Thai Songkran Road Toll Tops Last Year On Day 1

[TIPSYBOB]

"officials arrested 48,566 people"

That's a hall of a lot of people.

How many officials did it take?

How much money was exchanged???

[PhilHarries]

Hmmm -- 15,948 'arrested' for no license -- 15,373 'arrested for no helmet -- were there any arrested for DUI (driving under the influence ie drunk) ? I've never heard of a breathalizer anywhere in Thailand, or even a simple " walk along a straight line " test .

That was my first thought. Nobody arrested for DUI yet they they state:-

Drunken drivers were still the major cause of road accidents.

I'm not doubting them as the usual abysmal standards of journalism probably apply but you'd think they'd gleefully report how many drunks they've nabbed if for no other reason than to justify next year's push for a ban on alcohol sales.

[chadintheusa]

23 dead from Rioting, major story, huge tragedy.

114 dead from traffic accident, oh well that's Songkran, and 4 or 5 days to go.

[anotherpeter]

anything to do with rampant alcoholism in those particular cities/regions?

on a separate note, saw a small boy, maybe 7, knocked down by a car today

about 20km out of CM, the kid ran out onto the road to splash water at

a pickup truck full of people on the opposite side, but forgot to look for traffic

on his side - he was splattered on the pavement. RIP.

WHERE IS THE ADULT SUPERVISION??? WHERE???

Where are the police to control kids on roads? Where is the government with

regulations? Where are the school safety programs and education? WHERE?

"Where is the government with regulations? "

Isn't that what we always complain about in our home countries?

[chadintheusa]

anything to do with rampant alcoholism in those particular cities/regions?

on a separate note, saw a small boy, maybe 7, knocked down by a car today

about 20km out of CM, the kid ran out onto the road to splash water at

a pickup truck full of people on the opposite side, but forgot to look for traffic

on his side - he was splattered on the pavement. RIP.

WHERE IS THE ADULT SUPERVISION??? WHERE???

Where are the police to control kids on roads? Where is the government with

regulations? Where are the school safety programs and education? WHERE?

"Where is the government with regulations? "

Isn't that what we always complain about in our home countries?

I agree, the practice of standing on the road to ambush cars is a recipe for disaster. Drunk people with windshields splattered with powder do not make the best drivers.

[warfie]

Well, obviously the answer to drink-driving is to restrict alcohol sales to certain times of the day (to everyone)...

[chadintheusa]

Well, obviously the answer to drink-driving is to restrict alcohol sales to certain times of the day (to everyone)...

That would have to be from 3:00am to 3:01am. You've seen those guys who are drunk from morning to night during Songkran. Restricted sales won't do it. Police roadblocks with the power to impound vehicles might be a step in the right direction.

[tingtongfarang]

anything to do with rampant alcoholism in those particular cities/regions?

on a separate note, saw a small boy, maybe 7, knocked down by a car today

about 20km out of CM, the kid ran out onto the road to splash water at

a pickup truck full of people on the opposite side, but forgot to look for traffic

on his side - he was splattered on the pavement. RIP.

WHERE IS THE ADULT SUPERVISION??? WHERE???

Where are the police to control kids on roads? Where is the government with

regulations? Where are the school safety programs and education? WHERE?

"Where is the government with regulations? "

Isn't that what we always complain about in our home countries?

I think you will find the regulations are in place but no one to enforce them, BIB only stand around in a gang at the side of the road and collect money...if they are not in this act of stealing it seems they dont do anything.

Edited April 14, 2010 by tingtongfarang

[geriatrickid]

as the statistics mostly reflect those who go and get registered at hospitals.

The death toll is only those that die at the scene of an accident.

Those that survive and are taken to hospital or elsewhere and subsequently die are not included.

So the figures are far higher than the 'official' statistics.

They are also notoriously under-reported as they are compiled by the Police and as we all know they are not the most efficient or honest bunch.

Sad, but true. I recall seeing an interesting stat that is rarely mentioned. The increased number of amputations and permanent disabilities incurred coincided with major holidays. Ok, it's obvious, but I was completely unaware of the number of paraplegics and limbless people in Thailand. I was also clueless to all the foot and hand injuries sustained on work sites. (I should have been since they wear flip flops etc. and I know that injuries to the Burmese construction workers are not recorded since they are not Thai.) This being Thailand, we do not see the people confined to wheelchairs, but they exist.

