Carnage on the Thai roads: More than 8,000 dead so far this year

[Cake Monster]

3 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

I think the main problem is that from what i have seen driving here for the last 13 years ,if the average driver had another brain cell they would be a plant .

If Thai drivers had 2 brain cells, they would be constantly colliding with each other, which would cause even more loss of all concentration than there already is with just the One.

Not to mention the severe Headaches incurred.

[Artisi]

2 hours ago, Matzzon said:

What? Only 8220?! Have to move faster, to fill the quota.

As DT would say, "fake news". 

[nong38]

It is really difficult to provide an answer to this problem.

The Government come up with statements and plans, nothing changes, the Monks have free beer days and nothing changes, the police don't enforce the law so nothing changes and society just carries on as normal and prioritize their journey over everyone else. Its all been said before, I think we have to accept that this is the norm for here a poor standard of driving with no consideration of human life. Until someone reads the "job description" to the police about up holding and enforcing the law nothing is going to change.

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, seajae said:

then you have no police on the roads to even try to enforce the rules. If they want to fix this they need to put police on the roads and pull all the idiots over, fine and seize cars

 

You ask a lot. They can't even stand by the road and fine those driving on the wrong side, motorcyclists without helmets, 13-year-olds four to a bike. They just ignore them as if they aren't there. And that is exactly why Thais drive as they do, because there is no deterrent. They know they can get away with anything 99.9 per cent of the time, from the time they illegally drive a motorcycle as a child through to when they 'graduate' up to a car.

 

Because no-one cares, neither the police, those drivers who routinely and thoughtlessly break the law, the government because the problem is too big to resolve without taking everyone off the road and re-training them and paying for a massive fleet of highway patrol cars. Ain't going to happen. It's a lost cause. The problem should have been dealt with decades ago when people began driving cars in numbers, but it wasn't and now the problem has grown out of control.

[Bangkok Barry]

Does this other headline today count as a road death?
Hanging wires: Another motorcyclist strangled to death

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, buanmeerugsaa said:

In France, which has a roughly equal population, there were 3,259 road fatalities in 2018. 

 

In the UK, similar population, it was 1,770 in the year to June 2018.

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

 

By the way-I never met a Thai who was seriously concerned about this mass slaughter....

 

Me neither. I was going to write it's because they are in their bubble and aren't affected, but I would bet everything I have that there is not one family in the whole of Thailand who has not had a member killed or seriously injured on the roads.

My own wife's family has had a a sister killed on a motorbike, a brother who was seriously injured when a car hit him while he was on his motorbike waiting to do a right turn, and a brother-in-law who ended upside down in a ditch as a passenger in a friend's pickup. My wife was also involved in an accident (I hesitate to use that word in Thailand) as a kid when her school pick-up crashed, with some of her friends killed and another who lost his legs.

[digger70]

As long the government doesn't get serious with applying and enforcing the laws that are in place since the year dot.... it will only get worse,,,,, Happy Days to look forward to.

[300sd]

Instead of blaming the brakes and rain etc....they should say the police don't care so neither do I.

[mfd101]

Absence of personal responsibility in this culture + strange ideas about cause & effect.

 

To take an example which I see just about every time I'm travelling with a Thai behind the wheel (which I try to avoid as much as possible): When the stop lights on the car in front come on, they don't react. Just continue sailing on, chattering excitedly, often turning their head around to laugh with the passengers in the back seat ...

 

I find it quite unnerving.

[mojorison]

As long as spotters and "rescuers" receive 10% commission the horrendous situation will only flourish.

As long as crime pays, and every entity involved profits from some one else's grief and heartbreak, nothing will change.

As long as the Thais say "what can I do?" "It's dangerous to make waves", "it's destiny"... nothing will change.

 

As long as the Thai proudly espouse the "mai pen rai" mentality, not fully understanding that all it really means is that "we are people who accept mediocrity"... it's going to be the same.

