Experts flag doubts over road-safety masterplan as Thailand braces for ‘Seven Dangerous Days’

[stoner]

2 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

 

The comments were textbook racism. Bigotry is defined in the dictionary as "obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group" in this case the group being "thai people".

 

As for not knowing many Thais - no, your wife doesn't count to be honest. if you have to invoke "the wife" when it comes to your association with Thai people, it's already game over. Many of us here have actual Thai friends and Thai colleagues - people we know really well and hang out with.

 

As for Thai driving. I don't think the driving here is that bad considering there is close to zero on the road enforcement of traffic laws. So the bad apples get to be REALLY bad with no recourse. That's what's going on her. Thai people don't really have a problem driving - there's just a lot of knobs on the road driving with impunity. The UK would be the same if you took the cops/cameras off the road.

 

stop it. you are starting to sound a little crazy my man.

 

do we really need to get into the whole who knows more thai ? or do you know who i am garbage.

 

look at the stats and facts. thai are among the worst drivers in the world. its just reality. me pointing out that needs changing through different avenues is not racist.

 

[AndyAndyAndy]

On 12/28/2023 at 5:18 PM, stoner said:

 

6) rewire the thai brain and change societal structure systems and values. 

 

i did get a good giggle at point 5. i have talked to my wife about this before. a police officer from back home would have an aneurism in 5 minutes from trying to control that kind of thing here. there aren't enough ticket books in circulation to even cover 1 hour of fines and penalties of bkk rush hour traffic. 

 

I was thinking about this yesterday, how would traffic stop even be initialized in Thailand? Since they are riding with the lights on always.  

[Jack Cook]

It will never change and some Thai UN associated academic isn’t going to make any difference. At the end of the day most rural Thai’s are shocking drivers and just don’t give a toss. Sabai sabai

[thecyclist]

1 hour ago, pedro01 said:

 

I always marvel at comments like this. This is pure racism. It's also the result of not knowing many Thai people or having a grasp of the local language. 

 

It always fascinates me how many expats have such a low opinion of the locals here, yet they seem to want to remain here - amongst people they don't like OR understand.

 

There's nothing wrong with the brains of Thai people - they are just people like any of us. Thai society is indeed unique - but how many countries could exist without a functional police force and be so peaceful? Most places with bad police are overrun with crime. 

 

You do have to scratch beneath the cultural veneer here to understand people properly. But these racist comments are the result of lazy thinking

Unfortunately, you are wrong on so many levels. 

The most racist of them all are the Thais themselves, especially towards their neighbors, but also towards farangs .

I don't know whether there is something wrong with the brain itself, but there is certainly something wrong with their IQ and their reasoning abilities. IQ tests have shown consistently that their average IQ is significantly lower than the average of 100.

It's also significantly lower in Isan than in BKK.That, of course, might be due to the educational system and poor diet, not the physical brain itself. 

Then there is the Thai social character, an exceptionally high preoccupation with losing and gaining face, and the increased aggression associated with it, resulting in a high rate of violent crime. A Buddhist country it is,  but in name only. One of the foremost Buddhist monks, the late Buddhadasa Bhikku said exactly that about his compatriots. 

There might be nothing wrong with the Thai brain, but there is a lot of room for mental and characterological rewiring. 

[MangoKorat]

Yawn

[bristolgeoff]

What will the number be same as last year or more,but they have a PR program to highlight the dangers

[moorebwb]

In Asia so many drink and drive, I've seen it so many times.  I've even questioned completely drunk legless peeps who have jumped onto motorbike to go home, really beggars belief.  Also in Thailand they have a habit when there's no traffic they then to drive like there on a racing course.  It's a sad situation that will never be fixed, this has been happening for decades.  

[daveAustin]

On 12/28/2023 at 10:40 PM, lordgrinz said:

I hate this country and it's people with a passion, mainly because of the "Culture" that everyone else can't wait to come see and enjoy. 

Then why stay? I get that you’re upset with the roads (seen some ridiculous manoeuvres over the years) but if you fear for your daughter, then take her out. Openly hating on the Thais ain’t cool and will rub off on her. 

[mikebell]

20 hours ago, Peterphuket said:

Watching on their mobile phones is applicable to the population across the world for the past 25 years.
We can't escape that anymore, unfortunately.

Whilst working?  Supposedly saving lives?

[jacko45k]

22 hours ago, Derek B said:

Where would you put all the vehicles & passengers until sober?

 

 

The passengers can make their own way, the driver goes to the monkey house, vehicles get towed to some lot out of town. 

[alien365]

I'll probably be laughed at, but in my province I think the police should stop with all these road blocks scattered around and provide a free local taxi service to the public. Taxis are near non existent here as is other public transportation. I'm not saying it would stop all accidents, but its better than sitting on their behinds and setting up checkpoints that people avoid anyway. 

