Road Safety in Thailand – a summary of Perceptions and Reality

[kwilco]

22 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

, and countless others here, have, in this and other posts, acknowledged that we already know why accidents happen here, and most of us already knew when we took our first drivers test as a teenager.

apparently not. - there's no such thing as an accident, either

[cdemundo]

I would be interested to hear about what nations have improved their road safety and how they have done it.

That would be more interesting than a series of scoldings.

 

"Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal have reduced road deaths the most since 2010"

https://etsc.eu/this-list-of-countries-making-the-most-progress-on-road-safety-in-europe-might-surprise-you/

 

From the google AI summary: (given in response to the search query)

Road and vehicle design and enforcement of speeding and drunk driving laws have been the causes for improvements.

 

[cdnvic]

Removed posts that ignored my earlier warning, and those quoting them.

[kwilco]

14 hours ago, cdemundo said:

I would be interested to hear about what nations have improved their road safety and how they have done it.

That would be more interesting than a series of scoldings.

 

"Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal have reduced road deaths the most since 2010"

https://etsc.eu/this-list-of-countries-making-the-most-progress-on-road-safety-in-europe-might-surprise-you/

 

From the google AI summary: (given in response to the search query)

Road and vehicle design and enforcement of speeding and drunk driving laws have been the causes for improvements.

 

 

 

What a great question!

 

Here’s the link to the video….

https://youtu.be/gRuWVGvkgJo

Note that nowhere in this video do you hear the expression “bad drivers” -or any links of this to nationality.

 

It highlights a key point: road safety improvements are not exclusive to any one nation or culture.

However, some will still try to argue in terms of race and stereotype that "Thailand is different, and these strategies won’t work here"—which implies an unfair assumption that Thais are incapable of change. History proves otherwise.

 

The Global Road Safety is a universal science

The evolution of road safety follows the history of the car in each country. Key factors include:

Car ownership rates, e.g. the more cars on the road, the greater the potential for accidents. Canges in Society  when countries shift from an agrarian to an industrial society impacts vehicle ownership and traffic.

Many nations with high car ownership have developed their own automotive sectors not least of all Thailand.

 

The U.S. was the first to embrace private car ownership, yet ironically, it has not led the way in road safety. Western Europe followed with its own automobile industry, and as industrialization spread globally, road deaths surged. The way each country responded depended on its government’s policies.

 

To assess road safety, researchers usually prefer deaths per number of vehicles and distance travelled rather than per 100,000 people. For example, the U.S. has high car ownership and long driving distances., yet its crash rate per mile is lower than in some countries with fewer cars. Some African nations have low car ownership, but once someone is in a vehicle, their chances of a crash are alarmingly high much higher than Thaiand.

 

Thailand’s progress….According to the 2023 Global Status Report on Road Safety, Thailand had a road traffic death rate of 25.4 per 100,000 people in 2021.

In the past 40 years, Thailand has been transitioning from an agrarian to an industrial society. It has also developed one of the world's largest motor industries—now ranked in the top 15, surpassing the UK’s.

 

However, many forget that back in the 1960s and 1970s, road deaths in other countries were comparable to Thailand’s are today.

 

So, how Have Other Nations Reduced Road Deaths? - The most successful improvements have been in Northern and Western Europe. Sweden led the way by formalizing years of research into the Safe System Approach—a framework based on the principle that no one should be killed or seriously injured on the roads. The Netherlands quickly followed suit.

From the 1980s onward, industrialized nations saw road deaths peak and then decline as governments introduced safety measures. Different countries had varying levels of success:

France in particular had road deaths similar to Thailand’s today in the early 1970s but successfully reduced them despite less advanced car safety at the time. Let’s not forget the notorious French priority on the right rule – mirrored in Thailand – that led to the terrible French crossroads carnage

The formation of the European Union helped to develop coordinated road safety strategies, precursors to the Safe System, leading to consistent declines in fatalities.

 

The Safe System and the 5 Es

The most effective road safety policies follow the 5 Es:

Education – Public awareness campaigns and driver training.

Enforcement – Strict traffic laws and penalties.

Engineering – Safer roads and vehicle design.

Emergency Response – Faster medical aid to crash victims.

Evaluation – Continuous monitoring and policy adjustments.

 

Nations that fully implemented these principles—including Sweden, the UK, and the Netherlands—have achieved single-digit road deaths per 100,000 people, moving toward Vision Zero (zero road deaths) in some countries.

 

Other countries around the world have also made dramatic improvements by adopting Safe System principles:

South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand all saw significant declines once their authorities embraced comprehensive safety policies.

 

However,  the U.S. alone has lagged behind. While the U.S. made progress in the 1970s and 1980s, it never adopted a national road safety policy. Today, it has one of the worst road safety records in the Western world.

 

Road safety improvements don’t come from people suddenly becoming “better drivers.” They result from government-led, data-driven policies. Countries that have successfully reduced road deaths have done so by implementing all aspects of the Safe System, not just selected parts….and not a mention of “bad drivers” anywhere.

If Thailand fully commits to a similar approach, there’s no reason it cannot achieve the same success.

 

[kwilco]

On 2/3/2025 at 1:37 AM, KannikaP said:

Thank you Chat GPT.

so do you agree or disagree?