Things We Learned From Songkran Accident Statistics

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STOPPAGE TIME
Things we learned from Songkran accident statistics
Tulsathit Taptim



BANGKOK: -- Thanks to a foreign friend, the newly-released figures related to the traditional road carnage of Songkran seem to offer some added perspectives. The numbers show both what we expected - i.e., the high risks of riding a motorcycle during the water festival - and what we weren't quite aware of.

Here is what we learn from the April 11-17 statistics, which have been announced by the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department:

1. 321 people were killed, almost the exact same number as last year, when 320 people died. Despite all the campaigns, all the warnings and all the measures, this year's death toll is stubbornly unchanged. And the toll looks more puzzling, if not scarier, when we check Number 2.

2. The overall number of accidents, 2,828, is actually 9.6 per cent lower than last year. That's a considerable drop. So, we have had significantly fewer accidents but more deaths. If this is a surprise, read numbers 3 and 4.

3. The main cause of accidents this year remains alcohol consumption. But wait. The authorities' figures show 39.1 per cent of accidents involved alcohol. Admittedly, it's a big percentage, but what about the other 60 per cent of the 2,828 accidents that were not alcohol-related?

4. The second-biggest cause of accidents is speeding drivers, causing 23.5 per cent of the 2,828 accidents. Are these figures telling us you don't have to race during Songkran to die or be injured?

5. In other words, are the numbers showing that you don't have to be drunk or drive like crazy in order to be involved in a road accident during Songkran?

6. We don't have the details of how the figures were processed. We don't know how much was overlapped or separated between drunk driving and speeding. Could it be that the high number of drunk-driving cases primarily involved people too-drunk-to-race but who got killed anyway, and that most speeders were not drunk? If that's the case, we can say, with a better degree of comfort, that alcohol and speeding combined to cause 62.6 per cent of the 2,828 accidents.

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

9. Motorcyclists are the main victims and/or villains; 78 per cent of accidents involved motorcycles. (Remember, some of the riders may have been drunk while the others were dare-devils or amateurish or both.) And Number 10 shows how the most important safety rule was discarded with wild abandon across the country.

10. A total of 232,600 motorcyclists were charged with failing to wear a helmet. If each of them was fined just Bt100, the money collected could be used as overtime payment for overworked traffic policemen during Songkran, making them more eager to go after the "easy riders". (Nearly 70,000 officials were manning checkpoints throughout Thailand.)

11. A total of 21 per cent of deaths and injuries were attributed to motorcycle users not wearing helmets. (The overall number of injuries this Songkran is 3,040.) This means a more drastic campaign - like extremely heavy fines or impounding of motorcycles - could considerably reduce deaths and injuries.

12. The same can be suggested for people caught violating the alcohol ban. Punishment must be tough enough, not only for violators - to get it into their heads so they won't do it again - but for others, to dread getting caught for such violations in future Songkrans.

13. Most of the deaths occurred on April 12 (62), and most injuries on April 13 (688). Last year April 14 claimed the most lives (66) and April 13 saw the most injuries (778). So, the Songkran blood curse seems to be strongest in the first three days of the festival.

14. April 13 registered the biggest numbers of accidents both this year (655) and last (730).

15. While revellers seem to race to celebrate, they seem to take it a little easier going back to where they came from. April 16 and 17 show Songkran's bloodlust at its weakest both this year and last, with the lowest numbers of accidents, deaths and injuries.

16. To sum up, next year's campaign must seriously focus on the first three days, when drunk drivers/riders must be put in jail; drivers/riders without licenses, as well as speed-limit violators must have their vehicles impounded; and motorcycle riders caught not wearing helmets must be made to walk home.


-- The Nation 2013-04-24

[Payboy]

Here's what we really learned from this.

[bdenner]

16. To sum up, next year's campaign must seriously focus on the first

three days, when drunk drivers/riders must be put in jail;

drivers/riders without licenses, as well as speed-limit violators must

have their vehicles impounded; and motorcycle riders caught not wearing

helmets must be made to walk home.

Looks like a plan to me! Good luck with it, in the mean time I'll do next year as I did this and the past --- take my annual holiday to visit family and friends at home.

[fakename]

That is what we learned from Songkran.

Here is what we learned and will put into practice, NOTHING! It will be exactly the same next year.

[Locationthailand]

1. Using a vehicle without a licence - jail.

2. Riding without a helmet - instant loss of licence.

3. Drunk driving - jail.

All vehicles impounded for 1, 3. and sold off.

Substantial fines - may help.

[NongKhaiKid]

What we've learned is that the wording is simply a re-hash of everything that's said every year. The figures on those killed are flawed and do not take into account anyone who dies after the day of their accident.

Finally the suggestions as to what must happen on the first three days next year sounds good and that's all although we can expect the annual assurances of action from the government and how all agencies have been ordered to step up enforcement and all the other hot air that fools no one.

[kurnell]

I think people need to drink more. You can't operate a vehicle if you are unconscious.

[LuckyLew]

To sum up ... all the money spent on campaigns is a huge waste of money

[Thai at Heart]

As I wrote on another thread, it doesn't appear that the stats are that much above the average.

There is zero mention of what percentage are on the highways or in the cities or rural areas. Without that, it's very hard to attribute direct cause to songkran.

[richard_smith237]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

[Thai at Heart]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

Actually more at fault than three police is the organisation that issues the licences and the training. It's so corrupt as to be pointless.

