Thailand ranked 2nd in road fatalities in the world??

[Onrai]

WHO (World Health Organization) ranks Thailand only behind Libya in road fatalities. Does anyone else find this statistic questionable? I have ridden motorcycles (motorcycles account for 75% of road fatalities in Thailand) in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and India. 

Personally I rank India (Rajasthan) as most difficult and dangerous followed by Vietnam. You’d have to be certified to ride in Hanoi. The shear volume of motorcycle traffic through out Vietnam is way out of proportion with any other SE Asia country. 

Thailand relative to India and Vietnam seems safer to me. Any comments?

[dabhand]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

 

The wiki article on road deaths by country provides an interesting comparison between 'road fatalities per  100,000 inhabitants' and 'road fatalities per 100,000 vehicles'.

 

In the first listing Thailand does indeed rate highly and, as you note, approx 75% are motorbike related. The wiki article has Liberia at the top of this list, rather than Libya which also features high on the list (Likely to be a timing issue). I worked in Liberia for a year back around 1979/80 and can certainly confirm the dangers of driving in that country. I also worked for a number of years in Saudi/India/Egypt/Ghana and would also, from personal experience, rate Thailand as  safer than those countries. 

 

Whereas, looking at the second listing, Thailand barely features in the top 100. Their rating is 60/100,000 vehicles as compared to many counties, mainly African, with rates of well over 1,000/100,000 vehicles.

 

Of course there are many factors to be considered when comparing such stats, vehicle type / road conditions / traffic law enforcement, etc. But, when looking at the countries  above Thailand in the second listing, I know where I would prefer to be driving........

[Kwasaki]

9 hours ago, Onrai said:

WHO (World Health Organization) ranks Thailand only behind Libya in road fatalities. Does anyone else find this statistic questionable?

Off course it's questionable, like all data it's just down to numbers, my synopsis is if you live in any high populated area in Thailand accident figures high, if you live where I live in Thailand figures very low.

That said lot of kids here die on motorcycles, so sad and preventable but nothing is done. 

[Kinnock]

Agree about driving and riding standards in India - I had a Bullet 350 when I lived in India, and was sure other road users were trying to kill me.  When riding in Thailand I feel its just lack of attention rather than homicide.

 

But India has millions of people who cannot afford a car or motorcycle, so this dilutes a per capita figure.

[IAMHERE]

Well, there are really two different statistics to be concerned with. I'm guessing WE don't have to worry about the number of rich & powerful that die on the roads. Know what I'm saying?

[Captain 776]

They say......65 a day die in road accidents here and 85% of that number are on motorcycles.

 

I consider myself very lucky to have ridden here 14 yrs without a scratch........well until Oct 26 2018 when that 59 y o lady pulled out of the Soi right in front of me when I was only 7 meters away.........no time to react.

Needed complete shoulder replacement after that.

Once bike was fixed, I gave it to my wife’s friend and hung up my helmet........forever.

[phantomfiddler]

And they don,t even count the ones who die an hour later in hospital, just those dead at the scene, who,s inclusion would probably earn them the Number One place ????

[The Theory]

There must be a mistake !!!! ????

we are #1 ????

[rickudon]

I used to work in Libya. That is why I didn't find driving in Thailand too scary. I wouldn't ride a motorbike though.

 

I do find many Thai drivers do not care about the highway code (I doubt most have ever read it) and motorbike riders in particular are very careless, probably accounting for 90% of the near misses. You do need to drive defensively, and slower than your home country when in traffic.

 

9 years without an accident, touch wood.

[Kerryd]

I would say the numbers are probably fairly accurate, especially as they seem to stay about the same year after year and not based just on the WHO's numbers. For years Thailand has appeared as #1 or #2 in accidents and/or fatalities (per capita).

Remember that these numbers are (normally) calculated based on "per capita" estimates. Obviously there are probably more fatalities in a country like India, which has what, 15 times the population of Thailand (roughly).

However, when they break it down to "number of accidents (or fatalities) per 100,000 population", it shows a more realistic comparison of how many people die (on average) in each country.

