Traffic Safety Campaigns Launched: Thailand

[webfact]

Traffic safety campaigns launched

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Accident-prone spots have been made safer in a bid to have zero traffic deaths on rural roads during the New Year's holiday, Deputy Transport Minister Prasert Chantararuangthong said yesterday.

Last year, the Rural Roads Department recorded 15 traffic deaths over New Year's. This year, the department aims to have no fatalities, Prasert said as he presided over the launch of a road safety campaign.

The department has prepared 76 fast-moving units to survey heavy traffic routes and readied 8,800 volunteers to assist travellers at 98 rest areas. There's also the 24-hour 1146 hotline for motorists to ask for directions and report wrecks.

The Highways Department also has a safe-travel campaign, which runs from today until January 2.

Highways chief Chatchawan Boonjaroenkit said the initiative includes clear signage, brightly lit roadways and rest areas. The department also has a 24-hour hotline, 1586.

Motorways will be toll-free from 4pm today until midnight on January 2.

Chatchawan also urged drivers not to drink alcohol and to get enough rest.

The Labour Ministry is also doing its part to reduce holiday traffic accidents by opening 54 free vehicle check-up points, including the Mittraphap and Asian highways.

-- The Nation 2012-12-27

[Forkinhades]

what is drink drive limit in breath?

[ChrisY1]

I guess some form of Road Safety campaign is better than nothing....but they would be much more successful if these were ongoing all year and not 2 days before the new year holidays.

The drivers here need all the education they can have pumped into them constantly.....and of course, cops that actually upheld the law!

[rheinwiese]

It's groundhog day again. Same, same every year. Sadly nothing changes for the better

[zakk9]

15 traffic deaths during the New Year Holiday? Even official statistics say 30-40 traffic deaths every single day of the year

[MaxLee]

First car buyer scheme…

you get the idea??? Everybody who bought a car is so hyped up and so happy,... the happier they are the less they pay attention to what's happening around them, FACT.

Especially in new year, all roads will be packed...

Edited December 27, 2012 by MaxLee

[Payboy]

Accident-prone spots have been made safer in a bid to have zero traffic deaths on rural roads during the New Year's holiday

So they're going to convert them back to unsafe after the holidays?

[Payboy]

what is drink drive limit in breath?

About 100km.

[hellodolly]

"The Highways Department also has a safe-travel campaign, which runs from today until January 2.

Highways chief Chatchawan Boonjaroenkit said the initiative includes clear signage, brightly lit roadways and rest areas. The department also has a 24-hour hotline, 1586."

So they will be dimming the lights on the roadways and blurring the signs on January third. will they scrap the hot line?

[chiang mai]

15 traffic deaths during the New Year Holiday? Even official statistics say 30-40 traffic deaths every single day of the year

15 deaths on rural roads only!

[DocN]

"This year, the department aims to have no fatalities, Prasert said as he presided over the launch of a road safety campaign."

Yeah, right!

[Fortunate1]

They can have all the clear signs they want ... it's the vision that's blurred. The only signs they look for is the next karaoke!

[chiang mai]

"This year, the department aims to have no fatalities, Prasert said as he presided over the launch of a road safety campaign."

Yeah, right!

That's a good and sensible aim even though he knows he will not achieve it, but hey, always aim high for a higher result.

[Bluespunk]

So they want fewer fatalities but are loosening drinking rules on roadside bars and in national parks. Something of a contradiction considering the role alcohol plays in road deaths. I'm sure people would probably die in D and D accidents if the rules weren't loosened but it's sure not going to help reduce them.

[Pushit]

Multiple reports via Google, 335 killed last new year (7 day holiday)

"Last year, the Rural Roads Department recorded 15 traffic deaths over New Year's" Delusional.

[TomTao]

Only 15 deaths over the new year??? Which hour of which day in which province was that?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect App

[Felt 35]

I have clearly been misinformed all the way because I have always heard that in the New Year period the best thing to do is to park the car/motorbike because of increased dangerous traffic due to various reasons, one of them drunk driving. But following the OP it’s much safer than on ordinary days which on average 44 people in Thailand lose their life in Traffic accidents or as WHO claim 16240 people in 2011.

So who do we believe WHO or the Transport Minister in "not tell land"

[jaltsc]

"This year, the department aims to have no fatalities..."

Next year they will begin their campaign for "No unwanted pregnancies". That should achieve about as much success as this year's Traffic Safety Campaign". Talk is cheap, and nowhere is it cheaper than in the LOS

[fxe1200]

Following measurements will be strictly enforced during the Traffic Safety Campaign:

1. Not more than six cars may drive into an intersection and pass it, after the red traffic light has been switched on.

2. STOP-signs may only be neglected with the hazard lights on. This will warn other road users and explain the urgency of the mission of the vehicle passing.