 

It's ingrained. I can rant all day... 555

[Pedrogaz]

I can't get excited about this any more. Until Thailand is invaded by Martians they will never do anything about the carnage on the roads. Yesterday I drove about 10 kilometres or so to a friends...I counted 160 motorbikes on the road (then stopped counting) 12 had helmets on. 75% of the deaths on the road involve motorbikes....make people wear helmets or impound every motorbike where the driver and or passengers are not wearing helmets...have checkpoints everywhere for a month....make the owners pay a fine of 10,000 baht. This will involve impounding 90% of the motorbikes and the death rates will fall and may turn out to be a good little earner. Now if the death rates fall, keep doing it until helmet usage is near universal, especially among kids. 

 

This elephant needs tone eaten one bite at a time. Start somewhere, when results are achieved, move on to the next most dangerous thing....probably dink driving.....repeat the process for 3 months, stop every damned car on the road after dark.....impound the cars and give a 200,000 baht fine too get the car back. When result achieved move on to red light runner, one way street ignorers etc 

[Huayrat]

Why report it nobody cares.. It's the same in Day in Day out.. 

[sammieuk1]

In the last couple of weeks several reports of micro sleeping being the cause of crashing as the brake failure takes a backseat and probably fails to fail on testing????

[toofarnorth]

If I told another ferlang that I crashed my car because there was something wrong with the steering ..when they stopped laughing I would expect to hear ' why are you on the road with a car with faulty steering  ?'

While here , my inlaws came down from the back of beyond , not one of them can drive , when I asked the wife if she would like to pick them up she said no they prefer my driving .

[toofarnorth]

3 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

In the last couple of weeks several reports of micro sleeping being the cause of crashing as the brake failure takes a backseat and probably fails to fail on testing????

To be honest , brake fail is soo last year. I like steering failure , a new look , and so much better than ' Fell asleep ' that is a bit old hat now.

[sunnyboy2018]

7 hours ago, seajae said:

virtually every time we go out on the roads we have to swerve or brake suddenly to avoid accidents with the idiots who ignore the road rules and ignore other cars/bikes so they just do as they please,  then you have no police on the roads to even try to enforce the rules. If they want to fix this they need to put police on the roads and pull all the idiots over, fine and seize cars as this is the only thing thais understand, money. Of course the pathetic driving instructions they get doesnt help either, a few hours driving in an enclosed area with no traffic then a short drive in traffic, a couple of hours only learning the questions with an immediate test and you have a licence, our daughter got her licence inside 4 days and she is absolutely hopeless, I refuse to let her drive our car because she has no idea what to do.

If you have to brake suddenly or swerve you are driving too close to the driver in front of you.

[cyril sneer]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

..................and they wonder why tourism is down

it's not because of this

[sunnyboy2018]

43 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I can't get excited about this any more. Until Thailand is invaded by Martians they will never do anything about the carnage on the roads. Yesterday I drove about 10 kilometres or so to a friends...I counted 160 motorbikes on the road (then stopped counting) 12 had helmets on. 75% of the deaths on the road involve motorbikes....make people wear helmets or impound every motorbike where the driver and or passengers are not wearing helmets...have checkpoints everywhere for a month....make the owners pay a fine of 10,000 baht. This will involve impounding 90% of the motorbikes and the death rates will fall and may turn out to be a good little earner. Now if the death rates fall, keep doing it until helmet usage is near universal, especially among kids. 

 

This elephant needs tone eaten one bite at a time. Start somewhere, when results are achieved, move on to the next most dangerous thing....probably dink driving.....repeat the process for 3 months, stop every damned car on the road after dark.....impound the cars and give a 200,000 baht fine too get the car back. When result achieved move on to red light runner, one way street ignorers etc 

The stats are skewed and dont allow for motor cycle usage. Driving in Saudi is far more dangerous. But members' obsession with faulting Thailand is akin to to viewing the USA only via the prism of mass shootings or viewing the UK by just focussing on knife crime. I have rarely seen a car crash here but in Saudi it was a daily occurrence. 

[sunnyboy2018]

2 minutes ago, cyril sneer said:

it's not because of this

And tourism isn't down.

[Dr No]

Take care on the roads....stay calm....stay safe and drive defencively. Don't become a statistic ???? 

