Teenage Brit Involved in Fatal Road Collision in Pattaya

[Mr Meeseeks]

On 1/29/2025 at 3:35 PM, NorthernRyland said:

 

Clearly something is wrong with this otherwise I'd recommend US abandon all traffic enforcement and speed limits then make drunk driving legal outside of specified checkpoints. That would reduce traffic deaths by 46% then?

 

The answer is probably due to the amount of distance driven or maybe the overall lower speed and defensive driving in Thailand. In US you can simply drive and expect people to follow the law but try that in Thailand and you will have an accident within minutes.

 

The Thai figures are a nonsense anyway as there is no proper data collection and deaths not at the scene are not counted.

[BangkokReady]

11 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

You're comparing apples with oranges.

People from the West should know better.

Thailand has very little education on road safety.

 

So, when Thais do it it's different?

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 hour ago, BangkokReady said:

 

So, when Thais do it it's different?

It's to be expected without being taught right from wrong. 

 

It's the stupid foreigners with the monkey see monkey do attitude 

[BangkokReady]

9 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

It's to be expected without being taught right from wrong. 

 

It's the stupid foreigners with the monkey see monkey do attitude 

 

So, it's a stupid thing to do, and the people doing it are stupid, regardless of who's doing it, but Thais can't help it?

[kwilco]

2 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

 

The Thai figures are a nonsense anyway as there is no proper data collection and deaths not at the scene are not counted.

only partly right - stat collection in Thailand is very poor but the idea that only deaths at the scene are counted is a myth....as you would see if you knew where and how the stats were gathered

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 minutes ago, kwilco said:

only partly right - stat collection in Thailand is very poor but the idea that only deaths at the scene are counted is a myth....as you would see if you knew where and how the stats were gathered

 

It is not a myth.

 

This article is from 2018, but there are many more, including from the BP. A quick search turns them up. 

 

At least 10,794 lives have already been claimed this year, highlighted Dr Taejing Siripanich, secretary-general of the Don’t Drive Drunk Foundation.
That figure is not a full count of the dead, Taejing said yesterday. It is based on statistics compiled between January 1 and October 21, and takes into account only deaths recorded at the actual accident scene.
“This means road fatalities are actually higher because some victims succumb to injuries later in hospital.” 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30356972

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

 

It is not a myth.

 

This article is from 2018, but there are many more, including from the BP. A quick search turns them up. 

 

At least 10,794 lives have already been claimed this year, highlighted Dr Taejing Siripanich, secretary-general of the Don’t Drive Drunk Foundation.
That figure is not a full count of the dead, Taejing said yesterday. It is based on statistics compiled between January 1 and October 21, and takes into account only deaths recorded at the actual accident scene.
“This means road fatalities are actually higher because some victims succumb to injuries later in hospital.” 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30356972

 

So ‘deaths not at the scene are not counted.” Is a myth - the figures during holidays are released by the police - but they make no claim to them being final figure only angry expat amateurs do that.

 

“Lies, Damned lies and Statistics”- Stats are not facts – tey are aids to understanding and it is how they are interpreted that is important.

There are quite a mix of stats available about road safety in Thailand but the ones you usually see in the media are firstly from the Thai police and later from the WHO. The Thai police could almost be dismissed out of hand and the WHO is usually misrepresented by the media as they only quote only the set of stats relating to DEATHS out of 100,000 population.

If you want to get an idea of how pathetically incomplete Thai road safety stats are just compare them with a brief look around the UK government web sites - https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/downloads

 

The way statistics are usually gathered is usually governed by internationally recognised methods, but Thailand has had dreadful statistics gathering and collation. Their statistics are incomplete inconsistent and inaccurate – Organisations like the WHO have to try and make sense of them, but in some categories, the statistics simply aren’t available.

How they are gathered and applied in Thailand can be very haphazard.

Having said that, it is fair to conclude that the stats for Thailand however vague, are genuinely frightening and there is a serious road safety problem in the kingdom.

 

Other collations of statistics may include

• Deaths per 1 million inhabitants
  • Serious Injuries per 1 million inhabitants
  • Minor injuries per 1 million inhabitants
• Deaths per 10 billion vehicle-KM
• Deaths per 100,000 registered vehicles

Registered vehicles per 1000 inhabitants

 

Here are some of  the main data sources for road safety statistics in Thailand

1. Police Information System (POLIS) - Royal Thai Police
2. Department of Highways (DOH) – Monitors road conditions and accident statistics on national highways.
3. Department of Land Transport (DLT) – Manages vehicle registrations, driver licenses, and safety compliance data.
4. Thai Road Accident Data Center for Road Safety Culture (ThaiRSC) – A key database managed by the DLT, compiling accident reports from multiple agencies.
5. Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand (EMIT) & National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM) – Provides data on injuries and fatalities from road crashes.
6. TRAMS - "Thailand Road Accident Management System,"

7.     E-Claim - Road Victim Protection Company

8.     Injury Surveillance (IS) - Ministry of Public Health

9.     Trauma Registry - Ministry of Public Health

10.  19 External Causes of Injury - Ministry of Public Health

11.  Information Technology for Emergency Medical System (ITEMS) - Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand

12.  Emergency Claim Online (EMCO) - National Health Security Office

13.  OP/PP Individual Record - National Health Security Office

14.  Death Certificates - Ministry of Interior

15.  Public Health Ministry (MOPH) & Bureau of Epidemiology – Tracks road traffic injuries and fatalities through hospital records and death certificates.

16.  Road Safety Directing Centre (RSDC) & Thailand Road Safety Committee (TRSC) – Collects and analyses data to improve road safety policies.

 

 

17.  Academic and Research Institutions – Universities and think tanks conduct studies on traffic accidents and road safety trends.

18.  World Health Organization (WHO) & Global Status Reports on Road Safety – Provides international comparisons and estimates for Thailand’s road safety situation.

 

These sources put together, provide a comprehensive view of road safety

 

They are seldom used or even acknowledged by the mainstream media.