The carnage continues on the Thai roads: 75 deaths on Monday including Swiss tourist in Phuket

[webfact]

Picture: Daily News

 

Daily News reported that 75 "sops" (the Thai word for corpses) were dead at the scene of road accidents on Monday.

 

As part of their advice to motorists in an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of road safety they called for less speed to save lives.

 

Their highlighted accident was a collision between an SUV driven by Somchai, 44, that appeared to be a taxi and a Yamaha N-Max motorcycle driven by a 57 year old Swiss tourist. 

 

Mr Francioli died in hospital.

 

The media's infographic listed 38 dead Monday.

 

Graphic: Daily News

 

Their figures didn't add up as they said 527 had died at the scene this month so far yet ASEAN NOW counted the number as 554. 

 

In 2019 14,907 died at the scene, in 2020 14,825. 

 

So far this year the number is 12,364 which compares to 13,843 in the same period last year.

 

The actual death toll from fatalities at the scene and later in hospital is thought to be at least 20,000 and maybe as high as 25,000.

 

A million people a year are thought to be injured in road accidents in Thailand.

 

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Graphic: Daily News

[ThailandRyan]

Life on the roads is a crapshoot.  Yesterday returning from Suvarnabhumi Airport, I watched as cars drove on the shoulders where they are not supposed to, and right by the RTP cops sitting at the gore points.  Then after stopping for the Red light as I prepared to exit at Rama 4 Rd, I watched as over 100 motorbikes queued in the roadway in front of the red light they were supposed to be behind, again right in front of the RTP traffic box.  As my light turned green to go right and as we all, the many cars behind me, proceeded to turn right, the motorbikes all took off going straight from our left and into an around all of the turning vehicles, who had the right of way.  Just to my left I watched as one of the motorbikes hit the side of a Mercedes and as he went down was hit by more bikes and the pile up began.  What a cluster.  If the flicking police would do their jobs we would not have such kaos, and if the drivers and riders would obey the traffic laws we would not have the needles accidents and deaths.

[Gandtee]

38 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Life on the roads is a crapshoot.  Yesterday returning from Suvarnabhumi Airport, I watched as cars drove on the shoulders where they are not supposed to, and right by the RTP cops sitting at the gore points.  Then after stopping for the Red light as I prepared to exit at Rama 4 Rd, I watched as over 100 motorbikes queued in the roadway in front of the red light they were supposed to be behind, again right in front of the RTP traffic box.  As my light turned green to go right and as we all, the many cars behind me, proceeded to turn right, the motorbikes all took off going straight from our left and into an around all of the turning vehicles, who had the right of way.  Just to my left I watched as one of the motorbikes hit the side of a Mercedes and as he went down was hit by more bikes and the pile up began.  What a cluster.  If the flicking police would do their jobs we would not have such kaos, and if the drivers and riders would obey the traffic laws we would not have the needles accidents and deaths.

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.????

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.????

Yep scattered cremated remains blowing in the wind sadly.....

[yeahbutif]

Do we have any policeman who read these forums ? Or can reply as to why this is happening?  So why why Why 

[bluemoon58]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

As part of their advice to motorists in an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of road safety they called for less speed to save lives.

What a load of cr*p! Proper driver training and making the police actually do their jobs of enforcing the law, instead of dreaming about where the next backhander is coming from, that would help save lives. 

[RichardColeman]

Only difference between Thailand's road traffic and the Wacky Races is nobody died in the Wacky Races !

[uktony]

UK, similar population size to Thailand, averages 4 deaths per day. 1460 in 340 days this year. 

[wensiensheng]

The Swiss “tourist” actually lives in Thailand and is well known locally as a keen cyclist. The taxi (according to the yellow taxi identification sticker on the side) apparently went too fast over the crest of a hill, lost control as a result of water on the road coming from a washing machine station by the roadside, crossed onto the wrong side of the road and simply smashed into the oncoming motorbike.
 

He never stood a chance and the motorbike was barely recognizable as such. Not helping the motor cyclists cause were the 3ft concrete posts newly installed by the government along the roadside only days before, but the car impact just crushed the motorbike anyway. The car ended up on its side on the grass verge on the opposite side of the road.

 

unfortunately I was at the spot a few minutes after the impact.

[Asquith Production]

24 minutes ago, yeahbutif said:

Do we have any policeman who read these forums ? Or can reply as to why this is happening?  So why why Why 

You dont have to be a Policeman to see why this is happening.  The reasons are:-

 

Poor road infrastructure

Poor driver training and testing.

Poor prosecution policies.

No real traffic policing

Thai mindset when driving and no danger awareness.

That's just for starters.

[Dmaxdan]

44 minutes ago, yeahbutif said:

Do we have any policeman who read these forums ? Or can reply as to why this is happening?  So why why Why 

I doubt the police have any time to read internet forums.

They are too busy clearing up after all of the endless accidents.

[worgeordie]

It's more than just the 75 that died on Monday, the victims would

be husbands and wives, children, breadwinners, business owners,

workers , that's just one day, and it effects the whole of Thailand

in so many ways , it's more than just the deaths of the victims .and so

it goes on, and on..........

regards worgeordie

[Dmaxdan]

11 minutes ago, Asquith Production said:

You dont have to be a Policeman to see why this is happening.  The reasons are:-

 

Poor road infrastructure

Poor driver training and testing.