[Moonlover]

6 hours ago, geoffbezoz said:

6 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

Thai female drivers are often much worse than thai male drivers .

 

6 hours ago, geoffbezoz said:

Stylistically that is incorrect, do some research.

Agreed. Statistics have consistently verified that the vast majority of deaths are young male motorcyclists. Generally around 80%, and half of them involve alcohol.

 

I did some number crunching awhile back and came to the conclusion that if you were to exclude motorcycle deaths from the stats, the RTA deaths in Thailand would be comparable to France.

[MeePeeMai]

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

make people wear helmets

 

This is a good start but 95% of the mere 2% that actually wear a helmet here don't even use the chinstrap.  When a motorcyclist is involved in an accident and is not using a chain strap, the helmet usually comes off long before the head hits the ground or the windscreen etc.  Youtube videos in Thailand prove this fact daily, over and over, again and again.

 

The police checkpoints that look for riders wearing helmets don't care anything about whether or not there is a working chin strap (much less if the rider is even using it).  The only reason riders wear a helmet here is to escape a fine by the BIB, not to protect their noggin.

 

 

[metisdead]

Some offensive posts and replies have been removed. 

[justin case]

makro opening today...suddenly "real" 2-4 policemen (hired) trying to stop cars at red lights, cars still passing, no fine, no whistle, no nothing... almost crushed one, but they had 3 spares anyway

[Orton Rd]

No worries, must be their 'karma' at least that is what some Thais and even people on here will tell you, when in fact the causes are no driving test on the roads in real driving situations, total lack of consideration for others or safety concerns for anyone, ignorance or just ignoring the rules, the selfish me first attitude and often downright stupidity. Start with educating in Schools and a real driving test. They fiddle the figures yes I think so.

[rkidlad]

Just today I got the bus home from my local Central to my condo. It’s a 10 min drive down a straight road. Bus driver decided to drive really closely behind a cement mixer. Being behind a cement mixer, you can’t see what’s in front of the cement mixer so he kept slamming on his brakes every time it broke. 

 

It was one of those moments where you’re left completely dumbfounded by a fellow human’s stupidity. It would be funny if people weren’t being injured or killed. 

 

[Stokakrishna]

Nothing new

 What kind of news is that?

[CygnusX1]

Took 3 seconds to find this on the internet, sourced from Queensland University of Technology -

 

“Per distance travelled, the Australian rate of motorcyclist fatalities is approximately 30 times the rate for car occupants. The corresponding rate for a serious injury is approximately 41 times higher.”

 

If Australia had the same proportion of motorcyclists vs car drivers as Thailand, our road toll would be far closer to Thailand’s, despite Australia’s draconian road rules and Thailand’s allegedly incompetent drivers.

 

[geoffbezoz]

9 hours ago, Moonlover said:

 

Agreed. Statistics have consistently verified that the vast majority of deaths are young male motorcyclists. Generally around 80%, and half of them involve alcohol.

 

I did some number crunching awhile back and came to the conclusion that if you were to exclude motorcycle deaths from the stats, the RTA deaths in Thailand would be comparable to France.

That is really an interesting stat. The pressure should be on stopping what we see everyday regarding crazy children, and yes they are children up to the age of 20 under Thai law, recklessly and dangerously riding motor bikes. Now the RTP do next to nothing, in many cases the parents are so under educated they do not comprehend the dangers they are exposing their children to by allowing them to ride and of course all those other parents who show no responsibility at all to what their adolescent offspring are actually doing.

 

How can this be addressed ? No idea in this country but a good start would be to have appropriate law enforcement but in Thailand that is not going to occur any time soon. Education on safe driving is not going to happen as many of these children don't bother to attend school or if they do leave at 15 so how are they going to be educated ? assuming that is they could or want to try and comprehend what is being taught to them. The parents education ? I think we can all see where that would lead. So ultimately the only option will be to let Mother nature take its course in the annual cull and and let the Buddhist followers accept that their children succumbed to  his will. After all, mumbo jumbo takes precedence over safety in Thailand so they should all be happy.