73 people dead, 574 injured in Thailand’s national road carnage on New Year’s Day

[Havenstreet1940]

'73 people were killed and 574 others were injured in 574 road accidents across Thailand on New Year’s Day'   Maths not Asean reporter's strong subject?

[Road Warrior]

more thai driving standard's, unbelievable same every year   

[lanng khao]

3 hours ago, blazes said:

As an Arsenal supporter, I am sorry to see that you do not include in your  calculations all the unfit-for-purpose referees in the  EPL.

As a Everton supporter I'm sorry to see that the board, manager and owner arnt included..

[toofarnorth]

2 hours ago, findlay13 said:

But I thought they asked everyone not to speed or drink and drive?

Yes and the sign by the roadside saying if drunk drive slow. Why don't the locals listen ?

Sophie Ellis-Bextor should make a new song   ' Its Murder on the Highway '.

[SS1]

2 hours ago, apetryxx said:

My guess is that a very, very high percentage of the motorcycle fatalities and injuries involved persons not wearing helmets. I would further suggest that the same percentage of those riders were wearing a useless face mask. 

Probably right.. my guess is also that a high % included a bad driver of a car, truck or pickup that hit them (rather than riders themselves just crashing into lamp posts on their own etc.). 

[Chongalulu]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

So, basically Thailand has managed wipe out the equivalent of every starting 11 players of every team in the English Premiership in a handful of days. Insane.

Needs to go to VAR !

[VocalNeal]

3 hours ago, arick said:

This country you can drive with no tax no insurance and drunk and the most that will happen is up to a 10,000 baht fine.

Brilliant here, isn't it?

[Chongalulu]

2 hours ago, apetryxx said:

My guess is that a very, very high percentage of the motorcycle fatalities and injuries involved persons not wearing helmets. I would further suggest that the same percentage of those riders were wearing a useless face mask. 

And cheap helmets for cheap heads…

[keithkarmann]

Think what it would have been like without the excellent road safety scheme.

[Bangkok Barry]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

drunk driving was blamed for most of the carnage

 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Speeding accounts for 35.15% of all the accidents, followed by drunk driving at 32.06%

Thais really are not very good with numbers, are they.

 

2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Very disturbing to note that despite all the publicity and threats of severe penalties, 'drunk driving cases this year have increased by 75% compared to the same period last year'.

 

It's clear that the authorities are not getting the message out there very well, if at all.

 

 

They are getting the message out. But it is being ignored, just like every other rule in Thailand. The country would make a great study of anarchy, a place where the rule of law barely exists and everyone does whatever they want regardless of the consequences to themselves or anyone else. Thais are totally ungovernable.

[Ginner]

3 hours ago, findlay13 said:

But I thought they asked everyone not to speed or drink and drive?

The real sad part is how many people who were sober and keeping to the rules of the road were killed by drunk drivers and those speeding.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

motorcyclists are faceless nameless people which the Thai culture accepts as no big deal to shed from the living…

This is a disgraceful comment.

 

Perhaps you should attend a few funerals of these 'faceless nameless people'. Every young person who dies in an accident is one less to provide support for his family in later years.

[jingjai9]

Over the years as the number of cars on Thai roads increased, so too did the number of motorcycles. The roads cannot handle the volume of all this traffic. At intersections with traffic signals motorcycles can advance to the front of the queue. This results in motorcycles weaving around cars to get to the front. 

 

Hazard number 2: 
Because of the volume of motorcycles and cars, motorcycles will often not wait to make right turns properly between traffic signals. They often cut across the road and drive on the shoulder for  oncoming traffic. The result of course is a motorcycle riding on the wrong side of the road adding to the chaos. Should anything unusual occur while the motorcycle is driving on the wrong side - Crash!

 

Hazard number 3:

You not only have cars and motorcycles on Thai highways and byways, but slow moving baht buses (loading and unloading passengers along the roads in non-designated areas), tuk tuks and venders on motorcycles with sidecars for their wares.

 

In most areas, especially sois, it is virtually impossible to widen roads in order to accommodate the volume of traffic. Tuk Tuks are in most cases not even legally registered to drive on the public roads. Add to all of this the frequency in which people double park, for example, in front of markets.

 

So it is no wonder, 86% of traffic accidents on Thai roads involve motorcycles, especially in cases where a motorcycle is carrying three or even four people. There is no room on public roads for all of these vehicles at peak traffic hours to operate safely.

 

Not sure if there is any solution to this problem as many people cannot afford cars and many Thai people use a motorcycle as the primary transport for an entire family. 

 

 

[kcpattaya]

Average seems to be 62 per day anyway. So, nothing special here?

[bbbbooboo]

Hmmm............another day in paradise ?

