New Helmet Laws Introduced As Fatality Rate Soars In Thailand

[asiawatcher]

You guys bitch about having more then 2 on bikes and helmet quality, you go pay for an extra bike or car and a nice helmet for a poor thai family then. They don't even have mosquetto nets or shutters and any toilets in the NE let alone these luxuarys.

Get real idiots.

Long night?

If you can afford a motorbike for 20k baht (used), you can also afford a helmet for 200 baht. Which, despite being a little piece of plastic and foam, will be way better than nothing.

So poverty is an excuse for not following the law is it??

Most families own helmets, but choose not to wear them. Fairly sure that some of those poor NE families you talk of have enough cash for dads beer as and when he wants it.

Question of priorities. getting smashed or brain smashed in??

If familiies can't afford helmets then clearly there is a need that requires a solution. Perhaps the government could make helmets freely available when a bike is bought then no one has any excuses.

Have to agree Nikster. Poverty in Thailand constitutes a Motorbike, usually a pickup, and a tin roofed shack (yes without mosy nets and glass) but they all sport a TV (some a satellite) and they all have cell phones. That is a far cry from India's 'impoverished' people. They can afford helmets and they do not have to put 4 on a motorbike. So sam666 - you get real - idiot!

Edited December 15, 2010 by asiawatcher

[drdoom6996]

I do not think any of the helmets sold in Thailand would pass even i safety regulation in Oz and few other countries.

There are helmets available that meet international safety standards but most are priced well out of the average Thai's budget.

As for this new law, what a fookin joke, I would like to see the stats of helmetless people killed within government zones versus those killed outside of government zones.

What? So a 50,000 baht motorbike is within their budget but not a decent helmet? I think your argument is flawed.

What is the issue is the Thai's dissregard for safety issues. I live in a soi with a kindergarden on it. Most parents

pick their kids up on motorbikes and noone wears a helmet even though they could easily walk. home It comes down to selfishness, laziness and not caring

maybe part of Thai culture?

When a new motorbike is purchased a helmet should go with it. Not to say it will be work or people will wear it, but.................

Where I come from if a person gets his helmet broken in an accident and it saves his life he gets a new AVG from local donations through a radio station.

[kuffki]

Perhaps another way of dealing with a problem is proper training and strict enforcement of the law in regards to unlicensed drivers.

A vast majority of riders or car drivers do not seem to have any knowledge or skills about road and rules. Good place to start might be there.

[drdoom6996]

Why not start teaching the youngster at schools and uni's the type of head injuries that you get from not wearing a helmet show slide/ photo's of accidents,and try to hit home to them about over loading the passengers / sitting side saddle. And let the police book more students for breaking the law, if they can't pay the fine make the parents pay or take the motocy off them.Let the police book them any day of the week not just certain days when they are short of money.

Why not make the BIB be an example instead of the exception to the rule. BIB with no helmet has not job. BIB don't do anything anyway. Except stop helmet-less drivers to collect tea money and then ride off on their motorbike without a helmet. Great Message BIB

[onomataho]

I was in Viet Nam when they implemented their mandatory helmet law.

People either wore a helmet, or the police fined them and confiscated their motorbikes on the spot.

Some things communist countries just do better.

[JohanBKK]

Thai people don't like helmets, you can't go against their stupidity.

[scotty41]

Cannot change the mindset of the nation

Edited December 15, 2010 by scotty41

[scotty41]

I just came back from a few days in rural Cambodia. Guess what? Most people wear helmets, and farmers in Cambodia are certainly not richer than those in Thailand. Another thing that struck me was that most kids walked or used bicycles to school. In Thailand, not even the poorest farmer would risk the physical damage to her children as a result of walking a few hundred meters to the local learning institution.

The laziness in this country is beyond description sometimes.

[joboss]

I think this forum should be renamed the "old woman winging wanke_rs and wosers forum". Take a look at yourselves!! ... U leave your own over priced and regulated country to come and live in a place where there is some freedom to decide on the level of risk that you r going to live your life with. Most of what I read on this forum is about having more laws and more fines and more restriction of indivuality. Please <deleted> and let natural selection take it course.

[rodcourt49]

Told the misses several times but she still put her helmet in the bucket.

IT WILL RUIN MY HAIR......

..How about the dizzy-miss-lizzy young Thai lady who holds her helmet up in her left hand to shield her face from the sun..unbelievable!

[HOOD Robin]

What a joke, compulsory helmet zones!!!!! When a helmet is actually worn, it's one made of plastic. If the government is really serious about the issue, make it compulsory to wear helmets all the time by everyone on the bike. Setup a minimum standard for helmet quality, and educate Thai's that a motorbike was designed for a capacity of 2 max. Not an entire family of 5.

