 

Posted
11 minutes ago, kwilco said:

It’s clear from the majority of posts on this thread (and elsewhere) that people have no appreciation of the scale and complexity of the problems of road safety both in Thailand and from a world perspective

 

Clutching at over simplistic straws in the hope that they may be solutions is just counterproductive.

 

This attitude also exists throughout the Thai administrations of the last 3 or 4 decades. Which is particularly devastating in a country with a motor industry in the world's top ten.

 

People think somehow because they can operate a motor vehicle it somehow makes them an “expert” on road safety.

 

I first drove in Thailand in 1994. Since then, I have driven regularly in the country and on moving here 16 years ago, I've averaged about 35,000 km per year as both part of my job and recreation.

I've driven extensively in Thailand but also in Malaysia and Laos.

Apart from here I have driven  in Canada and the USA, Morocco, all over Western Europe and Australia. I regularly would clock up to 90000 MILES p/a in the UK and Europe.

 

Quite apart from that I worked for the road traffic office of a major city in the UK.

I'm not just a driver, I have had a quarter of a century’s academic interest in road safety and the science thereof.

I'm not a driving instructor either...these people are taught by rote to regurgitate a highway code to the average unthinking driver in order they may pass a vehicle driving test. Many have little or no idea of how their instructions relate to road safety in the big picture….they just know if the students keep to the guidelines they'll get a licence. This also results in drivers trained before to drive in their home country but know idea of the underlying theory.

 

Many expats seem to share a common delusion about road safety and their superiority over local drivers.

Then many people who, lamentably unread on the matter (a cloddish and unsophisticated interpretation of road safety statistics indicates this) seem to be under the impression that having “driven in Thailand”  are then qualified as what is crudely referred to as an “expert”. In reality it would be better to suggest they simply don't have the knowledge or skills to observe and analyse correctly what is going on around them. The result of this is  they simply disregard critical thinking and resort to personal observation, confirmation bias and prejudice. Sadly they are simply too uninformed even to realise the shortcomings of this and how little they understand.

 

Road safety is a bigger than you think and more complex than the populist (even racist) media would have you believe. It is clearly too big to tackle from basics in a forum such as this with the current readership.

I'd suggest that anyone wanting to form a valid opinion, needs first to read up on the subject…. After few months you'll begin to realise how little you know, unravel your preconceived notions and then begin the task of forming a reasoned opinion based on critical thinking and a rounded body of evidence.

 

I look forward to that time.

 

Can you enlighten us peasants on Border Bouncing too.

Posted

Actually I think that most people in Thailand drive OK. That being said there are vast differences on what OK means here, and what it means is most western countries. There are about 20-30% of Thailand drivers that are complete morons (unsafe passing, passing on blind corners, excessive speed, driving the wrong way on the roads, etc.). The other roughly 70% drive fairly sanely and are actually courteous (in a Thai kind of way). Road deaths, and poor driving are huge issues in Thailand, but imagine what the road deaths and driving practices would be in your home country if basically none of the traffic rules were enforced by the police, or were enforced ineffectively. I would not want to think about the roads in the USA if none of the traffic laws were enforced. Traffic law enforcement is the key to safer roads, I do not believe that this will occur anytime soon here, so until then drive defensively with your head on a swivel, put as much metal around you as possible (drive a car/truck), don't drink and drive, and maybe get a lucky amulet (just in case).

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Ahab said:

don't buy into the "theory" that you need to be an expert to realize there are issues with road safety in Thailand. Any idiot that has driven here for a month or two that possesses common sense and logic could figure potential causes, 

QED

Posted
4 minutes ago, Ahab said:

I don't buy into the "theory" that you need to be an expert to realize there are issues with road safety in Thailand. Any idiot that has driven here for a month or two that possesses common sense and logic could figure potential causes, they could also logically surmise that lax/no traffic enforcement could be one of the root causes of the problem. This post was fairly long and inferred that many people with opinions on this topic are "racist", "delusional", "unread", and "uninformed" which may be true for some of the posts, but generalizing in this manner for everyone is not really helpful. The post is also conspicuously lacking any insight into what the possible root causes and solutions to the high number of traffic deaths and accidents in Thailand could be.  I found this to be strange given that the poster is self described as being very knowledgeable on this topic, if even experts cannot determine what the causes are and outline some possible steps to fix the problem in a very long post then there is likely no hope in solving this issue.

As I said one needs to get it informed....the answers are out there even with Thai safety organisations, but as long people jump to conclusions without the full information there will be no progress

Posted (edited)
58 minutes ago, Ahab said:

There are about 20-30% of Thailand drivers that are complete morons

Example of the woolly thinking around road safety. This is a totally subjective comment, pulling figures out of thin air.