[Expat68]

3 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

What would, as ever, be interesting and significant to know is what proportion of these terrible statistics are the result of "innocent" motorcyclists being hit by speeding or drunk car and pick up drivers.

 

Given personal experiences of cars, trucks and lorries overtaking " blind", swerving in front and passing too close at speed quite a lot I suspect.

 

As for the idiots who just pull out in front of you, often when the road behind you is clear...

You just reminded me about an incident only a week ago (I could not believe it) there were roadworks with single file traffic (enough room for a vehicle to pass if you pulled hard over to the left) there was an ambulance with flashing lights about 75 meters behind me, I was just about to slow down and let him pass, l passed a pick-up on my left waiting to come out, yes you guessed what happened, the vehicle pulled out once I had passed, oblivious to the ambulance coming, it must have been another 3 km before he decided to let the ambulance pass

[poohy]

1 hour ago, lanng khao said:

As a Everton supporter I'm sorry to see that the board, manager and owner arnt included..

 

1 hour ago, lanng khao said:

As an Arsenal supporter, I am sorry to see that you do not include in your  calculations all the unfit-for-purpose referees in the  EPL.

As a Wolves supporter can we all have a whip round to buy Mike Dean* a motorbike (* hideously incapable some would even say biased referee)

[bbbbooboo]

Hmmmm..........."rubs his lucky amulet"

[vandeventer]

4 hours ago, apetryxx said:

My guess is that a very, very high percentage of the motorcycle fatalities and injuries involved persons not wearing helmets. I would further suggest that the same percentage of those riders were wearing a useless face mask. 

Yes , but they still carry their helmets but few wear them. also the face masks are good, for keeping bugs out of their face.

[2009]

5 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

Perhaps horrible is the wrong word. Stunning is maybe better. The danger of riding a motorbike is all too evident whether because riders tend to be younger, there is more of them or whatever. It’s still a stunning stat 

True.

 

Then, just think how many had helmets on. 

 

I wonder what percentage of the deaths were motorcycle riders? Maybe 100%

 

[bbbbooboo]

Talking of stupid things that happen . i was diving on a 2 lane country highway in the Isaan area of Thailand, when i heard the sound of an approaching ambulance with its siren going. Dutifully i pulled to the left to allow said vehicle easy passage past me. To my amazement a tow truck with an ambulance hooked up on the back(lights flashing and siren blaring) passed me at a high rate of speed. And to my further amazement came back again on the other lane about 15 mins later. Why does Thailand have such a high rate of road accidents i said to myself ?

[connda]

If vehicle deaths were Covid deaths - all Thai roads would be closed and the population forced to walk.

[Cake Monster]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

drunk driving at 32.06% and poor visibility at 16.47%. Mo

" Poor Visibility "

= Thai speak for falling asleep at the wheel.

[Purdey]

Government policies are there but ineffectively carried out. Darwinism will continue to beat official action. 

Education is the biggest bridge to success but is not being built because teachers lack the knowhow or desire to teach critical thinking.

[10baht]

5 hours ago, 2009 said:

What difference does it make if it's motorcycles or cars?

I do not wish to make light of this or be insensitive, but if we were to have less motorcycles driving around like crazy idiots, we'd eventually eliminate the problem.

[10baht]

4 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

As for the idiots who just pull out in front of you, often when the road behind you is clear...

And they go slooooow for a couple hundred yards , and pull over , again very slowly with out signaling. BTW have you noticed a high % ( at least high compared to the West) of vehicles , both old and new, with only one  tail light working? I mean like 5 %, while in the USA 0.005%

[OldPedro]

Something looks wrong here

"Motorcycles accounted for 86.6% of all accidents, but pickup trucks 5.8% and private vehicles 3.7%"

Most of the gruesome pictures we see on the net appear to involve collisions between motorcycles and vehicles, and normal practice is to blame the larger of the 2, ie the cars & trucks. Hard to imagine all those motorcycle accidents were self inflicted, even if the riders were drunk.

So, wouldn't a more realistic breakdown show something like 50/50 distribution?

Wondering what analysis is done by the authorities on accident causes.....probably none, since things haven't changed for years....

[Confuscious]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Speeding accounts for 35.15% of all the accidents, followed by drunk driving at 32.06% and poor visibility at 16.47%. Motorcycles account for 86.62% of the accidents, pickup trucks 5.8% and private sedans 3.71%. 19.51% of the accidents occurred between 9pm and midnight, 18.15% between 6pm and 9pm and 15.43% between 3am until 6am.

No "Brakes failed"?
 

Strange ....

[SW Happy]

But, its illegal to drink and drive!!

[VocalNeal]

2 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

The country would make a great study of anarchy, a place where the rule of law barely exists and everyone does whatever they want

I believe Thailand means Freeland. So they are free to do......