Every comment here has more valid and achievable ideas to reduce road death than the officials have.  How stupid are they to overlook the obvious.  Where are the <deleted> police during the  day?  We all know they are doing night stops to catch the drinkers and fill up the tea money cup but during the day where are the 200,000+ Thai police and what are they actually doing?  And the head idiots bring in the underling idiots to mull over the same thing with no actionable plan as a result.  Is this just for the publicity of it?  What happened to the joint venture between Thailand and WHO to tackle the same problem?  No word on that effort.  It would seem to me that if they really wanted to solve the problem they would invite people from civilized countries to discuss how these countries manage their highways...at least for ideas.  To me, the daytimes here in Udon are pretty much self-policed and the only 'control' is the one we put on ourselves...the driving public.  If the police do not catch, ticket, fine, and track repeat offenders with increasing penalites leading to the suspension of the right to drive or jail time, the problems will never be solved or controlled because self-policing does not work for those who do not follow common sense much less driving laws currently in place. This is one think I love to hate about Thailand.

On 3/1/2021 at 4:13 PM, Kwasaki said:

Oh dear another long thread. ????

 

Just doing my bit, and I know no one will ever read my post.

On 3/1/2021 at 3:07 PM, darksidedog said:

There never are and never have been.

If the cops, whose duty it is to uphold the law could get out there and actually stop every speeding driver and red light runner they might start to get somewhere. All the meaningless chat in the world will do absolutely zero, but it is all I have ever seen in my many years here. Sadly I suspect the 2022 and 2027 numbers will remain fairly in line with what we see now.

 

I honestly think there are good cops out there that want to do better but they're failed by the system.

On 3/5/2021 at 1:33 PM, Artisi said:

Does having a licence ensure they won't still kill themselves thru' stupidity?

No mae it does not. There are still plenty of other root cause problems but like I said it would be a start. If someone has no licence you can bet your life that they have never looked at the road code, have never had a lesson, and ave no awareness of road safety.

You can announce all the targets you want - and they have announced quite a few targets over the course of many years - but they will never be reached until the police start doing their actual job, i.e. enforcing the law.

1 hour ago, FunkyDunky58 said:

No mae it does not. There are still plenty of other root cause problems but like I said it would be a start. If someone has no licence you can bet your life that they have never looked at the road code, have never had a lesson, and ave no awareness of road safety.

That seems to cover a vast number of riders/drivers with or without a licence. 

On 3/2/2021 at 6:52 AM, eddie61 said:

How extraordinarily talented these people are! Imagine that! Setting targets.....

 

Then, amble back from setting targets, and have a few practice shots... maybe.. but I’m sure a good lunch was had by all.

Thailand Road Carnage: Targets announced for the reduction in road death toll.

Perhaps they can get military snipers set up and target the crazy pickup truck drivers.  Take out the driver when he's stopped at a traffic light or buying a beer.

 

Just now, Damrongsak said:

Thailand Road Carnage: Targets announced for the reduction in road death toll.

Perhaps they can get military snipers set up and target the crazy pickup truck drivers.  Take out the driver when he's stopped at a traffic light or buying a beer.  The 12 people in back will soon learn to duck if they shoot through the back window.

 

 

I don't usually comment on driving in Thailand articles or posts and this is my first and probably last, usually you can cut and paste comments going years back and they still say pretty much the same thing.  My driving experience in Thailand is rural and mid sized cities in an automobile.  I drive in Bangkok when I have to, its a tough place if you don't know it. I think the majority of drivers here are ok but bad ones are deadly.  Rural driving you see all kinds of stuff, its almost like a video game driving some days but you only have one life.  Recent example putting things in my truck from the local store and a car backed out and ran over the end of my shoe missing my scrunched toes. Shut the door and a car zoomed into the spot vacated and just missed me.  Pulled out to go to the noodle shop for lunch about a 100 meters down the road in the middle of a small town, immediately turned on my signal to make a right turn and as I was turning a man in a truck tried to pass. Barely missed him as he blew through the red light and passed on a double line.  He pulled off and got angry but he backed off, me non confrontational. Wife said lets go home, too many stupid people out today.

 

Three E's and one I which in not all encompassing just IMO the major things that need to be done.  

 

ENGINEERING- cut out the U turns on major highways, make overpasses and modernize highways which is being done in a lot of areas I drive in. Make correct road markings for passing.  No slotted lines over hilltops(not that anyone would heed anyway). Warning signs when lanes merge. Correct road markings.  On Mittraphap Road three lanes suddenly merge into two at multiple points, with no warning.   Around BKK markings are pretty good IMO.  Engineering can take the death toll down but without the other E's doesn't make much difference.  Most folks who drive defensively can overcome most situations.  In rural areas slow down if you see tree branches in the road which means there is a problem ahead, better that than finding a broke down truck in the road.

 

EDUCATION-Teach kids in school about how to ride and maintain a motorcycle (some schools do)  Have a serious driving test for automobiles/motorcycles.  Teach kids early about driving and the hazards.  Have a drivers education certificate to get a license.  Establish a culture of defensive driving. Don't stop your truck in the middle of a curve to take a <deleted>. 

 

ENFORCEMENT-  A joke.  You can make all the laws you want but if there is no enforcement its moot. Just like your children if you have them you can make all the rules in the world but if there are no consequences it has no effect.  In 11 years the only enforcement I have seen in my area is roadblock checks in front of two local police outposts.  Other than that never seen police

 

Be safe all.

The should 'lock down' the roads since deaths there are a many multiple of deaths by virus.

I refuse to drive here, I let the Mrs take all the stress from it. She often says the soi dogs have more common sense when it comes to being on the road than a lot of Thai drivers. ????

Saw a funny the other day. A cop on a motorbike amongst a group of people on motorbikes waiting for the lights to change Guess what? He was the only one wearing a helmet lol and he did nothing 

On 3/1/2021 at 2:57 PM, Dmaxdan said:

Just as well. Thais crash into enough concrete things already...

Or drive into ditches they dug and work stopped then.... got an unmarked death trap near my place.

How can they reduce it when  the authorities ++  drive the same as the rest of  them  ..dangerous.. they no nothing at all about  the highway code or even if one exisits, more meetings more time & money wasted

Thailand the hub of targets

The government have set themselves a massive task here and I am fairly certain these targets wil be forgotten about quite soon.  

 

Thailand already have laws to protect drivers but they are not enforced.  It would be impossible try and enforce all the laws together so they should focus on enforcing them one-by-one. 

 

I think they should start with enforcing minimum age law for motorcyclists.  A 10 year old boy, who was a friend of my wife's son, died last week.  No helmet worn (obviously)  and the driver who hit him never stopped to check (obviously).

 

 

Simple. Get the cops out of their aircon rooms and start patrolling the soi's, streets and highways. And then, stop and cite those in violation.