Thailand’s new 120km/h speed limit starts but 25,000 still killed on the roads annually

[webfact]

Picture: 77kaoded

 

It was a surreal occasion straight out of the Amazing Thailand playbook.

 

A razzamatazz occasion to "kick-off" the start of the new 120 kmph speed limit on some of Thailand's roads.

 

Transport minister Saksayam Chidchob said ever since he had got his ministerial post it had been his dream to raise the speed limit. 

 

Everybody who is anybody from the ministry to the highways department, to rural roads chiefs to the governor of Ayutthaya was there to celebrate the occasion with a huge vinyl board that looked like a dashboard. 

 

Conspicuous by their absence however were any road safety activists.

 

Picture: 77kaoded

 

For the truth about Thailand is that the carnage on the roads is a national disgrace with even DPM Prawit admitting 20,000 die annually. Other more accurate assessments put the death toll at 24,000 to 26,000 yearly.

 

Every day at the scene deaths run on average between 60-70 deaths. Many more die in hospitals. 

 

Critics say introducing more speed will just mean more accidents and concentrating on raising the limit sends out the wrong message. 

 

A message that is constantly reinforced in Thai TV ads showing motorcycles and pick-ups glamorously racing about.

 

But yesterday it was all about the sound bites, all about the show as the transport minister pressed the button to start the new era. 

 

Saksayam claimed that it was all about safety.

 

His new highway speed limit - on a stretch of Asia Highway route 32 from Bang Pa-In to the elevated road at Ang Thong - is chock a block full of safety features, he maintained.

 

His plan only applies to four lane and up roads with central dividers and include what 77kaoded said were concrete barrier (sic), no road level U-turns and things like plenty of rumble strips.

 

"Ever since I became transport minister I wanted to raise the speed limit on certain roads from 90 to 120 kmph," he said. 

 

"Today marks that success". 

 

He called his new stretch of road "high safety" and said that with the help of the highways department Thai roads would be getting safer and safer. 

 

Hundreds of more kilometers of 120 kmph roads would come in in August in the central, north, north-east and south.

 

And other projects will add 1,760 kms of high speed roads from December. 

 

Everyone called it D-Day.

 

Critics and road safety activists, while welcoming the safety features, are likely to be pointing at other much needed priorities on the Thai roads.

 

Law enforcement, helmet wearing, raising driving standards, making it compulsory to learn to drive instead of just buying a licence and the like.

 

Activists have presented detailed accident reduction ideas to the Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha in recent weeks after seminars calling for an end to the carnage on the nations' roads.

 

They might see D-Day April 1st as meaning Death Day - a day when their legitimate concerns just get more lip service. 

 

But for now the minister and his entourages had their day in the limelight on stage. 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-04-02

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[PatOngo]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

It was a surreal occasion straight out of the Amazing Thailand playbook.

Who would expect less? ????

[YetAnother]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

It was a surreal occasion straight out of the Amazing Thailand playbook

entertaining thailand; prototype bad governance

[4MyEgo]

One would think math would be an easy subject, like adding (+) gives you a higher number. That said I would assume putting a plus (+) to an already fixed speed limit will also increase those quoted annual death figures, but then again, maybe math wasn't a subject they did well in ?

 

I am missing something ?

[bluesofa]

I assume the "Kick Off 120" (with 'km/hr' printed smaller) refers to the number of deaths per day in road accidents?

[Thaiwrath]

40 minutes ago, webfact said:

But yesterday it was all about the sound bites, all about the show

"all about the show"

That sums up this government, and nearly all the thoughts and ideas they come up with.

[Shuya]

Being only number 2 in the world ranking of road deaths in not enough... Have to be number 1!

[brucegoniners]

Quite frankly I don't know how this help the horrible road safety issue in this country.

 

Why in the world would you increase the speed limit when the roads here are a killing fields?

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter how fast you go, if you run red lights, if you cut people off, if motorbike riders don't wear helmets or if you rid the wrong way on a one way road (especially true with motorbikes). There is absolutely no enforcement (at least here in Pattaya).

 

This place is like the Wild Wild West!

[SGD]

Can the Thai brain cope with 120kph because it doesn't seem able to cope with 110kph now.

[Ralf001]

Drivers on the  7 motorway this morning must not have got the memo, they were travelling at 100km/h.

[jaiyen]

With no foreign tourists in the country to help with the figures, less mini vans, less buses, less drunken drivers, they still manage to increase the death toll !  

[Bangkok Barry]

Pretty stupid headline to link the two. What does the headline writer expect - an instant reduction in annual numbers from a rule that started yesterday?

