Drunk driving and speeding top road toll of 2,761 accidents in five days

By The Nation

 

 

The 2,761 road accidents nationwide over the first five days of the New Year holidays have claimed 314 lives and maimed 2,848 others, Public Health Ministry deputy permanent secretary Dr Prapon Tangsrikertikul said on Tuesday.

 

He said the most cited causes for Monday road carnage were drunk driving (44.82 per cent) and speeding (29.88 per cent, while most crashes (81.62 per cent) involved motorcycles. Prapon spoke on behalf of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre (Thai RSC), which is tasked with reducing death tolls during the period’s “seven dangerous days”.

 

Chiang Mai reported the highest cumulative crashes with 91 cases, Nakhon Ratchasima posted the highest cumulative fatalities at 14 deaths and Nakhon Si Thammarat suffered the highest cumulative casualties at 96 injuries. Only 10 provinces had reported no deaths in road accidents as of Monday.

 

On December 31 alone, there were 569 road accidents, killing 72 persons and wounding 519 others, Proapon said. Nakhon Ratchasima cited the highest number of crashes at 23 cases, Si Sa Ket and Ubon Ratchathani had the highest fatalities at four each, and Nakhon Si Thammarat had the most injuries at 27. 

 

Prapon said the most cited causes for Monday’s road carnage were drunk driving (44.82 per cent) and speeding (29.88 per cent, while most crashes (81.62 per cent) involved motorcycles. 

 

About 39 per cent of the crashes took place on highways, while 36.20 per cent occurred on local roads. Most of the accidents transpired between 4pm and 8pm (31.28 per cent). 

 

Prapon said that 2,049 checkpoints, staffed by 66,867 officials nationwide, recorded 194,173 traffic violations on Monday. Among them were 47,150 motorists who failed to produce a licence and 51,811 motorcyclists who were stopped for riding without helmets. 

 

National Council for Peace and Order deputy spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Nga-thong meanwhile reported that a total of 3,684 vehicles (2,677 motorcycles and 1,007 automobiles) had been seized from drunk drivers during December 27-31.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361433

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-02

I've got deja-vu.  I am sure I read this article earlier this week and every year for the last 15.

Well done Thailand.

Give yourself a big old pat on the back.

You always come through in the end. 

 

 

Edited January 1, 20197 yr by stanleycoin

I think Freddy M,'' we are the champions '' is fitting ...

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed.  The post contained screen shots from an unknown source. 

There are so many numbers in that article, my head is spinning at 3600 rpm, just like 15 - 20 year old Somchai on his 50cc motorcycle with a blood alcohol count of 300mg/dl, between 4pm and 8pm on the 7 deadly days.

Motorbikes + Stupidity + Ineffective (or minimal, proactive) Law Enforcement = Road Carnage.

 

Pretty easy to figure this out even w/o the complicated Math.

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 20197 yr by MaxYakov

2 hours ago, mikebell said:

I've got deja-vu.  I am sure I read this article earlier this week and every year for the last 15.

Yep, simply cut and paste and change the dates. 

I'm sure I read the same article every year. 10 years now and nothing has changed

Next years safety campaign will end up with the same result no doubt ???? 

If there Only Was some way to prevent drunk driving and speeding

..... 

 

81% involved motorcycles. Does this mean that only 19% involved cars or is there some overlap where both a car and a motorbike was involved. Meaning at least 19% involved cars.

 

Also wonder how many minor car accidents go unreported ... Probably LOTS. 

 

Also wonder about brands of cars. I bet Mercedes / BMW are underreported in drunk driving stats as they have a tendency to go through checkpoints with impunity

5 minutes ago, hobz said:

If there Only Was some way to prevent drunk driving and speeding

Surely the former leads to the latter. Can't imagine many motorcyclists speeding and crashing without being pissed up.

Edited January 2, 20197 yr by wgdanson

"Dad, I'm in high-school and want to go to Thailand and drive a motorbike around Xmas and New Year's.....OK?"

 

Of course we would never say this is smart, but we are here risking our own lives.  And it's not even hot, bad air, and the previous 20 baht soup is now 50.

 

it's 9 a.m., time for my beer on loi kroh.  lol.  

 

be safe out there, but if you get in an accident.....really, you should be smart enough to know the risks. 

Never mind.Next yearat this time they will announce measures that'll cut the road toll????

Looks as if we may get close to my mathematically predicted figure of 400 dead by the end.

well done Thailand again best place for killing/culling  people  is on the highway's  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Driving from Phayao to Chiang Rai recently we were stopped at a checkpoint and fined 500 baht. Turns out that our red book on our new car was not filled out properly, a mistake by the dealer in Chiang Rai.