3. Mobile phones may only be used while driving if the car is equipped with tinted windscreens. This will save you from receiving a warning.

3. Flasher indicators should be switched on in either direction at all times. This is to make the following driver guess, if you will proceed strait or will make a turn. This situation will hopefully strengthen the alertness of the driver behind.

4. The use of rear mirrors is only permitted to check and redo your lipstick, or to squeeze out a pimple. This measurement will force drivers to slow down, when detecting cars parked on the roadside. When swinging out for an overtaking maneuver, it will ensure that the driver at the right of your car must to check the functionality of the horn and brakes of his vehicle immediately.

5. High beams and fog lights should be switched on at all times, as the driver coming in the opposite direction is blinded, and must slow down or even stop. This measurement will help drivers coming from opposite directions will pass each other at slow speeds.

6. Remaining tire pressure gages at gas stations are to be removed. This is will ensure, that the tires of vehicles will always be filled up to a minimum of 80 psi. With those tires it is hardly impossible to exceed the legal speed limit of 90Km/h, as the tire(s) might blow up and can cause severe damage to vehicle and driver.

7. Minibuses shall strip all safety belts or make them unusable. This eases the removal from corpses out of a wreck.

8. Imported cars, as Mercedes, Audi and such, have a "built in" right of way, because there is a great chance, that a member of the police is on his way to enforce these important rules.

[chiang mai]

Multiple reports via Google, 335 killed last new year (7 day holiday)

"Last year, the Rural Roads Department recorded 15 traffic deaths over New Year's" Delusional.

Rural roads, not all roads, rural roads!!!

[fxe1200]

The estimation of the annual death toll on Thai roads is steady since years. The number is around 20.000. The regular statistics from other countries also count those who later die in a hospital as a consequence of an accident, up to thirty days later. The Thai counting ignores these fatalities. Also ignored are those cases, in which the perpetrator settles the accident privately (with or without "help" by the police) to avoid legal prosecution. The number of those fatalities is estimated to be 10% of the total. Since seven years there is no official statistic available.

[01322521959]

I felt strangely angry when I read this. Odd, maybe it's due to the fact that in my 20 years in Thailand, nothing changes on Thailand's roads, I have only seen it get worse.S#d the crackdowns, let's see the powers that be uphold the law and take a long term view on this. Take a look at the UK with it's educating of it's people on road safety, if I just say "Clunk click" we can all finish that sentence.If this government really cared, we would see more information programs on the TV. In fact, replacing one of those wooden soap operas with a weekly program on safety on the roads would save millions of lives, but then they don't really care, do they?

[paulswebb]

Perhaps they should change the video game that Thai's use to learn how to drive.

[fxe1200]

I felt strangely angry when I read this. Odd, maybe it's due to the fact that in my 20 years in Thailand, nothing changes on Thailand's roads, I have only seen it get worse.S#d the crackdowns, let's see the powers that be uphold the law and take a long term view on this. Take a look at the UK with it's educating of it's people on road safety, if I just say "Clunk click" we can all finish that sentence.If this government really cared, we would see more information programs on the TV. In fact, replacing one of those wooden soap operas with a weekly program on safety on the roads would save millions of lives, but then they don't really care, do they?

Traffic education should start at school, from the first day with the question: "On which side of the road do you go, when you go to school?" I did ask some teachers on the countryside if they knew the question or the answer. None of them did. I strongly believe, that the Thai attitude of "Mai pen rai" thwarts the whole Thai society to move forward for the better, or to change something. Negligence on one, the inconvenient side, egoism on the other, that is what it's all about in Thailand.

[hellodolly]

Is this the same government that was going to have a death less songhkran?

[thaibeachlovers]

Must be getting in early for April Fool's day.

[Halloran]

It's a slaughter out on Thai roads and it will never change until there is a rule of law enacted in this country .

In other words, never.

[Gnasher328]

Travelled from Mai Hong Son to Chiang Mai today. Stopped in a roadside eatery at @1:30, there were two locals in there already halfway through a bottle of whiskey. Then they wobbled chuckling and laughing out to their pickup which I made a mental note to give a wide birth if I came across it later. Must have been nearly a dozen checkpoints set up, none were manned. I think I'll stay off the roads until after New Year.

[mayday49]

"Mai chua yha lop lue" Brother............

[Songhua]

So how's it going over there? Did he get the clearer signage and better lighting installed nationally by 4pm the other day?