Again the obsession with "driving" is totally unhelpful. The problem is road safety, not just "driving"....and you seem to be referring to driving in 4 wheeled vehicles..

A few things you might want to consider, Thailand has the same  number of collisions as most Western countries .... statistically you are as safe (from dying) in a 4 wheeled vehicle as you are in the USA. Thailand has no centralised or standardised emergency services, some of the worst road and traffic engineering in Asia.

It should be further noted that road incident or crash statistics are gathered in far more ways than deaths per 100 k, the single stat bandied about on this forum.

International standard divides EVERY crash into 3 categories....1 death 2 serious injury 3 minor injury. Thailand has failed to do this on an annual basis at any time.

Stats also take into account density of traffic, distance travelled per vehicle and all other road users.

Contrary to popular belief there is no time limit on death resulting from an RTI.

Many believe it is only the police who gather statistics in Thailand when in fact there are about 5 or 6 organisations compiling stats, all with their criteria.

Thereafter is that to simply conclude that the high number of deaths means Thai people are bad drivers is akin to saying the world is flat because it looks like it from where you are standing....or those lights in the sky must be aliens.

It is also grossly insulting to the people of Thailand.

 

Edited by kwilco
Posted
On 10/23/2018 at 5:17 AM, Samui Bodoh said:

If you want safer roads, you need police to patrol, deter bad drivers and enforce existing laws fairly.

 

Unfortunately, the police do not do that; until they do, nothing will change.

 

11,000? Is that all? I would have guessed higher.

 

Thousand and thousands more needless deaths are coming; stop being surprised.

 

 

Surprised its so low ????

Posted
29 minutes ago, kwilco said:

if even experts cannot determine what the causes are and outline some possible steps to fix the problem in a very long post then there is likely no hope in solving this issue

Where do I say that?

Posted
15 hours ago, kwilco said:

There is no point arguing with a flat-farther .......

There isn't enough space on Thaivisa to put one straight when they don't even grasp the fundamentals ... So it's best just point out the fallacious premises and let them work it out on their own .....If they can.

I don't consider my point to be "fallacious" - if that is what you are inferring. 

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Saladin said:

They drive horribly because the cops don't do their job. Drivers in any country would be just as bad if the police didn't keep them under the thumb.

Warning: massive generalisations are coming ahead:

 

I'm from a Scandinavian country and theres almost no traffic police there. Yet people drive very safe. It's part of education, not only for the driver license but the entire schooling from grade a..

Knowledge of how dangerous it is to smash tons of metal into someone at a certain speed etc... Fear is a sign of intelligence and knowledge. Fear/respect + intelligence = safety. Thai ppl are lacking in both areas because of different type of education and upbringing.

 

Yet I agree that the short term solution in Thailand is to introduce massive policing with massive increase in penalties... But in the long run its a matter of education and upbringing from day one... They let their kids drive motorbikes without a helmet... Very few Scandinavian parents would ever allow that.. here it's standard... I know, I know, who cares about the helmet? What difference does it make? I don't know. The point is that there is a clear difference in culture regarding safety... And this is not only on the roads.. 

 

 

PS, people from my country might even be overly safe.. but the point remains that it's a cultural difference. Not a law enforcement difference. 

Edited by hobz
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Posted
9 hours ago, kwilco said:

Example of the woolly thinking around road safety. This is a totally subjective comment, pulling figures out of thin air.

Again the obsession with "driving" is totally unhelpful. The problem is road safety, not just "driving"....and you seem to be referring to driving in 4 wheeled vehicles..

A few things you might want to consider, Thailand has the same  number of collisions as most Western countries .... statistically you are as safe (from dying) in a 4 wheeled vehicle as you are in the USA. Thailand has no centralised or standardised emergency services, some of the worst road and traffic engineering in Asia.

It should be further noted that road incident or crash statistics are gathered in far more ways than deaths per 100 k, the single stat bandied about on this forum.

International standard divides EVERY crash into 3 categories....1 death 2 serious injury 3 minor injury. Thailand has failed to do this on an annual basis at any time.

Stats also take into account density of traffic, distance travelled per vehicle and all other road users.

Contrary to popular belief there is no time limit on death resulting from an RTI.

Many believe it is only the police who gather statistics in Thailand when in fact there are about 5 or 6 organisations compiling stats, all with their criteria.

Thereafter is that to simply conclude that the high number of deaths means Thai people are bad drivers is akin to saying the world is flat because it looks like it from where you are standing....or those lights in the sky must be aliens.

