No second chance: Thais in favor of stiffer sentences for DUI - throw repeat offenders in jail says poll

[Surelynot]

Just now, StevieAus said:

Happens in other countries as well saw some figures from the UK a while back although it seems taking drugs and driving has overtaken alcohol.

Apart from moral issues in my book, certainly in Australia you would have to be crazy, apart from the fines and driving ban your insurance is loaded the next year and if you have an accident your insurance is void.

If you kill or seriously injure somebody likely to serve prison time.

Lived in Germany for many years....their laws are pretty draconian......friend of friend was caught......I think it took him about five years of retraining, education, driving tests, sobriety tests to get his license back.

[welshguy]

I was born in 1960...in the U.K.

 

When I had my first car (1980) drink driving was quite common place in lots (probably ALL!) of the U.K.

 

It took a lot of years to educate the public,and lots more police roadside attention etc............ that drink driving was crazy...

 

I fear for this to happen in Thailand (the EDUCATION part especially!) will be nigh on impossible. When money talks, it will be very hard indeed to lessen the needless amount of road deaths. If you can just bribe yourself out of the situation etc

It will all need to begin with Education, children, drivers , motorcyclists ...everybody. Police enforcement is obviously vital indeed......I just pray that something.......  ANYTHING not just forums, conferences, hubs.... blah blah blah......but ANYTHING tangible to actually reducing the number of  totally  preventable deaths.

 

 

Yeah ...and I may win the lottery this weekend too.

[hobobo]

7 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should have flipped the photo to make it more relevant to here . 

Even if it's a right hand drive car, and the hand rather pale, it's most likely still a Thai because farangs don't drink and drive like this - at least not in their own countries 

[apetryxx]

Small part of the overall problem. Drivers in Thailand simply don’t obey traffic rules, any rules at all. No enforcement, faulty vehicle equipment, poorly lit roads, the list is endless. No driver training in schools which should be a requirement for first timers getting a driver license. Graduated stiff fines for violating all manner of moving violations. Good luck with that!

[overt2016]

ENFORCEMENT: Laws exist, but are not enforced.

 

[DUNROAMIN]

never change. no real  police to enforce.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Nearly all the population - 93.96% were in favor of stiffer DUI penalties for repeat offenders.

The problem being that they all think someone else is the offender, never themselves.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, meechai said:

Would be nice if they could at least start with arresting the drunks that have killed & dragged dead police bodies down the street

Looking at you red bull heir Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya ????

They've been doing a lot of looking... but little finding !!!

[tgw]

22 minutes ago, DUNROAMIN said:

never change. no real  police to enforce.

tell that to the grannies that were rounded up for playing Bridge !

[from the home of CC]

8 hours ago, darksidedog said:

It kills countless lives every year, though hopefully people have finally woken up to the fact. Such a cultural shift will take time, but much harsher penalties will definitely speed the process up.

what's really a shame is although foreigners have had this drilled into their heads for years they figure they can come here and offend. imo all 1st time offenders should be jailed and all foreigners deported after offending..

[Khun Paul]

AS well as a court case, inform all Insurance companies and the Govt 3rd party insurers the guilty persons name address and ID number if a Thai, will make that person uninsurable , now that will hurt many people .

[Baggy]

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

That will never happen, enforcement, joke of the year, only enforcement by plod is the enforcement of the brown envelope.

What about the roadside sign "IF YOU DRIVE DRUNK SLOW SOWN"

[Baggy]

2 hours ago, bermondburi said:

I've been caught twice in Thailand, and both times bribed my way out of it. Until that possibility is gone nothing will change really. 

Like many things in Thailand it's saying the right thing outwardly but continuing in the same vein and nothing really changes. 

Larger brown envelopes required.

[digger70]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Nearly all the population - 93.96% were in favor of stiffer DUI penalties for repeat offenders. 

And 87.45% thought those caught a second time should be jailed with no suspension of sentence. 

Wouldn't it be nice if this actually Drinking Fine /Jail Law was applied  . 

There wouldn't be too many people be left driving on the road .  

[from the home of CC]

2 hours ago, Surelynot said:

Been on these threads (sometime ago) and seen people commenting that they regularly DUI........and think nothing of it!!!!!"

I saw them also, imagine bragging about performing one of  the most selfish acts a person can commit - that's the problem with booze, after a while your brain turns to marshmallow..

