59 Dead, 458 Injured in First Two Days of Songkran Holiday Travel, Bangkok Tops Fatalities

[mikebell]

10 hours ago, kwilco said:

Now is the opportunity for the expats on this forum to reinforce their bias with a load of bigoted comments about Thai people and display their total ignorance of road safety. Just because Thailand hasn't got it right doesn't make your opinions any more valid.

What a senseless post!  The majority of bigoted farangs bemoan the loss of (Thai) lives.  Because the majority of 'ignorant' farangs come from countries where driving licences are hard earned (not bought); where police enforce traffic rules every day of the year (not just when they are being paid overtime); this makes our opinions fundamentally more valid, especially as Thailand has blatantly not got it right.

[Tarteso]

Stay in home and far from these silly Hollidays a few days.. safety first.

[impulse]

12 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Thailand comes in at 47.

 

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/road-traffic-accidents/by-country/

 

And I still contend that Thailand ranks that high because it's at a precarious economic point where so many people can afford scooters but can't afford cars.  Any poorer, and they'd be walking or bicycling.  Any richer and they'd be in cars with seatbelts and 2 tons of steel.  In either case, traffic fatalities would go down.

 

I didn't enjoy driving as much in Thailand because the habits and etiquette are so different than back home in nanny land, but I rarely felt at higher risk on a per km basis in my pickup with 2 tons of steel and seat belts.

 

[actonion]

What happened to the road safety campaign?, as i mentioned before,they, being Thai use the road just like the rest of the nutters    so road safety campaigns are a waste of money and time

[Ralf001]

23 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

 

 

I didn't enjoy driving as much in Thailand because the habits and etiquette are so different than back home in nanny land, but I rarely felt at higher risk on a per km basis in my pickup with 2 tons of steel and seat belts.

 

 

I absolutely love it.

 

The lack of "big brother watching" alllows me to drive my vehicles to their limits every time I get behind the steering wheel

[Ralf001]

18 minutes ago, actonion said:

What happened to the road safety campaign?, as i mentioned before,they, being Thai use the road just like the rest of the nutters    so road safety campaigns are a waste of money and time

 

It is in action and working, that is why there is fewer deaths than normal non holiday times on the raods.

[impulse]

15 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

I absolutely love it.

 

The lack of "big brother watching" alllows me to drive my vehicles to their limits every time I get behind the steering wheel

 

I'm one of those guys that everyone hates that sets the cruise control at 5 mph over the speed limit so I don't worry about Big Brother.  I can drive for hours on a US freeway without ever reacting to another driver.  (I also ignore the ones giving me the finger as they blow by at a high rate of speed.)  Not so in Thailand where defensive driving is such a necessary skill.

 

And yes.  I do drive in the slow lane unless I'm passing an even slower driver.

 

[JensenZ]

18 hours ago, impulse said:

That's an annualized rate of 10,775.  Seems like there's fewer deaths on holidays. 

 

Or is there a flaw in their count?

 

We get the same nonsense every year. 

 

I can't get any stats later than 2021 on road deaths in Thailand.

 

Here's what I found from WHO:

 

• 2021 Death Rate: 25.4 deaths per 100,000 population.
• Estimated Deaths: 18,218.
• Average Daily Deaths: 50.
• Most Affected: Motorcyclists (83.8% of deaths) and those aged 15-29.

This would mean the first 2 days of Songkran resulted in under the average daily death rate in Thailand.

[Andytheburiramman]

I think the amount of accidents is higher than reported.  The reason I say this is, I live near a hospital in Buriram and over the last two days their ambulances have been going past my house every 30-60 minutes with all the lights and sirens on.  

[Ralf001]

35 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I'm one of those guys that everyone hates that sets the cruise control at 5 mph over the speed limit so I don't worry about Big Brother.

 

 

Iam ok with poeple doing 128km/h in 120km/h zones.

Its the ones that travel under the speed limit that wil get a reaction from me.

[Ralf001]

5 minutes ago, Andytheburiramman said:

I think the amount of accidents is higher than reported.  The reason I say this is, I live near a hospital in Buriram and over the last two days their ambulances have been going past my house every 30-60 minutes with all the lights and sirens on.  

 

We can only process the data provided.

[Yellowtail]

I've been driving here daily since 2000. Up until about five years ago, about 60kkm a year. I think the driving and drivers, and traffic has improved significantly. 

 

I cannot speak for other countries, but I know that in the US, we grew up driving. You're on your dad's lap when you're 10 or 12, and by 14 doing a bit of driving in secluded areas. At 15 1/2 years, we got a permit, and at 16 a license. Middle/working class kids got jobs and bought cars or motorcycles, or their parents bought them cars while still in high school. 

 

We also packed ten kids in the back of pickups for a ride to the beach or the drive in, and plenty of kids had minibikes, go-carts and/or motorcycles long before we had licenses, so all the outrage from the condescending a-holes gets a little tiresome. I know a lot more kids that died or had their lives ruined due to drugs and or alcohol than I do from road accidents, but I do not hear anyone up in arms about the bars or the proliferation of weed shops. 

 

People here do not seem to start driving here until they are 25, if ever. 