"If the government really is serious"... => Maybe we have to wait another 2000 years for that? Nobody in Thailand who make the rules and laws has more than 10% brains in their head. Sadly enough it is and it stays a pitty that every day kids and adults on bikes get killed as they are racing in front of the police with 3 or 4 on ONE motorbike WITHOUT helmets. But nobody actually cares when they get killed since for some people this makes their daily income and for others they can increase receiving the corruption $$$.

It will NEVER change in this beautiful country that's been led and ruled by imbecils!

[CHINWA]

You guys bitch about having more then 2 on bikes and helmet quality, you go pay for an extra bike or car and a nice helmet for a poor thai family then. They don't even have mosquetto nets or shutters and any toilets in the NE let alone these luxuarys.

Get real.

Long night?

If you can afford a motorbike for 20k baht (used), you can also afford a helmet for 200 baht. Which, despite being a little piece of plastic and foam, will be way better than nothing.

You're right, they can buy motorcycles, pimp the vehicle, change the exhaust pipe in a way to disturb the ordinary working citizens but poor guys cannot afford an helmet. The laws about loud exhausts and the use of helmets has been enforced for a while now but, it seems that the police can't do anything about it. It's just a question of parental misguidance, disrespect for your neighbors and an huge lack of the system that has been established for a long time.

[lockman]

I think it's another swipe without addressing the real problem. Driver TRAINING! License REQUIRED. And making the BIB responsible for enforcement of things all the time, not..helmet day, registration day, etc. Motorcycle, no plate no helmet..impound. the end. I understand the poor issue to a large extent, believe me 40 years ago motorcycles were very scarce. Buses carried most everyone everywhere. Children either walked or rode a bicycle to school. Instead look at the whole of a problem, narrow roads without motorcycle lanes and no enforcement of lighting will result in accidents. have seen 3 dead in last week. I'm sure it will be the motorcycles fault, no helmet, no rear light, whatever, instead of Bus running above speed limit on narrow 2 lane highway, no motorcycle lane, and bus illegally passing. Or instead of motorcycle riding the wrong way AND Truck going wrong way and another truck trying to turn around without sufficient distance behind another turning vehicle...what is wrong with this picture. While simply enforcing the laws, and ticketing BIB for doing nothing......Not..well that is highway police job, we are just checking registrations.....my 2 bits

[SICA]

I would like to know how many of the fatalities involvied those wearing the 200B plastic brain-bins. Seriously, what is the point of those things? Wrapping a 50B towel around your head would be safer and quicker to mop up the blood.

Also, i would be interested to know how many of those fatalities involved more than 2 on a bike and riders/passengers who were inebriated. There is a lot more to this than just wearing a 'helmet' (can somebody please define 'helmet' in Thailand.).

Lets be real here. the following laws need to be introduced;

1, ALL passengers on a motorbike need to wear a helmet of a certain standard at all times of each day, regardless of where they live. If you can't afford a helmet, ride a bicycle. (agree that subsidising quality hemets is a tremendous idea and would save the health authority in the long run)

2, Drunk riders will be fined heavily. (Standard roadside sobriety tests could eaily be introduced) and bike impounded.

3, Riders must be a minimum of 16 years old outside of major cities and at least 18 in major cities.

4, Bikes must be serviced at least once a year and a record kept in the bike.

There are a whole host of others that need to be introduced but lets crawl before we can walk, hey.

[lucjoker]

Who gives a damm ?

They, themselves , dont even think about accidents,they take the inside of the bend ,full gas ,gsm in one hand , kid on the lap,and they are going to the spot where they spilled

oil yesterday,the new car of the uncle comming towards them on the same lane in the bend..................they just dont think ,sure they have a brain because they ask for money

every time they see me ,but their idee of "future" is only milliseconds far.They dont live in the stone age....no......must be much longer ago .

[Suradit]

Once again Thailand misses the point of the problem. ...but enforcing that people wear helmets to and from their place of work is beyond abilities of persuasion.

I don't think Thailand misses the point, assuming that "Thailand" = government officialdom. They are trying to get the point across to people by drawing attention to the cost, both human and financial.

"Enforcing" behavior is done most efficiently in places like North Korea, but in democracies it requires a balance between reaching a desirable goal and not going too Iron-Fisted-Nanny-State.

People ride motorcycles in a reckless fashion, smoke cigarettes, drink & drive, do drugs, consume transfats, etc everywhere in the world despite the human and financial cost. Getting people to change their behavior takes time and there will always be a fair number who will never change.