 

They were stopping every car with a red plate. Shake down perfected.

 

Thousands of people die on the roads and this is their solution.

 

In six years I have had only two experiences like this. Overall the Thai police I have dealt with have done an excellent job. Cops like these guys are theives and give the rest of the decent police a bad name. 

16% will do what they are told, 68% need to see everyone else do it before they will, 16% need real pain to understand.  This is why Singapore is always harsh on the first offenders after they change the law.

 

Park your vehicle in that field .

Go get a license / crash helmet.

Come back when you have one.   

 

I know of people who are paying more in "fines" each year than the cost of fixing the problem once. There is a network of people calling each other to let them know where the police checkpoints are in the morning. They need a nudge to change behaviour. 

People are basically lazy. Conformance needs to be easier than non conformance.

 

What an interesting and surprising part of the daily news!

I never would have guessed, that this would be the outcome of the brilliant work the RTP and the Ministry of Cars and $hit on the Roads does!

32 minutes ago, marko kok prong said:

Looks as if we may get close to my mathematically predicted figure of 400 dead by the end.

When stupidity turns the nation in seven days from Thailand 4.0 to Thailand 400⚰️

Nothing new to report here. This is a normal statistic here in Thailand. Road fatalities of 60 deaths per day is average & has been the same for years. It will never change ............... history tells us so. The only time these horrific statistics will improve is when the mindset of people here change ............ sadly that is never going to happen ....... fact.

3 hours ago, Darcula said:

There are so many numbers in that article, my head is spinning at 3600 rpm, just like 15 - 20 year old Somchai on his 50cc motorcycle with a blood alcohol count of 300mg/dl, between 4pm and 8pm on the 7 deadly days.

You left out the most important single figure  number ... their  IQ....

18 minutes ago, Daveyh said:

Nothing new to report here. This is a normal statistic here in Thailand. Road fatalities of 60 deaths per day is average & has been the same for years. It will never change ............... history tells us so. The only time these horrific statistics will improve is when the mindset of people here change ............ sadly that is never going to happen ....... fact.

The only way you will ever stop drunk driving and riding in Thailand is the automatic crushing of the drunken scums vehicles and motorbikes, anything else will be a complete waste of time.

3 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

The only way you will ever stop drunk driving and riding in Thailand is the automatic crushing of the drunken scums vehicles and motorbikes, anything else will be a complete waste of time.

Agree Possum but to easy to get another one on credit at 1% interest on finance for a new car or bike, so I am told.

Here's an idea why not make drivers take a real driving test on a proper road rather than just show you can drive around some cones in a car park.

They recently put new roundabouts near where i live and they are all going round in different directions.

If you fine somone 500 baht for not even having a drivers license then nothing good will happen .

Start giving huge fines and crush cars and these figures will drop.

 

until such time as road rules are enforced in Thailand by the police this will never change. We drove to Ranong from Surat Thani through the mountains, double lines were ignored by that many drivers it wasnt funny, they simply refused to slow down and cut off cars coming from the opposite direction. The police stops were a joke, no one out on the roadside apart from an army stop where they were at both car windows to check. Police need to be actually driving/riding on roads and pulling over anyone breaking the law but they are too lazy to do so and the govt refuses to supply proper cars/bikes that would enable them to do it. Thai road rules are a joke at best as no one gives a sh*t about them, they know the police will not do anything to them or even pull them over in most cases, its simply pathetic but we are all aware of this fact.

22 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

The only way you will ever stop drunk driving and riding in Thailand is the automatic crushing of the drunken scums vehicles and motorbikes, anything else will be a complete waste of time.

Probably be successful if they were to crush the drunken scums actually in or on their vehicles... at least they would kill no more innocent victims.

1 hour ago, turgid said:

Conformance needs to be easier than non conformance

 

I live in Rayong and it took me 3 full days to renew my 5 year licence and that was with a Thai staff member helping me and with queuing starting as early as 6:30am. All Thais I have spoken to report the same problem.

 

i was ready to just give up and use my U.K. licence.

 

Rayong has the most dangerous roads in Thailand. A correlation perhaps?

49 minutes ago, nchuckle said:

You left out the most important single figure  number ... their  IQ....

They have one? 

31 minutes ago, Catkiwi said:

Agree Possum but to easy to get another one on credit at 1% interest on finance for a new car or bike, so I am told.

I would be surprised if that was true, I know the Thai mentality is low, but I cannot see finance companies giving out credit as easy as that. They would soon be out of business.