 

 

[kwilco]

7 hours ago, mikebell said:

What a senseless post!  The majority of bigoted farangs bemoan the loss of (Thai) lives.  Because the majority of 'ignorant' farangs come from countries where driving licences are hard earned (not bought); where police enforce traffic rules every day of the year (not just when they are being paid overtime); this makes our opinions fundamentally more valid, especially as Thailand has blatantly not got it right.

And there is another comment that is completely uninformed and misled on road safety. Just a srmtring of cliches and cynicism covering the ignorance 

[mikebell]

16 hours ago, kwilco said:

And there is another comment that is completely uninformed and misled on road safety. Just a srmtring of cliches and cynicism covering the ignorance 

Where is Thailand in the league of nations with the most deaths from road accidents? 9th.

 

At least 20,000 people die on Thailand's roads every year, making them the ninth most dangerous in the world, according to research by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the UK - a country with a similar sized population - the figure is about 1,800, according to the WHO report.

Is this informed and misled enough for you?

A cliche can also be a FACT.  You rail about my srmtring(?) but provide nothing to support your view.  My cynicism derives from 20 years of living full time in Thailand and reading bi-annually about the RTP's latest futile push to bring down accidents.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

Where is Thailand in the league of nations with the most deaths from road accidents? 9th.

 

At least 20,000 people die on Thailand's roads every year, making them the ninth most dangerous in the world, according to research by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the UK - a country with a similar sized population - the figure is about 1,800, according to the WHO report.

Is this informed and misled enough for you?

A cliche can also be a FACT.  You rail about my srmtring(?) but provide nothing to support your view.  My cynicism derives from 20 years of living full time in Thailand and reading bi-annually about the RTP's latest futile push to bring down accidents.

For a statistic such as that to have any meaning, one would need a lot of additional information. 

 

I imagine the safest countries in terms of deal road accidents would like North Korea or other countries with citizens that generally do not own motor vehicles. 

 

[actonion]

23 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

It is in action and working, that is why there is fewer deaths than normal non holiday times on the raods.

 If you can believe their figures,     I'd like to know how  its working..... what have they done to reduce road deaths

[kwilco]

7 hours ago, mikebell said:

Where is Thailand in the league of nations with the most deaths from road accidents? 9th.

 

At least 20,000 people die on Thailand's roads every year, making them the ninth most dangerous in the world, according to research by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the UK - a country with a similar sized population - the figure is about 1,800, according to the WHO report.

Is this informed and misled enough for you?

A cliche can also be a FACT.  You rail about my srmtring(?) but provide nothing to support your view.  My cynicism derives from 20 years of living full time in Thailand and reading bi-annually about the RTP's latest futile push to bring down accidents.

 

You cite raw fatality numbers as if they stand alone, but completely ignore context or standard metrics used in road safety analysis – like deaths per million inhabitants, per 100,000 registered vehicles, or per 10 billion vehicle-km. These figures tell a very different story when properly compared across nations.

What you're doing isn't presenting facts – it’s cherry-picking stats to reinforce your personal bias about Thailand.

Let’s get something straight: quoting raw fatality numbers without context isn’t “fact-sharing” — it’s alarmist noise that ignores how road safety is actually measured.

Yes indeed, Thailand reports around 20,000 road deaths annually, and yes! the WHO has ranked it high globally in terms of absolute numbers. But unless you understand how these figures fit into a wider analytical framework — one used by actual road safety experts — you’re not making a meaningful point. I doubt you’ve read any of those reports or know how and by who those stats are gathered…..

For real road safety assessments, internationally standardized comparative indicators are used, including:

Deaths per 1 million inhabitants

Serious injuries per capita

Deaths per 10 billion vehicle-km travelled

Deaths per 100,000 registered vehicles

Vehicle ownership rates per 1,000 people

Furthermore injuries are divided into 3 injury categories – minor, serious and fatal yet you choose to ignore that completely only talking about deaths  and not even understanding the significance of “per 100 thousand population”

Without all this, raw figures are just clickbait. Comparing Thailand’s raw death count to the UK, for instance, ignores key structural differences: Thailand has far more motorcycles per capita, more rural roads with mixed traffic, limited public transport options, and a very different enforcement culture. All of this affects outcomes. (do you realise that commercial vehicles are banned at times over SongKhran?)

But here’s the deeper issue: this isn’t about stats. It’s about your confirmation bias. You’re using cherry-picked data to reinforce a narrative you already believe — that "Thais are bad drivers." That’s not only intellectually lazy, it borders on racial stereotyping.

Road safety is a public health issue systemic problem and not a moral failing of a nationality. It involves infrastructure design, vehicle safety standards, driver education, law enforcement, urban planning, and data-driven policymaking. Reducing it to “people drive badly here” completely misses the point — and reveals a lack of understanding about what causes road trauma in the first place. Have you ever heard of the “5Es”??

And your claim of  supposed “wisdom” from long-term residency. I’ve driven over 400,000 miles in Thailand in the last 20 years too — but I don’t take that as license to make sweeping generalizations about 70 million people. In fact, long exposure often just reinforces anecdotal bias, especially if you’ve decided from the outset that "the locals" are the problem.

Songkran is tragic every year — but the response shouldn’t be to repeat tired clichés and share Facebook-statistics. It should be about improving data quality, pushing for policy reform, and increasing public pressure for meaningful change.

Anything less is just noise — and we've all heard enough of that.