Thailand road carnage: A big problem that is only getting worse

[earlinclaifornia]

I have noticed and feel concerned about risks taken by the motorcycle food delivery services. This likely will increase the death rate. Management needs to take control and own the problem and enact solutions.

[mike787]

No problem at all.  WHY?  Because nobody will do anything about it.  WHY?  DO NOT CARE!  Problem...what problem, it's fixed, just mow people down.  

[Airbagwill]

On 11/13/2019 at 2:42 PM, dcnx said:

Regarding helmets...

 

Yes, it’s the smart thing to do. It greatly increases your chances of survival.

 

Now let’s look at the other things besides wearing a helmet that the majority of Thais do:

 

- Drive under the influence

- Drive with little or no sleep

- Drive at dangerously high speeds 

- Overtaking around blind corners 

- Overtaking where you shouldn’t overtake 

- Drive the wrong way on a road

- Drive with no lights on at night 

- Run red lights 

- Jump green lights

- No looking at intersections

- Pulling into traffic without looking 

- Dangerous U-turns 

- Putting entire family on a bike 

- Using phone while driving 

- Parking in the road 

- Passing on the right at a right turn intersection 

- Believing in fate while driving 

- Not getting a driver education

- Not having license

- Lack of vehicle maintenance  

 

The list goes on and on. All of these things greatly increase the chance of an accident and almost every Thai on wheels does them all, every day.

 

And then the biggest problem of all is ZERO law enforcement.

 

Its going to take generations before they even have a fighting chance of getting better. The government will fudge the reports long before they actually stop doing all of the ignorant things they do, and am wearing a helmet isn’t going to chance much.

this shows a complete lack of understanding of road safety.

It is not just about wheeling out personal observations of bad driving - in fact - Ove 90% of accidents are not caused this way, they are caused by minor human error.

It completely ignores the whole scenario which is that the authorities need to rethink ROAD SAFETY (not "bad driving") from the ground up. The longer they take to realise this the less likely it is to happen s the cost goes up.

however it is worth bearing in mind that It is estimated that crashes and deaths cost the country about 500 billion baht, or about 3%, of gross domestic product a year. This is of course completely overlooked by many contributors to threads like this who simply concentrate on road deaths and not collisions and the 2 grades of injury. Stats that Thailand consistently fails to produce.

[metisdead]

Off topic trolling posts and the replies have been removed. 

[Airbagwill]

If Thailand is to tackle their road safety problem then it must address ALL of the following issues - omission of any results in the collapse of the whole.

 

1. Education, educate the driver - this doesn't just mean a driving test - that would only address new drivers anyway. TYHere needs to be an extensive public awareness campaign to bring about a sea-change in public attitudes to "accepted" driving practices.
2. Enforcement, regulate the driver - It's no good inventing laws without a system to support them. This means roads constructed, marked and signed to a uniform set of standard, a police force trained in traffic safety, a system of laws that has na admin and court system to enforce and follow up.
3. Engineering, aid or take over from the driver. This involves 2 aspects.

a - vehicles - vehicles sold in Thailand need to have a higher road safety spec. Older vehicles need to be proven to be road worthy. Many vehicles used on Thai roads are inherently unsafe with poor CoG characteristics and crash performance - they lack both active and passive safety features.

 

b - the roads themselves need to be redesigned and upgraded - Thailand only has about 200 km of real motorways the rest are just wide flat, cheap speedways with little or no thought to damage mitigation. Local roads and blackspot need re-engineering. Junctions often are dangerously sited or have obscured visibility

Markings on Thai roads are inconsistent, invisible in poor light and poor weather and usually actually positioned incorrectly.

 

4 - Evaluation - The authorities need to take ALL road users into account, particularly vulnerable users such as pedestrians and pedal cyclists. ..and in Thailand especially motorcyclists - drivers and passengers. This involves proper scientific investigation analysis and reporting of EVERY accident - injuries being classified as minor, serious and fatal. the findings are than made part of a national data-base. From this recommendations  can be made to implement new design and construction. 

 

5 - Emergency - Getting to the incident and back top the hospital quickly. Thailand has no centralised emergency service. It isn'r even equipped with standardised vehicles or trained personnel. In the case of injury, getting medical care quickly can be a matter of life or death - even in the case of apparently minor injuries when shock can set in.  There is currently no way of telling how many thousands of people may have fallen foul of this lamentable situation

[Airbagwill]

categories of stats for Road safety

 

Deaths/injuries per billion miles travelled

Deaths/injuries per km travelled per person

Deaths/injuries per 100k population

Deaths/injuries per 100 k vehicles

Deaths/injuries per miles of road

Type of road

type of vehicle

Deaths/injuries vehicle ownership per capita

Number of reported collisions.

 

Only by looking at a wide range of stats can you get a realistic picture of what is going on in road safety.

Thailand does not collect, collate or provide even a partial mount of this

 

[ivor bigun]

I dont think anything will change ,its just the Thai mindset ,you can take a horse to water ,but you cant make it drink .,yesterday i had to slam on the brakes ,as a guy pulled out of a sideroad a few feet in front of me ,he just gave me a blank look as if i was to blame , you cant heal stupid .

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, Airbagwill said:

this shows a complete lack of understanding of road safety.

It is not just about wheeling out personal observations of bad driving - in fact - Ove 90% of accidents are not caused this way, they are caused by minor human error.

It completely ignores the whole scenario which is that the authorities need to rethink ROAD SAFETY (not "bad driving") from the ground up. The longer they take to realise this the less likely it is to happen s the cost goes up.

however it is worth bearing in mind that It is estimated that crashes and deaths cost the country about 500 billion baht, or about 3%, of gross domestic product a year. This is of course completely overlooked by many contributors to threads like this who simply concentrate on road deaths and not collisions and the 2 grades of injury. Stats that Thailand consistently fails to produce.

Do you really believe that the many deaths in Thailand due to DUI is a simple human error? 

Now that is really a lack of understanding. 

[Airbagwill]

6 hours ago, Artisi said:

Do you really believe that the many deaths in Thailand due to DUI is a simple human error? 

Now that is really a lack of understanding. 

Not just me, it is the belief if every statistician and scientist involved in road safety.

Of course you need to understand what "human error" is abd the environment 8n which it occurs and the subsequent actions and reactions.

 

It it furthermore a lack of this self realisation that makes drivers as more at rusk of having or causing an accident themselves, as they drive around the under the illusion that "accidents" happen to other "bad drivers" but not themselves.

They are often in for a nasty shock.

.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Airbagwill

[Airbagwill]

7 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

I dont think anything will change ,its just the Thai mindset ,you can take a horse to water ,but you cant make it drink .,yesterday i had to slam on the brakes ,as a guy pulled out of a sideroad a few feet in front of me ,he just gave me a blank look as if i was to blame , you cant heal stupid .

In Thailand the rules of the road state the priority is on the left. Your man had right of way! 

The exceptions are where the priority of has been chnged by law and sign  or by "a competent police officer".

Also on roundabouts the priority switches to the right.