Thailand road carnage continues: 12,000 dead this year so far

[LivinLOS]

19 hours ago, Kadilo said:

“While politicians bang on about Covid their compatriots are lying dead in the road in their thousands. “

So much focus on something that predominately kills the very old while with pre existing conditions while over 12,000 perish on the roads. 

of whem 80% are motorcycle riders hence in Thai mindsets poor.. 

[Orinoco]

2 hours ago, HAPPYNUFF said:

Im not sure wether its the inate stupidity   of the average Thai, or their  blind arrogance  that is the cause of so much road carnage.

I think it's a ingrained selfishness that is taught at an early age. the boys are taught they are kings and the little girls are taught to look after the boys, and do as there are told.

By the time the boys have grown up they, answer to no one.

Me first, get out the way, i'm so impotent. and so on.

i think it's the attitude that needs to be fixed first.

and that's up to the mum's and dads of Thailand to do.

Maybe one day they will all grow up.

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Orinoco

[brianthainess]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Him and the government don't seem to have done much about the death of Thais and visitors to the country since - a million of his "phee nong" will die in the next few decades. 

If I was the Transport Minister I would hang my head in shame for not dealing with this appalling situation instead of concentrating on things like airports etc. and resign.

It is such a glaring obvious point that driving tests are a joke with no real road driving training or skills, plus the new points system/fines are just pathetic as are police not doing any road patrols the country is just full of dangerous inconsiderate drivers. A ten minute drive here is like a dogem track.  I could keep ranting on but nothing will ever get done. After 54 yrs of driving i am still free of causing  or being in accidents. 

[brianthainess]

20 hours ago, Willy Wombat said:

The only true hub in Thailand.

And that hub has brake failures regularly.

[chrissables]

18 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

As I said in my post more than 21000 dead from Covid just this year and that's since March.  12k road deaths is from the start of the year.  Unknown the number that died from accidents at the hospital but one can venture to say that it would be when combined with the dead on scene that it would be less over all then Covid so far.

From covid or with covid?

[Jimbo53]

Their bang on schedule!!! 

 

[mikebell]

18 hours ago, worgeordie said:

drivers actually driving on the roads

with  a driving tester, that's something that needs to happen. 

But the tester would be open to bribes; at The Driving Centre Pattaya, officials help examinees with the multiple choice answers for a fee.

[keystonecoppers2]

 

 

                        A simple and easy way to keep safe distance to the vehicle in front

                        of you, is to see him passing a road marker, a sign, a parked car, anything

                        that is not moving, and then count "1001, 1002, 1003," in your mind. That will

                        take about 4 seconds to do (try it). If you pass the marker, the sign or whatever, 

                        before you are finished counting, you are to close. I use it all the time when there 

                        are some vehicle in front of me, and I want to be sure that I have a safe distance

                        and time to hit the brakes, should anything occure.

                        This is the best way to know that YOU have a safe braking distance, 

                        should he/she brake hard for some reason.

                        I recommend all you guys and women out there to try this, and put to practise,

                        it`s an easy way to stay out of trouble (and it will give you a safer feeling,

                        that you are doing your bit to not come into a danger situation).

                        Once you start practise this method, it will soon be an automatic thing to do. 

                        Note: Off course this do not apply to the madman, driving 5 meters behind you,

                        at 80-100 km/h !!!

 

                            Drive safe out there.

                        

[Purdey]

I have no idea what age group die most, but often it is young people on mortorcycles, older in cars or pickup trucks.

I once had a helmet-less 15-year-old on a motorcycle hit my motorcycle at high speed. Went to see his parents and they apologized on his behalf but refused to pay for anything. 

When cycling at Suan Rod Fai at weekends, you see kids of 6-10 with parents who don't even attempt to teach them simple rules. U-turns on the narrow bicycle lane to say look at me mummy and bang into them. Mummy just picks them up and admonishes then to be careful but no serious attempt to explain anything. 

I know there are more motorcycles upcountry but would say age, not income or location, is a major cause of deaths.

