Follow On From No Lights At Night.

[egg6447]

to day a family friend, a young man/boy. 17 yrs old at colledge, a very nice boy, polite and obliging, and helpfull. was killed at 0200hrs. he fell off his motosy infront of a car. the car whent over his head. no helmet no id no face. his family didnt find out till this afternoon. this evening all his pals gathered in our soi on there motosy,s. some three on a bike, all two on a bike, one of the boys ma+pa+small child on there bike. one helmet between , maybe twenty people. i asked my wife to repete my lecture, to shy. so i try my non thai, it turned out they understood my bad thai. the lecture was along the lines that his life wasn,t worth two hundred bt for a helmet, they were/are all bababavor. great merryment and roared off to there next meeting. you cannot help people that cannot help themselves. unfortunately. may he rest in peace, a lovely boy too.

[elkangorito]

to day a family friend, a young man/boy. 17 yrs old at colledge, a very nice boy, polite and obliging, and helpfull. was killed at 0200hrs. he fell off his motosy infront of a car. the car whent over his head. no helmet no id no face. his family didnt find out till this afternoon. this evening all his pals gathered in our soi on there motosy,s. some three on a bike, all two on a bike, one of the boys ma+pa+small child on there bike. one helmet between , maybe twenty people. i asked my wife to repete my lecture, to shy. so i try my non thai, it turned out they understood my bad thai. the lecture was along the lines that his life wasn,t worth two hundred bt for a helmet, they were/are all bababavor. great merryment and roared off to there next meeting. you cannot help people that cannot help themselves. unfortunately. may he rest in peace, a lovely boy too.

Egg6447, even though I understood the gist of your conversation, it would help if you could apply puntuation & capitalisation. BTW, I am Australian.

I have given similar lectures at my college. Some of the "comebacks" are interesting. One such "comeback" is that Buddha teaches that death is not a major concern (I simplify the "comeback"). My reply is, "This is ok if you die. What if you don't die? What if you get your arm/leg ripped off? What if you get blinded? What if you end up a para/quadraplegic?" These comments raise eyebrows.

These people have not yet needed to think either because of blind religious or cultural following or because of a lack of exposure to the items of the Western world.

How many more "living dead" people will it take to make "them" realise that death is not the only result of a traffic accident?

[spasticated]

Your'e banging your head against a brick wall here..... makes no difference if you are wearing a helmet or not if you''ll pardon the pun.

[waveydavey]

to day a family friend, a young man/boy. 17 yrs old at colledge, a very nice boy, polite and obliging, and helpfull. was killed at 0200hrs. he fell off his motosy infront of a car. the car whent over his head. no helmet no id no face. his family didnt find out till this afternoon. this evening all his pals gathered in our soi on there motosy,s. some three on a bike, all two on a bike, one of the boys ma+pa+small child on there bike. one helmet between , maybe twenty people. i asked my wife to repete my lecture, to shy. so i try my non thai, it turned out they understood my bad thai. the lecture was along the lines that his life wasn,t worth two hundred bt for a helmet, they were/are all bababavor. great merryment and roared off to there next meeting. you cannot help people that cannot help themselves. unfortunately. may he rest in peace, a lovely boy too.

Same in my village. Last month an old guy died in a bike accident. He'd been to a party, got drunk then rode his bike home, ran into a wall and died from head injuries. No helmet of course.

So what happens? After his funeral they have a party (wake?), everybody gets drunk then climbs on their bikes to go home. Talk about not learning lessons.

My girlfriend is upset with me because I've told her I'm refusing to let her go on our bike without her helmet. She says it will ruin her hairstyle.......

[PhilHarries]

Whilst, to an extent, I agree with the comments about the attitude to personal safety exhibited by Thais (I won't say Buddhists because although death is one of life's afflictions it is not one to be sought) I don't think it is that simple.

I can remember the UK introducing the crash helmet law back in the sixties. There was a lot of opposition to that law much of it from the "it's my life and I'll live it how I like" brigade. But the law was introduced and nowadays virtually nobody even thinks about getting on a bike without a helmet. Same went for seat belts in cars, it took a law to change attitudes but, again, everybody now buckles up as soon as they get in.

So we were the same in the west without Buddhism and attitudes were only changed by education backed up by laws that were ENFORCED and there's the crunch, education and enforcement. Thailand has the laws in place but all the time the BiB only bother to enforce them is when they are short of funds the carnage will continue. I'll not say anything about Thailand's education as there are others on tV that are more qualified to do so.

[mrt273nva]

i have an abnormally large head which limits my ability to even wear a helmet. When I'm in Bangkok and the motorcycle taxi's make me wear one it fits like a party hat and would do more damage to me if I were to take a spill. The only reason I would wear it is because I want to avoid legal problems.

[Thai at Heart]

i have an abnormally large head which limits my ability to even wear a helmet. When I'm in Bangkok and the motorcycle taxi's make me wear one it fits like a party hat and would do more damage to me if I were to take a spill. The only reason I would wear it is because I want to avoid legal problems.

Irony of ironies, the bloody coppers up here have put a sign up at a junction written in Thai.

"Please look left for motorcycles coming the wrong way".

Back on track, motorcycle taxis, not good for life expectancy helmet or no helmet.

[draggons]

What about all the expats riding about with no helmets, shorts & flip flops? even seen a few picking up the Thai habit of being on the phone while riding