[whistleblower]

48,566 arrested. multiply that by 200bht a person = a nice little earner for the clowns in brown!!!!!!

[animatic]

15 thousand without a license ?

The mind boggles.

Im not sure which is worse , the Thai drivers without a licence or the ( maybe 1%) of drivers with one ..

The combination of alcohol, arrogance, incompetence, poor (generous) road, and badly maintained vehicles with no brakes ( we've all hired one!), no crash helmets ( for what they are worth) No seat belts... etc etc .. are all relevent but omit one thing..

These death tolls do not take account of the primary cause .. "The Thai culture".

The Thai 'way' of not admitting any fault, leaves them all to believe that they are all great drivers ( by driving as fast as you can until you die) and great parents (taking care of their loved ones; by exposing them to the biggest danger imaginable totally unprotected!!)

I have now been in Thailand for one year and driven a motor cycle almost every day..I cannot find words to describe how bad Thai drivers are.. they are worse than useless. Thais seem to believe that the faster ( and more drunk) you are, and the more risky the manouvre; the better driver they are...

see you in the Temple guys.

Let's also add:

I have passed you, so I gain face.

I am now ahead of you, so I am better man.

My highly mortgaged pickup or SUV with blacked out windows,

cost 3 times my house and is better than my 3 neighbors cars,

so I am now higher status, and can drive as I see fit.

Hey I am PASSING HERE, get out of your lane till I finish,

because I am bigger and going faster.

Arrogant farang's driving too slow, he can't hold me up.

*****************************************************************

My friend was killed by some kid doing 100+ on the ring road last Dec.

Drunk, no license, unregistered bike, speed limit 40kph.

My friend 6'5" 285lbs. strong as a bull, but got both bikes square in the chest.

Kid lives, gets 2 broken legs and a broken arm, he was that drunk.... cops agree,

his family says 'we have no money to pay, just put him in jail'.

[animatic]

Saw 3 different accidents in front of us on Samui yesterday.

All within 7meters on a straight road with traffic averaging 2-3 kmh.

If this microcosm is any indication dozens happened within a square kilometer.

I had a 20 km drive in the late morning.

Took 2.5 hours averaging 8km an hour.

My God, Animatic, you are a walking disaster! Did you cause all those accidents. You might want to speed up or stay off the roads ! (Just kidding) have a happy and safe Songkran.

Actually I was just sitting in a blue plastic chair leaning against a wall, and occasionally getting wetted down.

In general, I blame the ice water, people break too hard expecting to miss the big SHOCK. Front wheel goes out.

I told the daughter NEVER aim for drivers unless they've stopped. She always went for passengers backs.

or the crowds in the back of pickups. I can't say most others were that circumspect.

Mostly traffic was doing 2kph when not stopped dead. Didn't stop people on bikes from driving brain dead.

My Songkran is done, two days of damp is my quota! But thanks for the well wishes.

Edited April 14, 2010 by animatic

[tingtongfarang]

Today i had to venture out and change the gas bottle and noticed at the end of chaloem prakiet a BIB gang stopping all bikes, Quite a few bikes were parked up and then i noticed a bunch of wet kids outside the police box on the corner waiting to pay bribes to get the keys back....i guess non had helmets, Some were busy packing phones out the plastic bags calling the parents for money, traveling further up the road i seen atleast 30 bikes all at the gas station waiting for the BIB to go

[peecee]

15 thousand without a license ?

The mind boggles.

1,000bt is the going rate for a driving license if you don't want to (or can't drive) take the test!

[salty]

Today i had to venture out and change the gas bottle and noticed at the end of chaloem prakiet a BIB gang stopping all bikes, Quite a few bikes were parked up and then i noticed a bunch of wet kids outside the police box on the corner waiting to pay bribes to get the keys back....i guess non had helmets, Some were busy packing phones out the plastic bags calling the parents for money, traveling further up the road i seen atleast 30 bikes all at the gas station waiting for the BIB to go

Says it all really. Another generation will grow up to propel vehicles with no respect for laws having had experience of the absence of sanctions other than tea money.

[spiderleghead]

That's 24 more people than died last Saturday in Bangkok during the riots.

And 12 more than die on average each day of the year throughout Thailand.