[worgeordie]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

But the tester would be open to bribes; at The Driving Centre Pattaya, officials help examinees with the multiple choice answers for a fee.

So do nothing ..... It's crystal clear something needs to be done , 

regards Worgeordie

[Wazoo]

I find it frustrating as an attempt at a solution is readily available.  

We have all seen them glued to the TV watching their white bkk based soaps. They can't stay away.. 

All it takes is what Europe does. Adverts on road safety etc.  If u r from the uk everyone remembers the Green Cross code.. etc.  It would be a good way to drum it home to Thais.  

[Road Warrior]

it  is understandable .one only has to look to see have  drivers perform . mainly motor cycles .total stupid idiots

Thai's will never learn  =,IQ  ????  what is that ???

[SymS]

The WHO estimates around 23,000 deaths related to road accidents in Thailand.
 

Quote

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Thailand had the second highest rate of traffic-incident related fatalities in the world. An estimated 22,941 people die each year due to traffic-related incidents in Thailand, constituting nearly 33% of the country’s total deaths. A majority of these victims are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 29 years

Source: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/74e13296d32f4fe6a73930247a042134

[toofarnorth]

18 hours ago, nchuckle said:

There’s a vaccination to largely prevent deaths from Covid,but unlikely to ever be a vaccination to cure the utter stupidity of so very many Thai drivers. It goes beyond proper road training and enforcement evidenced by some of the mindless manoeuvres they undertake (pun alert) devoid of any common sense pertaining self survival. It may be they’re simply not bright enough to drive… 

Gold Star Sir . Spot on.  Watch them trying to park here at Lotus.  Big space and wife is outside the vehicle waving her arms trying to tell hubby which way to turn the steering wheel. Don't know what it is but see confusion so many times and not just driving. At school we had to learn 12X tables.  Here anything over 10 and they get lost. EG had a coffee and cake a couple of days ago. Coffee 35 B , cake 35 B.  I went to pay, gave the chap 70 B  he then seperated the 70 in to two piles to help him work it out.

[Xonax]

20 hours ago, itsari said:

How on earth do you arrive at the people that die on the roads in Thailand would not vote for the present government ?

I appreciate that 80 percent of the road deaths are motorcycle users . 

So all motorcycle users would not vote for the present government in your opinion?

Obviously that's because the fine for not wearing a mask is significantly higher, than for not wearing a helmet.
 

[Sydebolle]

Once the booze ban is lifted all over the country you can safely assume that the figures will reach previous years' heights again ............ 
As long as you wishy-washy around with the law implementation you will not see any changes. Confiscate the vehicle at a juicy fine of 5'000 Baht and storage fee of another 5'000 Baht for a month in a "lighter" offense, bigger offenses command the destruction of the vehicle when the culprit is present.

Trust me, that would ring in a whole new era ......... 12'000+ deaths on Thailands roads stands for a multiple amount of grieving family members, (heavy) interruption of companies over losing an employee and billions of damage payments by insurance companies. 

Could be avoided but there would have to be an intention to do something about it ......... 

[AgentSmith]

The causes to this high death toll are quite clear. People don't get proper education about how to behave in different traffic situations. When you actually go for a driver license all they give you is a 2 hour display of how horribly wrong things can go but they fail to tell people how to do it right. Nobody at the transport department knows probably.

 

Next to the utter lack of education is the horrible road design. Long, wide and straight roads that basically look like landing strips even in the smallest of towns are the norm. This invites speeding.

 

Third is a matter of mentality. This week some guy on a bike with sidecar approached a small intersection which allows for absolutely no line of sight on all directions until you're right at the stop line. Sane people at least slow down to be sure the road is clear but this guy kept driving at max speed and never bothered to look in any direction except straight ahead. Seconds after he crossed the intersection a large truck came from his left. I see locals like him all the time escaping death on a daily basis.

 

You could say it's all education but I've also lived in Indonesia where education is arguably even worse but there people drive much slower and this kind of reckless behavior is nearly absent. People are constantly warning each other about their presence and where speeding seems to be the rule in Thailand over there they drive rather slow. Consequently the death toll in Indonesia is much lower.