For example. Canada has just over half as many people as Thailand (Can - 35 mil approx, Thai - 65 mil approx). Stats from 2016 show 1,898 Canadians died from road accidents for an average of about 5.2 per day. Per capita that works out to 5.4 fatalities per 100,000 population annually.

Thailand averages around 60(+) deaths PER DAY. 
That works out to something like 33.7 fatalities per 100,000 population annually, just from traffic accidents.
(Looking at the numbers in the Wiki entry that Dabhand linked, they show Canada at 5.8 fatalities per 100,000 population and Thailand at 32.7. Their data is probably more accurate - and more recent - than the numbers I used.)

Keep in mind as well that not all countries will report their stats honestly - or accurately - either. Also remember that in places like Canada, you are more likely to survive an accident - for a variety of reasons - than you would in some other countries. Things like better adherence to the rules (seatbelts, speed, drinking, etc), better emergency response to an accident, better quality of emergency personnel and equipment and so on. 

Get into a serious accident in Canada and the EMTs will usually prep you for transport (in a well equipped ambulance) as though you have possible spinal injuries, just to be safe.

Get into a serious accident in Thailand and you will probably be picked up by 2-3 people, tossed into the back of a pick-up and driven to the nearest hospital who may then put you on a guerny and send you to another hospital where someone may (finally) actually think to check if you have any possible spinal injuries (assuming you are still alive at that point).

Places like Liberia and Nigeria probably have much higher rates of fatalities however I'd suspect that a large percentage don't get "officially" reported - more from inefficiency and incompetence than from a deliberate attempt to skew the data. 

(In more than a few 3rd world countries, by the time the police/emergency crews show up at an accident - assuming they show up at all - it's already been cleared and the injured/dead already transported to the hospital/morgue/temple/wherever. Especially in the more "rural" parts of the country.)

If anything, I'm surprised that the numbers for Thailand aren't worse.

Much worse.
 

[emptypockets]

3 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

And they don,t even count the ones who die an hour later in hospital, just those dead at the scene, who,s inclusion would probably earn them the Number One place ????

I've seen many time where this is said. I have also seen reports from officials where they say the number of people who die from injuries later are added to the overall number.

 

What is missing from all the statistics is the distance travelled per passenger. It should be collated like the airline industry per passenger mile/kilometer travelled. A single vehicle accident can leave 7 or  8 dead in Thailand and only one in another country. So for one accident you have 7 or 8 times the per passenger distance travelled which skews the statistics when this is not taken into account. Same with motorbikes.

Thailand has a very high proportion of people using the roads whether licensed or not or underage or not which means more people are travelling, per person, a lot more distance than in, say, some European countries.

Discount the motorbike fatalities in Thailand and compare like with like for cars in other countries. I've never bothered to do it but would be interested in the result if anybody knows it.

It won't change the overall outcome but might calm some people down when they realise it is probably no more dangerous to drive a car in Thailand than many other places.

[MadMuhammad]

5 hours ago, Captain 776 said:

They say......65 a day die in road accidents here and 85% of that number are on motorcycles.

 

I consider myself very lucky to have ridden here 14 yrs without a scratch........well until Oct 26 2018 when that 59 y o lady pulled out of the Soi right in front of me when I was only 7 meters away.........no time to react.

Needed complete shoulder replacement after that.

Once bike was fixed, I gave it to my wife’s friend and hung up my helmet........forever.

No sense of adventure mate! ????

[stevenl]

5 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

And they don,t even count the ones who die an hour later in hospital, just those dead at the scene, who,s inclusion would probably earn them the Number One place ????

This has been refuted many, many times already.

 

Not true.

[emptypockets]

4 hours ago, stevenl said:

This has been refuted many, many times already.

 

Not true.

But don't let old bar stool warriors feel uninformed. Gee...gotta have something to whine about as they get <deleted> in the side sois of Pattaya and ride their motorcy home.  Most likely the first one they have owned or ridden.

Not hard to go from stud to paraplegic pretty quickly....any where in the world if you are stupid. Luck isn't a factor for a real motorcyclist.