Once again some people seem to think that problems involving human behavior are uniquely Thai and that Thais don't understand or have no strategy to deal with these issues. Most problems of this sort are universal. Rather than resorting to such meaningless statements as " Once again Thailand misses the point ..." in a condescending white-man's-burden manner, think for a moment about how similar these problems are everywhere.

I think for many of us the fact that Thailand has a less intrusive government than we have experienced elsewhere is a positive. It may also have negative consequences, but individuals need to make decisions concerning their own behavior. Having the police control everything we do is not very appealing.

[commonparlance]

Anyone ever been to Ho Chi Minh City? Fully 90% of road traffic there is motorbikes, and almost without exception, riders wears helmets. Granted many of the helmets are probably sub-par, but I'd guess that relative to the number of motorbikes, there are probably far fewer fatal accidents in Vietnam than Thailand. Not sure how the government enforces the law, but whatever it is it works.

[SICA]

I think this forum should be renamed the "old woman winging wanke_rs and wosers forum". Take a look at yourselves!! ... U leave your own over priced and regulated country to come and live in a place where there is some freedom to decide on the level of risk that you r going to live your life with. Most of what I read on this forum is about having more laws and more fines and more restriction of indivuality. Please <deleted> and let natural selection take it course.

Now who's the one complaing and being an "old woman winging wank_er and woser" the whole point of a forum is to have a say. if you don't like it, get on your Honda Click, leave your helmet at home and go ride along the Sukhumvit Road as fast as you can and ignore all the traffic lights and laws. Fool.

[naughtybadfurrimunki]

I saw a woman decapitated down Onnut way the other week, it was horrific. A body, still on the scooter lying on the road minus head... the head was just mangled bits of flesh and blood spread along the road where the tyre tracks had gone over it. Must've been something big like a bus or truck. Thailand should be ashamed of their country's attitude to road safety, for christ's sake, even Vietnam are making leaps and bounds in this area compared to LOS. It's glaringly obvious to me: the powers that be in this land don't give a <deleted> about their 'people', otherwise this issue would've been dealt with years ago. It makes my blood boil.

[hardy1943]

Why the need for helmet wearing zones when it has been law for years that you have to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike?

or why have very low helmet safety standards? defeats the whole purpose of a helmet.

I do not think any of the helmets sold in Thailand would pass even i safety regulation in Oz and few other countries.

I mean having a salad bowl on your head, hardly will protect your head, if anything will cause even more damage

More important is that everyone wares a helmet not just the driver. Hate to see mother with helmet and 2 kids with no protection at all.

[Xonax]

I do not think any of the helmets sold in Thailand would pass even i safety regulation in Oz and few other countries.

There are helmets available that meet international safety standards but most are priced well out of the average Thai's budget.

As for this new law, what a fookin joke, I would like to see the stats of helmetless people killed within government zones versus those killed outside of government zones.

The helmet-shops found all over BKK sell helmets of the brand "Real" for THB 1200 and these meets both EEC and DOT standards. These are available in Size S to XXL, while most crap helmets are only available in "free size". Second hand (or stolen) helmets is probably much cheaper. If anyone can afford to buy a motocy, they can also afford to buy more than a powerranger plastic helmet. The government should make it illegal, to wear helmets that doesn´t meet the DOT standards. Helmets for children of all ages should also be compulsory. I have never in my life seen any child in Thailand wearing a helmet.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Xonax

[thaimlord]

To all of those well-meaning farangs who want Thailand to be the same as your country...

If Thailand were to become as law-abiding as the country you've left, what would be the point of staying here? IMHO one of the more endearing facets of the Thais is that they choose which laws they obey and which ones they flout. We pathetic farangs are servants to every new law that the greedy politicians put in place to extract more money from us.

Indeed this is the very reason some of us "escape" to the LOS. I for one defend their right to wear a helmet or not, to live or to die by their own actions. That is what has made any country great, not robotic adherence to law, nor efforts to corral, bully and threaten individuals into compliance, however well-meaning those efforts might be.

We need fewer laws not more. Decent people don't need them, and bad people don't obey them.

Long live the defiant spirit of the wonderful Thai people, and shame on us for letting our own countries degenerate to the point where we wish to live elsewhere in order to be free.

[SICA]

Once again Thailand misses the point of the problem. ...but enforcing that people wear helmets to and from their place of work is beyond abilities of persuasion.

I think for many of us the fact that Thailand has a less intrusive government than we have experienced elsewhere is a positive. It may also have negative consequences, but individuals need to make decisions concerning their own behavior. Having the police control everything we do is not very appealing.