 

Too many Thai become absolute maniacs when they drive a motorized vehicle and I don't see this change anytime soon.

Edited December 12, 2021 by AgentSmith
typo

[NoshowJones]

21 hours ago, TigerandDog said:

Now that the country is allegedly open again, and locals are back travelling, the big thing I noticed when driving from Chiang Mai to my home in Fang was the following:

 

#1.  The large increase in Bangkok number plates and the extremely dangerous, crazies driving those vehicles, in particular those in mercs, bmw's and other high end vehicles. They seem to think because they drive a top of the line vehicle that the road is for them and them alone.

#2.  The selfish mini van road bullies are back in force, speeding, overtaking on blind corners and tail gating the cars in front of them to intimidate them to get out of their way, and not giving a rats about the safety of their passengers or other road users.

Try sitting in the front passenger seat in a minivan and watch all the drivers who are hogging middle and outside lanes, often not at speed, they are more to blame than the minivan drivers.

[NoshowJones]

19 hours ago, Almer said:

All of them

The most important being that common Thai trait, a very sad lack of common sense.

[NoshowJones]

18 hours ago, Surasak said:

Something the Thai politicians should be thoroughly ashamed of, but they never will be. Far too self centred to even consider  anyone else but themselves.

The 'me first' attitude prevails in all circumstances, thus it has been and always will be. Selfishness is not something these people understand, but they practice it 365/24/7

The soldiers in government Thai politicians????

[TigerandDog]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

Try sitting in the front passenger seat in a minivan and watch all the drivers who are hogging middle and outside lanes, often not at speed, they are more to blame than the minivan drivers.

I agree to an extent that they're equally to blame, but I was specifically referring to the drive over the mountains, with single lane each way and hairpin bend after hairpin, where the minivan drivers try to bully their way past. A perfect example of that was the moron that tried overtaking the minivan he was travelling with on a steep downhill hairpin on the Doi Ang Khang road, crashed the van and killed one of the passengers. My personal experience of travelling in minivans has not been pleasant. They all think they're formula 1 drivers, and that the road belongs to them and nobody else. You can be doing 120, they still want to pass you doing anywhere between 160-180. Absolutely no concept of road safety or being responsible for their passengers. Slow vehicles in the wrong lane or not, they are road bullies.

[NoshowJones]

4 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

I agree to an extent that they're equally to blame, but I was specifically referring to the drive over the mountains, with single lane each way and hairpin bend after hairpin, where the minivan drivers try to bully their way past. A perfect example of that was the moron that tried overtaking the minivan he was travelling with on a steep downhill hairpin on the Doi Ang Khang road, crashed the van and killed one of the passengers. My personal experience of travelling in minivans has not been pleasant. They all think they're formula 1 drivers, and that the road belongs to them and nobody else. You can be doing 120, they still want to pass you doing anywhere between 160-180. Absolutely no concept of road safety or being responsible for their passengers. Slow vehicles in the wrong lane or not, they are road bullies.

I understand what you are saying. But I have no experience of traveling in a minivan except going from my village to Bangkok, and that was very regular before the pandemic, and is all highways, I have to say though, that I have never had a problem with any of the drivers or their driving.

[thaibeachlovers]

23 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

well the fact 80% are on motorbikes is an indication of poverty based deaths in my opinion, the poor are not voting for hiso generals are they ? least not the sane ones outside institutions !

 

IMO not so about poverty being why people use m'bikes. IMO it's because the traffic is so bad the best way to get around is on a m'bike. I could have used the car in Chiang Mai but i always rode the m'bike as I could zip through the cars and ride right up to the front of the very long lines of cars at traffic lights.

IMO if someone is actually living in poverty in LOS they ain't able to buy a m'bike. I spent a lot of time in the village and no one I knew there was in poverty.

 

I'm surprised the death toll is so low. Seeing the way they drive I'd expect it to be twice that. I always considered myself lucky to get to the village without a m'bike load of school kids riding out in front of me without looking.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

The most important being that common Thai trait, a very sad lack of common sense.