[harleyclarkey]

The poll goes to show that the cops and Judiciary are way out of line with what their people want. 

Methinks why....perhaps a little "persuasion" in the pocket goes a long way? 

[onthedarkside]

A trolling post has been removed.

 

[Bob12345]

9 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

That would suggest that only 6.04% regularly drink and drive.....yeah, rignt!!!  

No, its probably more that drink and drive, but they don't figure the penalties would also apply to them.

[Surasak]

Strange as it may seem, the archaic alcohol laws are partly to blame for the DUI. If alcohol was available 24/7/365, would possibly drop by 85% or more.

[Artisi]

11 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

That would suggest that only 6.04% regularly drink and drive.....yeah, rignt!!!  

How do you figure that little gem, there is a major difference between sensible drinking of  alcohol and DUI

[HOAX]

That would literally send over half the population and tourists in prison every week.

[chilli42]

Well certainly makes more sense to enforce stricter regulations for DUI than it does to increase speed limits

[jerolamo]

10 hours ago, Surelynot said:

The real effort has to go into education...preventative measures......it is no good throwing someone into jail for 10 years.......and at the same time burying a family of five and saying job done...........'we' need to prevent drink-driving.

I would like it to be true, and sure, it is always good to not just "educate", but better "instruct" (difference is on the ability to have own intelligence enabled).

But there is a history we can not deny. This history is in Thailand from the time (not so long) were drug and prostitution (an pedo criminality) was there. Child had to jump out of the road when go at school (it was unsafe in such part of country, my wife told me stories around), and one day a minister came and fin d a solution who reduce a lot the problem: death penalty.

Every body was happy (not the criminals, for sure) with that.

I think the problem is the alcohol, but not only there... people are thinking they are good to do everything... it is wrong, some of us don't have the ability to drive safety (even if no alcohol). Some of us (humans) trust everything so easy that it is a proof of no ability to be in charge of anything.

It should have a correct selection with who can drive or not.

But, sure if you use to be drunk, you should not be authorized to drive any vehicle on the road. Some of the people drunk have a high school instruction and a nice education too (that they do not follow for any reason)... they are just not serious at all and think about themselves they are the best because of money or what ever brain damage.

[waders123]

Governments tend to bandaid the situation to quickly show the public they are doing their jobs.  One that is popular, for obvious reasons, is roadblock stops.   This type of enforcement is shown to be less effective than using a quality educational campaign to sway the public that the behavior of drinking and driving drunk is not an acceptable behavior.  Educational programs are not an overnight fix.  It takes years to correct/change bad behaviors that are ingrained in a culture.  You start with educating the young; they will help bring their older family members toward a no drive and drinking solution.  Don't reinvent the wheel; look to other countries at how they succeed, (or not), in their drunk driving campaigns.  Take the best part of their experience and modify it to work for Thailand.  I wish them all the best as it isn't easy no matter which way you go.  

[Edwin Cameron]

Good for you Thailand..! start by 'Breathalysing' the Police before they start there shift every day and also show them film footage of some of the drunk driving carnage that has happened on there roads,I think this would have an impact.

[Henryford]

What's the point of stiffer sentences if Thais can just buy their way out of it.

[mikebell]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Calls were made for enforcement from the police

They've rejected these calls every year for the past 17 that I know of.  The police force is a sinecure that entrants pay big bucks to join - you don't expect them to work as well?

[soalbundy]

'say the alphabet backwards starting with Z"......."I can't even do that sober"

[Meat Pie 47]

20 hours ago, chang1 said:

Why waste time with pointless degrading sobriety tests?  In the UK we just get breath tested even with very little evidence of being over the limit. I have been stopped and tested even without having had a single drink,  just driving at night. It takes a couple of minutes and gives a go or no go result. If over the limit you are taken for a more accurate test. This has worked fine for decades.

 

Same in Australia even if you test negative for alcohol

they test you for drugs as well which takes only a few minutes.

[NoshowJones]

On 3/17/2021 at 9:29 AM, Forza2002 said:

Selective enforcement by the police. Criteria is dependent upon who you know and how much money you have in your ATM account...

The unelected "PM" and his soldiers, and even the real elected previous governments have no interest in doing anything about DUIs as it does not affect them, it would take one of the generals, or politicians to lose a much loved family member to a DUI before anything would even start to get done.