It is also grossly insulting to the people of Thailand.

 

Driving is entirely the issue. dangerous and very poor driving to be more precise. It is subjective, but based on personal observation and estimation which is part of the scientific method. I would suggest looking around the world we live (and drive) in. Normal people observe, make inferences from those observations and draw conclusions. If someone  have a lick of common sense and a single logical bone in their body it is possible to draw a conclusion that will be very close to truth. I have no idea what an "RTI" is but it does not take a genius to figure out that many Thai's do not drive safely. I do not need someone with a PhD to do a study to tell me that, I have eyes, and I can see. It is not grossly insulting to anyone to state an observation that has been validated thousands of times while driving in the kingdom. That being said I have also stated that a majority of Thai drivers seem to drive just fine

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Posted
9 hours ago, kwilco said:

As I said one needs to get it informed....the answers are out there even with Thai safety organisations, but as long people jump to conclusions without the full information there will be no progress

So what are the answers, and why aren't they being implemented if they are known?

Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, kwilco said:

You don't even start to understand.

Your computations would shame an eleven year old.

The worst drivers in Thailand are the ones that think because they can drive a car they are experts in road safety.

I suppose because you've been to hospital you think you're a doctor?

Great troll posts by someone that is obviously not an expert. It appears you have no idea why people drive so unsafely in Thailand, the worst drivers in Thailand are those without a license, zero training, and absolutely no ability to grasp how unsafely they are driving. Someone doesn't understand, but it is not the "non-expert".

Edited by Ahab
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Posted
17 hours ago, kwilco said:

As I said one needs to get it informed....the answers are out there even with Thai safety organisations, but as long people jump to conclusions without the full information there will be no progress

Well woopty do! Thai safety organisations may have some answers BUT these organisations are not responsible for driver licensing, training or Police enforcment of road rules etc.!

 

Get out of your ivory tower and stop with the pontificating and recognise the real problem/s that need to be dealt with immediately to reduce Thai road trauma. There is  difference between understanding road safety and implementing it. And there is a difference between talking about road and traffic problems (the Govt. does that regularly) and putting into action that which will demonstrably reduce road trauma in the short term. Road safety can be taught and maybe UNDERSTOOD by the driving/riding population in the long term but it is not going to happen overnight.

 

Better a good solution now than a brilliant solution too late. Where there is a will there is a way, unfortunately it seems that Govt. does not have the will whether it is safety on land or water.

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, lvr181 said:

Well woopty do! Thai safety organisations may have some answers BUT these organisations are not responsible for driver licensing, training or Police enforcment of road rules etc.!

 

Get out of your ivory tower and stop with the pontificating and recognise the real problem/s that need to be dealt with immediately to reduce Thai road trauma. There is  difference between understanding road safety and implementing it. And there is a difference between talking about road and traffic problems (the Govt. does that regularly) and putting into action that which will demonstrably reduce road trauma in the short term. Road safety can be taught and maybe UNDERSTOOD by the driving/riding population in the long term but it is not going to happen overnight.

 

Better a good solution now than a brilliant solution too late. Where there is a will there is a way, unfortunately it seems that Govt. does not have the will whether it is safety on land or water.

Thanks for a good example showing how people have no understanding of the issues of road safety.

 

Pure assumption and absolutely no concrete evidence.

 

 

There are basically 6 main tenets of road safety...but you didn't monarchs did you? ... they ALL need to be deployed, if one or more isn't, then the whole system will collapse like a pack of cards.

But you can't know that

 

Simply putting forward single issue solutions because they "seem like a good idea" will have little or no effect......This can CLEARLY be demonstrated in the lamentable lack of progress made in Thailand in sharp contrast to the EU for instance.

Edited by kwilco
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Posted
2 hours ago, kwilco said:

Thanks for a good example showing how people have no understanding of the issues of road safety.

 

Pure assumption and absolutely no concrete evidence.

 

 

There are basically 6 main tenets of road safety...but you didn't monarchs did you? ... they ALL need to be deployed, if one or more isn't, then the whole system will collapse like a pack of cards.

But you can't know that

 

Simply putting forward single issue solutions because they "seem like a good idea" will have little or no effect......This can CLEARLY be demonstrated in the lamentable lack of progress made in Thailand in sharp contrast to the EU for instance.

One of the tenets might perhaps be enforcing current traffic laws? 