I'm surprised the road deaths and injuries aren't more than they are. The real numbers are likely more than is reported, as the statistics mostly reflect those who go and get registered at hospitals. Certainly not all injuries are reported.

Every day that I'm out driving on Thai roads, I see ultra selfish / ignorant driving. If I didn't drive defensively and slowly like a little old lady on Quaaludes, I would have been a statistic many times over. It's particularly grievous to see adults (supposedly 'adults') endangering children, theirs and others. It's bad enough when so-called adults get maimed and killed, but let's protect the kids.

completely agree. show all statistics from daily travel to make a comparrison.

i ride a motorbike, it is truly insane if i take time to think about it, the driving habits i have adopted here whilst still trying to observe pedestrians is f*****n terrible. but if i drovw as in the west i would get killed or never get anywhere

[franklnooner]

All the laws in the world wont help when the police wont enforce them, The killing season has begun and wont end until the 21st on Wailai Siricha. Its also funny how they dont count all the deaths that happen in chonburi the worst place to be with the least enforcment becuase they happen after the offical songkran period is over, but in full stupid force in chonburi where it goes on forever. TIT

[101734]

I pulled from a junction yesterday infront of a slow oncoming vehicle that was some way back, a motorcyclist over took him and almost hit me. He slowed down and gave me the look of thunder through the window, but wait for it...he was driving one handed with a beer bottle open in the other! fing amazing Thailand I give you that, he then proceeded after overtaking me to start to swerve from left to right one handed erratically as if to show me how good hes driving skills were LOL, no doubt he will be on the list of goners this year.

[PhilHarries]

^just think of it as Darwinian selection at work.

[kurtgruen]

The checkpoints on main roads and highways stopped 547, 562 vehicles and officials arrested 48,566 people -including 15,948 for driving without a licence and 15,373 for not wearing a helmet.

Driving under the influence of alcohol was the main factor in the road casualties, especially among those not wearing a helmet. Anucha urged police officers to seriously punish such traffic law violators to reduce road accidents.

Hmmm...I've never seen anyone "arrested" for not wearing a helmet or not having a valid license, in Thailand. Usually, the above gets dealt with, by taking a hundred (or few hundred) baht, in the hand, or issuing a ticket, to be paid at the police station.

As far as drinking and driving, there does not seem to be much actual enforcement. Not from what I have seen.

To be honest, I am not sure, what I prefer...the over regulation and strict enforcement of laws in Canada, or the more relaxed, sometimes fatal approach in Thailand. I favour a common sense approach, which would probably mean less enforcement in Western Countries and a little bit more in Thailand.

[webfact]

Songkran fatalities up compared to a year ago

By The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A total of 1,427road accidents occurred in the first two days of Songkran holidays, killing 114 people and injuring 1,536 others, the Road Safety Center announced yesterday.

The road accidents on the first two days of so-called seven dangerous days were 497 more cases, with 19 more deaths and 544 more injuries, than the same period last year.

Nakhon Si Thammarat had the most accumulated accidents at 62 times and the highest injuries at 71 people. Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani had the highest deaths at seven each.

On Tuesday alone, 870 road accidents occurred, killing 69 people and injuring 929 others. The 2,544 checkpoints nationwide stopped 714,961 vehicles and arrested 65,048 law-violators - 21,174 for not wearing a helmet and 19,634 for driving without license.

Drunk driving and speeding remained the major causes, while most accidents involved motorcycles and happened at nighttime.

As holiday makers celebrated the Songkran at hometowns upcountry, Bangkok's khao san Road continued to buzzing yesterday especially when the red-shirted protesters move to Rajaprasong Intersection.

The rate of tourists' room booking there was 90 per cent. The northern city of Chiang Mai yesterday saw a large number of revellers engaging in water-splashing war and caused heavy traffic jam around the city.

-- The Nation 2010-04-15

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[ovaltina]

The romantic pics of a family on tropical coast all 5 on a bike is in all travel brochures.

But would you want your baby unprotected even on calm sober divided highways of Sweden etc let alone the melee here.

Sweden is strange because they drive home on lovely well-spaced out & orderly safe roads, then hang themselves or blow their heads off at home, with the highest suicide rate in Europe, formerly in the world. Maybe all the safety & laws drives them mad. I know that Swedish taxes & beaurocracy have made me lose the plot twice anyway when I lived there.

