Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

[Excel]

"Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads"

 

Frankly I wish that more of them would indeed play with their own lives rather than involving the lives of passengers, innocent bystanders and other motorists. That way Karma would rest with the guilty party, not the innocents of this world.

 

 

[Iamfalang]

Headlines from past years:  (1978 to 2022)

1978:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads   

1988:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

1998:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

2008:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

2018:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

2022:  Dicing with death: Thai motorists continue to play with their lives on the roads

[toofarnorth]

14 hours ago, vandeventer said:

The shame is if they go to other countries they will drive the same as they do here, and nobody will make allowances for them there as they do for them here.

Never thought of that.  Imagine a thai getting to a London airport , renting a car , finding a 7-11 and leaving the car in the middle of the road while going in to look for a pot noodle.

[VocalNeal]

14 hours ago, vandeventer said:

The shame is if they go to other countries they will drive the same as they do here, and nobody will make allowances for them there as they do for them here.

Seems no one on this forum makes allowances. Affluence and good roads influence local SE Asian statistics.

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, actonion said:

And a decent government who can  make sure the police do their jobs

Thailand is mostly ruled by soldiers most of them with an average Thai low IQ if the last 80 odd years is anything to go by. 

So if any elected government  is in power for a short time, it only takes some money mad general to collect some soldiers behind him, to march into parliament and say " right! You lot out, we are taking over", and that's that.

[NanLaew]

18 hours ago, kevc said:

Just looking the UK has about the same population as Thailand but UK roads deaths in 2020 1,490 Thailand 17,830, talk about scary.

Thanks for the apples to turnips comparison.

 

There's not as many 75 cc crotch rockets, the mode of road death most popular in Thailand, zipping around in the UK, drunk driven or otherwise.

[Ralf001]

1 minute ago, NanLaew said:

Thanks for the apples to turnips comparison.

 

There's not as many 75 cc crotch rockets, the mode of road death most popular in Thailand, zipping around in the UK, drunk driven or otherwise.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Thailand would have the same amount of 75cc "crotch rockets" as the UK.

 

ZERO.

[NanLaew]

23 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

23 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Since neither Myanmar or Vietnam publish any statistics, this regional or global rating is questionable. Yes, it's bad here but it's pure supposition to state categorically that Thailand's on the podium.

 

The fact that around 80% of these fatalities are on motorbikes after dark on rural roads, then the "Thailand's roads" is taking things out of context.

You better do some research before you back yourself into a corner sir.

Not backing into anything sir. I worked in Vietnam for eight years and I had to do risk assessments for insurance purposes for my client's land-side operations. Vietnam doesn't publish official statistics. More recently, I had to do the same in Myanmar and getting real numbers was another exercise in futility. Don't worry, those facts were a hard sell to the insurers as well.

 

My research indicated that the latest 'official' statistics that the WHO got from the Vietnamese government was back in 2008.

 

Your wiki shows that the WHO's unattributed estimates for Vietnam are for 2013.

 

There's already the grey areas on Thailand's statistics where they count dead at the scene and not necessarily or consistently died later.

 

Anyway, I just checked my calendar and it's now 2565.

 

I am not saying it's not serious here and I'm not wearing my saffron-tinted, Thai apologist glasses either. If anything, the real situation in Thailand is probably far worse than the best guesstimates from the WHO and others. I just argue that you cannot accurately state a nation's death toll and place in the hall of shame when the nation itself doesn't report valid numbers with any sort of consistency. The published numbers are fundamentally irrelevant.

 

Like yourself and many others, we can only hope it gets better but in the meantime, I've gotten used to looking after #1 when I hit the roads here.

Edited April 16, 2022 by NanLaew

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

with an average Thai low IQ

Citation please?

[NanLaew]

18 hours ago, RobU said:

UK in the 1920's being drunk was accepted as a reasonable excuse and waiver from criminal prosecution if you caused death, injury or damage to property whilst driving a motor vehicle or horse drawn carriage or riding a horse. It seems that is the attitude in Thailand today

Good point well made.

 

So some time around 2120, Thailand will buck the current trend.

 

That's something for someone (else) to look forward to.

[Rhys]

Staying in.

[RobU]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

Good point well made.

 

So some time around 2120, Thailand will buck the current trend.

 

That's something for someone (else) to look forward to.

Yes I actually used to think that Thailand was UK society in the 1950's, early 60's but perhaps we have to go back further

[kevc]

Have you noticed every ad on TV for cars or motorbikes from little sewing machines to pick up trucks have them racing along the road skidding round corners and yet the blur out booze on the TV.

[Lapun]

For those looking for statistics & citations, try -

 

https://extranet.who.int/roadsafety/death-on-the-roads/#deaths

 

https://extranet.who.int/roadsafety/death-on-the-roads/#country_or_area/THA

 

It only took 15 seconds on Google to find this. So you can all see for yourselves - but just remember, in all probability, the numbers are skewed like they are with Covid deaths.

 

And I haven't seen anything about not counting road fatalities if they die in hospital. A link showing this would be appreciated by me & my geriatric falangs when we are discussing Thai Songkran road fatalities at our weekly (daily?) debates on the state of the World & Ukraine & Covid (over a coffee or water or soda or beer).