Poor prosecution policies.

No real traffic policing

Thai mindset when driving and no danger awareness.

That's just for starters.

I would add zero patience to your list. Running red lights, moving forward before the lights turn green and overtaking on a bend or the brow of a hill are all really common examples of this.

 

[Benmart]

2 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Life on the roads is a crapshoot.  Yesterday returning from Suvarnabhumi Airport, I watched as cars drove on the shoulders where they are not supposed to, and right by the RTP cops sitting at the gore points.  Then after stopping for the Red light as I prepared to exit at Rama 4 Rd, I watched as over 100 motorbikes queued in the roadway in front of the red light they were supposed to be behind, again right in front of the RTP traffic box.  As my light turned green to go right and as we all, the many cars behind me, proceeded to turn right, the motorbikes all took off going straight from our left and into an around all of the turning vehicles, who had the right of way.  Just to my left I watched as one of the motorbikes hit the side of a Mercedes and as he went down was hit by more bikes and the pile up began.  What a cluster.  If the flicking police would do their jobs we would not have such kaos, and if the drivers and riders would obey the traffic laws we would not have the needles accidents and deaths.

The uniformed are unwilling, unable and unreliable. 

[Asquith Production]

Just now, Dmaxdan said:

I would add zero patience to your list. Running red lights, moving forward before the lights turn green and overtaking on a bend or the brow of a hill are all really common examples of this.

 

As I said my list is just for starters. Please feel free to add to it as their is not enough time in the day for me to list everything Lol

[itsari]

29 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

The Swiss “tourist” actually lives in Thailand and is well known locally as a keen cyclist. The taxi (according to the yellow taxi identification sticker on the side) apparently went too fast over the crest of a hill, lost control as a result of water on the road coming from a washing machine station by the roadside, crossed onto the wrong side of the road and simply smashed into the oncoming motorbike.
 

He never stood a chance and the motorbike was barely recognizable as such. Not helping the motor cyclists cause were the 3ft concrete posts newly installed by the government along the roadside only days before, but the car impact just crushed the motorbike anyway. The car ended up on its side on the grass verge on the opposite side of the road.

 

unfortunately I was at the spot a few minutes after the impact.

Too fast is a understatement in my judgment from your post . 

 

 

[Chiang Mai Will]

1 hour ago, yeahbutif said:

Do we have any policeman who read these forums ? Or can reply as to why this is happening?  So why why Why 

If a census was conducted on the number of police who can read English (or even speak it) -- 'one' would be amazed at the result!

[ChrisKC]

I am not sure what any comments will achieve anymore on this topic so I just say RIP those who have died and commiserations, condolences on those left behind!

[seedy]

1 hour ago, Asquith Production said:

Poor road infrastructure

Hogwash - the roads here are fine

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

As part of their advice to motorists in an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of road safety they called for less speed to save lives.

How about initiating some real driving schools where people drive with instructors who actually teach driving skills,  and then assess the abilities of drivers before allowing them to progress to a driving examination.

Rather than just buy a licence.

[Asquith Production]

7 minutes ago, seedy said:

Hogwash - the roads here are fine

If you think u turns are good infrastructure I will let you dream on

[BadSpottedDog]

Do ya think this would work? Hysterical! Well worth watching. 
Speed Limit Dashboard Monk

[sawadee1947]

3 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

obey the traffic laws

How could they? They never learned. 

My wife never learned driving by an instructor, but is proud to have a license.....????

[EcureuilTenace]

I was working in civil engineering in the UK before being pensionned. Taking care of users was my first priority. If I can emphasize enough, my only priority. It is not the case here. Even if police were doing their job, death rates would still be high. So, add that they are not even doing their jobs and you get these heart-breaking results. 

What a poor article of mine. You all know that. And I will not change anything. I will just walk to the immigration to tell them that I am not a criminal as I do every 3 months.

[Chosenfew]

Life is cheap in Thailand. The police just do not enforce the laws. That’s it.

[rudi49jr]

“75 deaths on Monday”.

 

Extrapolate that to the rest of the year and you get almost 26,000 deaths so far for 2021, which is a shade over the 12,000 mentioned two days ago. 

[seedy]

42 minutes ago, Asquith Production said:

If you think u turns are good infrastructure I will let you dream on

Every U Turn has a dedicated lane. Wait for traffic to clear - proceed.

How hard is it ?

[rocky123]

As long as they wear a mask, from the deadly bug, lol

[rudi49jr]

1 hour ago, Benmart said:

The uniformed are unwilling, unable and unreliable. 

Not to mention they don’t give a flying ****. 

[superal]

In the western industrial world , health & safety / accidents at work will all end up for the companies top dogs to address . Such is the severity of punishment to the directors , cos that's where the buck stops , many steps are taken to ensure that h&s , inductions and training are part of the working scene . It is a similar scenario with governments to ensure that qualified road users obey the driving rules and highways are of a decent standard .  Road safety videos are often shown on national tv .

But TIT and it seems that apathy rules and nobody carries the can for the road accidents figures . Responsibility has to come from the top . As it stands the annual carnage continues without any signs of attempted mitigation .

Until there are major changes to driver education , Thailand will always be a third world country . I think that most aseannow readers could lead the renaissance . Certainly not do any worse .