Agreed - to a point. Not wanting to live in a Police state is one reason why it was so easy for me to leave England and come to live here. However, we're not talking about ridiculous laws such as teachers not being able to give an unruly child a clip around the ear anymore for fear of being arrested and put on a child abusers list. We're talking about the safety and lives of people, kids, families. Surely there is nothing wrong with trying to save lives and if the way to stop people breaking this law is to fine them, officially, for not wearing a helmet then that has to be a good thing. Doesn't it??

[Keng11]

I can't believe what I see here on the roads, young children riding a motorcycle & no helmet ofcourse. The other day I saw a woman with a very little child not much more than a baby sitting infront of her riding one hand & the mobile phone in the other.

[carvets]

I had a head on with a thai a couple of years ago. He was doing about 50kph but i was doing less, I was wearing a sad excuse for a helmet that came with my rental bike, but he was not. I came up with minor scrapes but he had head injuries and had to go to hospital. i'll never forget the sensation of the impact, but im glad i at least had that skimpy bit of plastic on my head.

The worst thing i have seen was in Phuket, several times ( seems if one person sees someone doing something, they might as well give it a try too ) People riding bikes holding a toddler with their left arm whilst steering with their right and in traffic. JUST INSANE !!!! Also the vanity thing is rampant. Specially with young Thai guys who dont want to mess up their lovely do by wearing a helmet.

Edited December 15, 2010 by carvets

[lucjoker]

Before they make new laws:

confiscate the vehicles of the following groups of people,and destroy those vehicles:

all drivers without driving license

all taxi- drivers without proper license

all truck-drivers .. .... ....

From this left-over group :

confiscate the vehicle if they are not sufficient insured.

If there are still thai-drivers in this group :

Check if the vehicle is not stolen and then check the lights,if

this is done ; throw the drunk driver in the yail.

I think that there will be only farangs on the road ?

99.9% experienced drivers.

No problem anymore with helmets

No need for extra roads ,traffic-lights....................

Small hospital is enough....

The sale of shoes will boom ,

............

.............

............

Now stop commenting on what happens in this los

[whybother]

Why is everyone having a go at the Thais?

Any country where they don't have laws for wearing helmets (or seatbelts in cars), then people don't wear them.

On Hawaii 5-0 (new series) last night, the cops were riding through the jungle on trail bikes ... with out helmets. Yes, it's just a TV series, but it's what people do (or don't do).

If people choose not to wear helmets or seatbelts, that their own decision. If the law says that they should wear them, then that becomes a police decision to enforce the law, and then an individual decision to obey the law.

In Australia, it took years to convince people that they should wear helmets on motorbikes, and push bikes, and seat belts in cars. From what I see in the US, there are still a lot of people that don't wear helmets or seat belts.

It will take time for Thai people to realise that it's in their own interest to wear them, and it will take police time to enforce the laws properly.

[Jimmu]

Current thinking is: Helmets don't work! Doesn't matter what quality. After years of research some American states are repealing helmet laws. Thinking is, if you stop hard against something your brain doesn't stop inside your cranium and smashes against it. Result pulp! The way to stop fatalities is to not drive like a moron and make sure the bike is fit for purpose.

[hardy1943]

I find it amusing the amount of people who do have helmets and only put them on their heads as they pass a policeman.... soon as they are past the helmet is back off the head into the front basket.

I find it amusing when police is directing foot traffic in the morning in front of schools but everyone drives by them with out a helmet.

I guess that is not their job right now.

[SICA]

To all of those well-meaning farangs who want Thailand to be the same as your country...

If Thailand were to become as law-abiding as the country you've left, what would be the point of staying here? IMHO one of the more endearing facets of the Thais is that they choose which laws they obey and which ones they flout. We pathetic farangs are servants to every new law that the greedy politicians put in place to extract more money from us.

Indeed this is the very reason some of us "escape" to the LOS. I for one defend their right to wear a helmet or not, to live or to die by their own actions. That is what has made any country great, not robotic adherence to law, nor efforts to corral, bully and threaten individuals into compliance, however well-meaning those efforts might be.

We need fewer laws not more. Decent people don't need them, and bad people don't obey them.

Long live the defiant spirit of the wonderful Thai people, and shame on us for letting our own countries degenerate to the point where we wish to live elsewhere in order to be free.

So a 6 year old child has the option of wearing a helmet or not? I only hope you don't come off the back of a motorbike taxi on your way back from Patpong because your driver is drunk and make a dirty mess on the front of my car.

We're not talking about a Police state , we're talking about simple and easy education of the importance of wearing a helmet.