I don't profess to know if that is true or not, but I'm sure it they were just like us ( as many posters apparently want ) not many of us would want to live in LOS, as it'd be just like a hotter version of the <deleted> place we came from.

[garyk]

As an expat that drove there for years, you learn pretty fast when to travel(drive) and when not to travel. After being in that mess on holidays, No matter where I was I would just rent a room until it was over...

[kingstonkid]

Hey the police want to make money and they want people to wear a helmet.  I have a solution.

It is a win win lose that is awesome.

 

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike and starts to travel 

100 meters down the road

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike and starts to travel 

100 meters down the road

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike looks down the road sees 3 more policeman waiting and smiling

Somchai looks around and sees a shop selling motorcycle helmets for 1500 baht.

At end of shift police divide up their winnings or actually turn the money in with an accounting to the number of people that bought helmets from the Police authorised vendor.

 

 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

So do nothing ..... It's crystal clear something needs to be done , 

regards Worgeordie

Only in the minds of farangs. If the THAIS wanted a change I'm sure they could.

[Thaijack2014]

21 hours ago, Dont confuse me said:

A few years back I took my  12 Yr daughter to a go-kart track.

What I witnessed sums up Thai Road users.

The second the engine was fired up she was off, nothing happening behind the eyes, purely focusing on what's directly in front of her little nose not the slightest idea what was approaching or what was directly to her left or right.

As for slowing down upon her return a Sputnik could have approached slower!

Normality (more or less) returned once she alighted the kart.

Unfortunately  I don't think this attitude to driving will change as she gets older.

I'm sorry, but now you are comparing a 12 year old child that has no driving experience with the grown ups? Don't get me wrong. She did what some Thais do on the road, but SHE has an excuse: 12 years and no driving lessons whatsoever (I presume). She can still learn, go to a driving school and by the time she can drive on the road, does it better. Those Thais on the roads had their chances to learn to drive, but for many Thais being able to move the car, they think they can drive. In the Netherlands and in Germany, you have to follow many lessons before the teacher says that you can do the test. But by that time, you not only know how to handle the car, but also all the rules you have to obay.

Your 12 year old daughter didn't have it. But most Thais who have the proper age had their chance to learn everything around driving, but are often tought wrong.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, kingstonkid said:

Hey the police want to make money and they want people to wear a helmet.  I have a solution.

It is a win win lose that is awesome.

 

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike and starts to travel 

100 meters down the road

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike and starts to travel 

100 meters down the road

Somchai gets pulled over for not wearing a helmet.

Policeman says ok Somchai no helmet 500 baht.  

Somchai says ok and pays 500 baht gets on motorbike looks down the road sees 3 more policeman waiting and smiling

Somchai looks around and sees a shop selling motorcycle helmets for 1500 baht.

At end of shift police divide up their winnings or actually turn the money in with an accounting to the number of people that bought helmets from the Police authorised vendor.

 

 

 

 

555555555555555555

In Lamphun every morning there was a helmet stop by Big C. Those that knew ( most of them ) wore a helmet to the stop and took it off once through.

 

BTW, your plan would require more cops than they had available. Do you think they have nothing to do except stand along the road waiting to mess up their fellow citizens?

[kingstonkid]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

555555555555555555

In Lamphun every morning there was a helmet stop by Big C. Those that knew ( most of them ) wore a helmet to the stop and took it off once through.

 

BTW, your plan would require more cops than they had available. Do you think they have nothing to do except stand along the road waiting to mess up their fellow citizens?

Not really they mostly seem to be sitting around and when they set up a checkpoint there are enough of them at the check point that they could spread out LOL

 

I agree there are ways to avoid it or make it simple but while it may seem like a legit system it was stated in jest.

 

The true way I would suggest they do it is the old tried and true way no helmet thank you for your bike go buy a helmet and come back with the sales receipt and wearing your helmet and we will let yo go.  If not then we will hoveae bike at our compound.