Posted

All the philosophical reasonings in these postings, and half baked Government experiments only serve to muddy the waters. We all know that Thais are particularly bad drivers and motorbike riders but it should be obvious even to Blind Freddy that the major solution to the road carnage is simply for the police to enforce the existing traffic rules. The situation in any country would be just as chaotic if the police didn't vigorously sit on top of things. Why isn't this happening in Thailand? Don't blame the foot soldiers - the problem is the apparent lack of training, guidance, and control by their superiors.

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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, kwilco said:

Thanks for a good example showing how people have no understanding of the issues of road safety.

 

Pure assumption and absolutely no concrete evidence.

 

 

There are basically 6 main tenets of road safety...but you didn't monarchs did you? ... they ALL need to be deployed, if one or more isn't, then the whole system will collapse like a pack of cards.

But you can't know that

 

Simply putting forward single issue solutions because they "seem like a good idea" will have little or no effect......This can CLEARLY be demonstrated in the lamentable lack of progress made in Thailand in sharp contrast to the EU for instance.

Is this article good in your opinion?

 

http://www.searo.who.int/thailand/areas/roadsafety/en/

 

The first thing they mention is lack of enforcement. Second thing is speed.

 

I always heard that speed is the biggest factor in road safety.

 

 

legislative and/or enforcement gaps related to all five risk factors (speed, drink-driving, helmets, seatbelts and child restraints). 

 

Those five risk factors are common sense and don't require enforcement in my home country Sweden. I guess speeding and not using seatbelts happens with youth...

 

In Thailand all of those risk factors seem to be ignored by most people and are socially acceptable. 

Edited by hobz
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Posted
7 hours ago, lvr181 said:

Road safety can be taught and maybe UNDERSTOOD by the driving/riding population in the long term but it is not going to happen overnight.

Exactly, this will take one or two generations.

Posted (edited)
28 minutes ago, hobz said:

Is this article good in your opinion?

 

http://www.searo.who.int/thailand/areas/roadsafety/en/

 

The first thing they mention is lack of enforcement. Second thing is speed.

 

I always heard that speed is the biggest factor in road safety.

 

 

legislative and/or enforcement gaps related to all five risk factors (speed, drink-driving, helmets, seatbelts and child restraints). 

 

Those five risk factors are common sense and don't require enforcement in my home country Sweden. I guess speeding and not using seatbelts happens with youth...

 

In Thailand all of those risk factors seem to be ignored by most people and are socially acceptable. 

No that article must be misinformed, simplistic, and unknowledgeable about the topic.

 

Experts that have previously posted on this topic have said so, and have also said that blaming the problems on observations that anyone with an IQ above 70 can plainly see is ignorant and does not address the problem. In fact the problem is so complex that pointing out that many Thai drivers do not observe traffic laws, speed, drive unsafely, don't have adequate training, and most traffic laws are not enforced at all show that you have no grasp on this issue. (Sarcastic rant over).

 

I personally disagree with the self proclaimed TV "experts" that cannot see the forest because of all the damn trees in the way.  Lack of law enforcement means that if you break the traffic laws or drive unsafely you will not be caught by law enforcement (because it is not there), and you will not be penalized thus encouraging bad behavior. Heck if you have the right lucky amulet you do not even have to worry about being in an accident or being injured, or killed.

 

The article is spot on, by the way.

Edited by Ahab
added additional info
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Posted
4 hours ago, kwilco said:

Thanks for a good example showing how people have no understanding of the issues of road safety.

 

Pure assumption and absolutely no concrete evidence.

 

 

There are basically 6 main tenets of road safety...but you didn't monarchs did you? ... they ALL need to be deployed, if one or more isn't, then the whole system will collapse like a pack of cards.

But you can't know that

 

Simply putting forward single issue solutions because they "seem like a good idea" will have little or no effect......This can CLEARLY be demonstrated in the lamentable lack of progress made in Thailand in sharp contrast to the EU for instance.

OMG, I am not suggesting a single solution! Where have I said that? I have said you need to start somewhere, URGENTLY. It will take a generational change of culture to benefit your "smart but too late" raft of road safety changes! Jeeze, stop pontificating about European solutions on a feudal system, led by those who have shown little desire to make any fundamental wholesale changes.

 

Making some urgent changes now is better than doing nothing or waiting for a huge shift in cultural values to effect meaningful results! Go back to your ivory tower with your dreams and let those who have more practical ideas, do something NOW!

 

Roads and vehicles do not kill people - drivers/riders do! They need "immediate attention"! A 'brilliant' road safety campaign too late is not the best course of action (in the Kingdom), to immediately start reducing the current road trauma. The current cultural values, of the Kingdom, are not those of caucasian and probably never will be.

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