[alien365]

16 hours ago, jingjai9 said:

. The only solution I can think of to combat congestion is to restrict curbside parking in cities. If empty lots could be converted into carparks with a nominal fee charged to owners of vehicles in order to pay for security personnel to manage the lots, this may be a start. If successful, perhaps multistory carparks could be built for profit as we have in many western cities. 

Thais don't walk (it's hot and some are lazy). They will double or even triple park in my area to avoid this, particularly for banks, local markets and schools. Pretty much every day at our big market the police are stopping sellers from spreading onto the roads and trying to deal with the parking, but the locals don't care. 

[peterpaintpot]

On 12/29/2023 at 8:25 AM, brianthainess said:

Say what 75mph on a motorway, nothing wrong with that, on straight sections it's the ones that drive at 170klh that are the problem ducking and weaving through traffic flat out, not that many accidents on motorways compared to highways, and no M/C. Just who are these "EXPERTS"?

Earlier in December I drove frome Muak Lek, Saraburi to Mae Sot in Tak. I was absolutely horrified to find that many prolvices were not following the rules applied to the 120 kmh as I understood them. Which is if a highway had no level U turns the third lane could have a max speed of 120 kmh limit.

I joined H1 close to Singburi and found that there soon was a 120 limit and undergroundf U turns, perfect. But further north some provinces only had level U turns but believed that it was OK to use the 120 kmh speed limit and still have level U turns - the exact opposite to my interpretation of the law and increasing the risks of high speed accidents.

All of us who have lived here for some time know how well the Thai drivers have been trained and tested in a car, and the authorties in some provinces think that increasing the dangers on the highways will make the driving safer, reduce accidents and save lives! 

 

TIT

[paul1804]

Just the usual BS from the authorities, they have no real plan, there is no discipline, many Thai drivers dont know how to drive including the ones holding a licence, the licence test is a joke and the traffic police rarely do their job so why would anyone be surprised! Oh and what experts are they referring to? 

[2baht]

Day 1.....33 fatalities! 

[MangoKorat]

On 12/28/2023 at 11:09 PM, DJ54 said:

I’ve not heard about this… is it going to be a requirement? Cost? How do they test if you has ABD will crash test dummies?

Doubtfull anything will actually happen but if it does it will be a requirement for new bikes. Just about impossible to retrofit and the cost would be astronomical.

[itsari]

On 12/28/2023 at 4:59 PM, 2baht said:

There's plenty of shady trees for the cops to park under and collect donations between Bkk and Chiang Mai or Nong Khai! 

I think there are easier and better ways for them to make money .

[kwilco]

On 12/28/2023 at 9:52 AM, Dmaxdan said:

You don't have to be an expert to flag doubts over their road safety master plan. Even the village idiot knows that they will fail miserably like they do every year.

The authorities are too spineless to inflict harsh enough punishments on drivers who break traffic laws and kill and maim other road users.

Most people misread the situation - they get confused between association and causality.

 

"You don't have to be an expert to flag doubts over their road safety master plan. Even the village idiot knows that they will fail miserably like they do every year." - this is true - every year there is a lot of talk but little change

However most people on this site, along with the government fail to understand why and what to do about it.

 

even the photo in the OP is misleading....

 

Like the above poster they think that singling out one issue will cure all the multiple problems in one stroke - I'm sorry to say they don't have the solution. 

What Thailand needs - and this has been said for decades, is a holistic road safety program - listening to archaic ideas about "bad drivers" "stupid Thais" etc will NEVER have any effect whatsoever.

 

Currently there's lots of talk about "speeding" and "Drunk driving" but in rea;ity those "reasons" are the same all over the world - the solution to be effective must reduce the number of deaths and injuries and that approach has been shown to fail consistently for the last 30 years or so - the penny seems very slow to drop - the attitudes to road safety expressed both by the authorities and most of the posters on Thaivisa are archaic, incorrect and ineffective.

 

 

[Gknrd]

About 12 years ago I saw a motorcycle get run over during the holiday.  The motorcycle was sitting in the median trying to cross. A truck came running down the middle lane passing everyone. Killed the guy on the motorcycle before he knew what hit him.  I pulled off the road , rented a room for then rest of the holidays. They are crazy.

[PJ71]

On 12/29/2023 at 10:57 AM, pedro01 said:

As for not knowing many Thais - no, your wife doesn't count to be honest. if you have to invoke "the wife" when it comes to your association with Thai people, it's already game over. Many of us here have actual Thai friends and Thai colleagues - people we know really well and hang out with.

I don't have any Thai friends, nor do i want any.

[scottiejohn]

1 hour ago, PJ71 said:

I don't have any Thai friends, nor do i want any.

With that attitude who would want to be friends with you?

[PJ71]

26 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

With that attitude who would want to be friends with you?

Perfect, everyone is happy.