[Tropposurfer]

Further governmental insanity ... 120 Good Gods ! Most can't manage a reasonable bend in a local road without almost stopping or near running off the road at 40kmh.

[Ramdas]

It sounds like that these people completely ignore what it takes to educate and discipline Thais to drive/ ride in a safe manner. Needless to say it will take generations before they realise how to implement safety traffic rules and regulations like having police doing there job on the roads stopping outlaws Thais driving recklessly !

Increasing the speed limit is just a perfect formula for a continued disaster on the roads ????????‍♂️

[Yorkshire Tea]

My god, you guys over react!  We're taking about a stretch of multi-lane hwy with u-turns blocked off.  Most people drive 100 to 120+ already.  I'd be more scared trying to keep below the old limit of 90kph on that section.  At least, now, I can drive at a comfortable speed without having to watch out for speed cameras.

[rudi49jr]

I think 25,000 killed annually in traffic is a very conservative estimate, the real number is probably quite a bit higher. 

[kevc]

Great now you can legally drive six foot behind me at 120 kph.

[connda]

I've been noticing that on Highway 11 between Lampang and Lamphun.
A significant number of vehicles are now traveling at 120 to 140 easily.  I do the speed limit and often feel the vacuum bump as they pass before I see them.  The number has increase very recently.  Some people used to drive very fast, usually from Bangkok.  But the numbers have increased recently and their from everywhere now.  No doubt the locals celebrating the new 120 speed limit lauded by Thai MP and ministers. 
"It make Thai road more safe."  <rotflmbo>
Sure it does Somchai, sure it does.

[connda]

1 hour ago, Yorkshire Tea said:

My god, you guys over react!  We're taking about a stretch of multi-lane hwy with u-turns blocked off. 

Average Thais are now applying that to all highways including two lane carriage-ways with U-turns. 

[connda]

4 hours ago, SGD said:

Can the Thai brain cope with 120kph because it doesn't seem able to cope with 110kph now.

Can't cope with the concept of yielding; can't cope with the concept if merging; can't cope with the concept of reading the traffic 100 to 500 meters in front of them (no less 500 to 1 km ahead); can't accelerate and get up to the speed of the flow of traffic in a timely manner; can't slow down once traveling in excess of the speed limit; can't cope maintaining a lane;  can't cope in corners and just straighten out the road by driving from shoulder to shoulder.  Just - can't cope. 
Most don't have the most rudimentary driving skills to be behind the wheel at moderate speeds no less 120 (which means 140 or 160+).

[connda]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Law enforcement, helmet wearing, raising driving standards, making it compulsory to learn to drive instead of just buying a licence and the like.

So much flatulence emitted from officialdom.  So little action. 
Well unless you mean the pre-license renewal video that everyone promised they watched at home.  Khun farang was the only watcher the day of his renewal.  Video takeaway: 
1. Don't spit.
2. Don't throw banana out the door. 
3. Don't rev your motor like an idiot when starting your car.
4. When pulling from the curb, accelerate sloooowly instead of in a timely manner to get up to the speed on traffic. 
5. If Khun Aggressive cuts you off?  Bow your head and raise your hand to your head in deference so that he Khun Aggressive doesn't stop, force your car over and beat the tar out of you. 
Maybe there was more but they cut the video short because they had already processed all the Thais and video-watching farang was the only person left in the office.
<Farting noise; Slide whistle; Cymbal crash; Canned laughter>

[connda]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

And other projects will add 1,760 kms of high speed roads from December. 

Oh please!  No!!!  <slide whistle: breaking glass; canned laughter>

[thequietman]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Everyone called it D-Day.

D is for Death. ????

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, Yorkshire Tea said:

My god, you guys over react!  We're taking about a stretch of multi-lane hwy with u-turns blocked off.  Most people drive 100 to 120+ already.  I'd be more scared trying to keep below the old limit of 90kph on that section.  At least, now, I can drive at a comfortable speed without having to watch out for speed cameras.

 

Nailed it.

Baffles me why so many are getting their knickers in a twist over this .................Bored living in Mums basement is my guess.

[tgw]

2 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Nailed it.

Baffles me why so many are getting their knickers in a twist over this .................Bored living in Mums basement is my guess.

 

maybe "hat people"

[Road Warrior]

D day = more deaths !!  thai brains now in overdrive to kill each other . a great move on increase speeding 

[ratchaburi]

On 4/2/2021 at 3:42 PM, SGD said:

Can the Thai brain cope with 120kph because it doesn't seem able to cope with 110kph now.

Do you drive in this Country as the speed limit is 90 kph not 110kph

Also the Chonburi motorway has been 120kph, for the 20 year that I have been in Thailand.

The only people winging are the one s that don't drive or can not drive.