In Thailand they need a new, totally modern train service, well maintained & affordable for all people to use. That would cut road fatalities by a huge amount. Also, today's global population/remaining fossil fuels makes the idea of bikes & cars an absurd luxury, even if you ignore the death rate it is a wasteful thing for one person or a few people to solo a vehicle when trains can transport hundreds.

Its a shame the Govt. here has to spend so much time & money just dealing with brainless drunken anarchists. That time and money would be better spent building a new transport infrastructure.

[luangtom]

So, where is the outrage with all of these meaningless deaths? Why aren't the good citizens out demanding something be done? Hmmmm? Makes a person wonder where priorities are. Outrage and demands due to 24 killed in street-riots/demonstrations and no outrage due to Songkran. Ya gotta love it....

[webfact]

52 killed in road accidents on 2nd Songkran holiday

BANGKOK: -- The Road Accident Prevention Centre announced that 52 people were killed in road accidents on Wednesday, the second of the three Songkran holidays.

Uthairat Chaiprasert, vice justice minister, told a press conference that 567 road accidents occurred on Wednesday, killing 52 people and injuring 613 people.

The centre has been monitoring road accidents since Monday and found that after three days, the road toll rose to 166 and number of injuries rose to 2,149. A total of 1,994 accidents happened during the last three days, Uthairat said.

-- The Nation 2010-04-15

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[anotherpeter]

Has there been any reports of how many people died between last Friday night and Monday? That's when most people would have been driving out of Bangkok.

[hyperlemon]

I read somewhere that about 48% of death on the road in thailand are pedestrians, not sure if it's true. But we all know how hard it is to cross a thai road, and when they come to a pelacan crossing (yes there is some in bangkok) im not sure the drivers know what to do 'what a red light?, no cars?, i'm not stopping!'

In my opinion they should start by having a driving test similar to the UK's and get them to understand what a lane is!

[hunglikea]

Not even Songkran and about 3pm but the worst I've seen was about 4 years ago - 7/8 people being wiped out on a bend.

We arrived just after a car had overtaken another on a 'blind bend' near Lat Yao and hit 2 bikes. 3/4 people on each!! Probably 2 whole families gone! We didn't do a body count but just seeing the flip flops everywhere was enough to really bring it home.

I never have and never will ride a m/cyc - especially here. Strange but my wife used to ride 500 or 650cc bikes on outskirts of BKK but now is too scared to learn to drive a car and we're upcountry??

[hunglikea]

In my opinion they should start by having a driving test similar to the UK's and get them to understand what a lane is!

Unfortunately a lot of Thai's really do believe their amulet will protect them and it allows them to ride as they wish with no thought of their's or other's safety.

They are INVINCIBLE and always correct!

So what protection can testing them for a "license" give them?

[webfact]

Road Safety Operations Centre: 212 killed, 2,734 injured in 2,515 accidents during first four Songkran holidays

[animatic]

The romantic pics of a family on tropical coast all 5 on a bike is in all travel brochures.

But would you want your baby unprotected even on calm sober divided highways of Sweden etc let alone the melee here.

Sweden is strange because they drive home on lovely well-spaced out & orderly safe roads, then hang themselves or blow their heads off at home, with the highest suicide rate in Europe, formerly in the world. Maybe all the safety & laws drives them mad. I know that Swedish taxes & beaurocracy have made me lose the plot twice anyway when I lived there.

In Thailand they need a new, totally modern train service, well maintained & affordable for all people to use. That would cut road fatalities by a huge amount. Also, today's global population/remaining fossil fuels makes the idea of bikes & cars an absurd luxury, even if you ignore the death rate it is a wasteful thing for one person or a few people to solo a vehicle when trains can transport hundreds.

Its a shame the Govt. here has to spend so much time & money just dealing with brainless drunken anarchists. That time and money would be better spent building a new transport infrastructure.

No it's the lack of Sunshine, same for Finns and Norwegians, that's why so many come here...

Cures depression caused by lack of sun provided vitamin D in their systems.

Orderliness never killed anyone, except maybe a few Anal Retentives

who freaked when their ordered lives went walkabout.

Yes on those bad drivers, I hate riding with a guy with more than one.

More the amulets the worse the driving... direct correlation.

NO doubt the amulets help their mis-applied driving attitude,

but then there are the invincibility tattoos....

they think they carry their magic under their skins.

Edited April 16, 2010 by animatic