How can you be allowed to continue driving with no licence?

Edited April 24, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[A Member]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

I was given a lift home to my village by a neighbour and in front was a very overloaded pick up which was all over the road prompting my neighbour to decry driving standards etc. Then she burst into laughter and said ' I can't really speak, I bought my licence. " Yes dear, you and millions of others.

[moe666]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

You are a dreamer

[sunshine51]

Things We Learned From Songkran Accident Statistics....

Apparently nothing.

[canman]

Policing and enforcement is the only strategy to effect any change. For that to happen a revolution in the way the Thai police force is run and similar changes in the training and licensing of drivers.

Can anyone seriously see this happening in the foreseeable future?

[richard_smith237]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

You are a dreamer

No. A realist - This is what needs to be done, because yearly crackdowns do not work.

Will it happen? No - it takes too much effort and the policy makers through to law enforcement don't like making effort.

[retell]

looks like someone has been reading TV and post it as " a foreign friend "

Thanks to a foreign friend,

[apalink_thailand]

Root Cause: No proper driver education, simplistic driver tests and qualification requirements and a general lack of safety culture in Thailand. Its not just on the roads that they act in unsafe manners. At home, in the factory and on the construction sites.

If statistics are to be meaningful, more comparisons should be made. For example, what was the mean age groups and sex of the offenders? Educational background? Another statistic that was not mentioned and bares scrutiny is a comparison of new vehicles on the road this year compared to last year. If more vehicles on the road this year and accident levels year-on-year more or less the same, then there is a lower relative number of accidents/deaths. Simply reporting the same old figures is basically meaningless.

[jalansanitwong]

Its all a total waste of time . How can anyone take seriously a government & police force that allow thousands of idiots to ride motorbikes on the footpath and at high speed.

Nothing will be learnt from Songkran or any other national holiday.

[PaullyW]

7. But even so, the fact that nearly 40 per cent of this year's accidents involved neither alcohol or speeding remains unsettling. The next thing we learn, though, may offer some explanation.

8. More than 222,000 motorists were charged with driving without a license during Songkran. Some may have "forgotten" their licenses at home, but there must have been a fair number of amateur drivers or riders out there who didn't need to be drunk or speeding to be involved in accidents.

This just identifies that the driving standards are poor. The fact that 222,000 motorists were charged for driving without a licence tells us that there is a huge number of un-trained drivers / riders on the road. Not just in Songkran, but all year round.

The solutions are simple: The current licensing procedures are comically simple. Improve the quality of training and testing and the accident stats should also reduce automatically.

The idea that these articles (and Police or whomever else comments) tries to blame alcohol, speeding, no helmets etc is all mute point. It is the current driving culture which must be blamed. It is the people involved with permitting the masses to drive untrained and without care of concept of consequence for their thoughtless actions (for the most part).

Attempting to lower next years Songkran stats is simply not realistic, especially when attempting simplistic and publicity grabbing crack downs which do very little other than create a photo opportunity. These 'simplistic' measures show that the authorities really don't care a great deal, there is no long term effort to improve this situation. The response and yearly crack down is typically lazy and lacks thought.

Improvement can start now - but it has to be intelligent improvement. By Intelligent improvement I am talking about a re-vamp of the licensing structure. With improvements in driver education, testing and licensing the next generations will reap the benefits in reduced stats, not just over a headline hungry 6 days, but throughout the year.

In the short term: If Policing was able to make inroads into ensuring more drivers / riders were correctly licensed, that might help reduce accident numbers but until the 'masses' i.e. the majority of drivers / riders themselves change, change won't take place and we won't see any improvement.

Agree.

Drivers need to change (both culturally - maibenrai doesn't work on the road as well as technical skill).

But, also the roads and traffic engineering need to change. You have all kinds of problems with the roads here. Lack of traffic lights and people executing u-turns on highways. Very poorly paved, maintained roads with holes in them which drivers will try to avoid by swerving into other lanes. Lack of road lights illuminating the road - it's pitch black along most roads in Thailand. The crazy, sudden and sharp inclines and declines on the roads where the road is built over Khlongs. Etc.

Thailand really does have a long way to go. Almost everything is wrong.

Law enforcement - lacking.

Culture of responsibility to safety of others - lacking.

Defensive driving - lacking, replaced by Asian mentality of 'you watch out for me because you don't want to get hurt'.

Traffic engineering/road quality - lacking.

Alleviating heavy commercial traffic on roads by shifting higher burden to rail - lacking.

[Thai at Heart]

Root Cause: No proper driver education, simplistic driver tests and qualification requirements and a general lack of safety culture in Thailand. Its not just on the roads that they act in unsafe manners. At home, in the factory and on the construction sites.

If statistics are to be meaningful, more comparisons should be made. For example, what was the mean age groups and sex of the offenders? Educational background? Another statistic that was not mentioned and bares scrutiny is a comparison of new vehicles on the road this year compared to last year. If more vehicles on the road this year and accident levels year-on-year more or less the same, then there is a lower relative number of accidents/deaths. Simply reporting the same old figures is basically meaningless.

The biggest issue is working out exactly WHERE are these accidents happening. Songkran goes in 3 distinct stages. Main highways packed with people going home. 2/3 days. Cities packed with revelers, everyone absolutely hammered, massive traffic jams in the city (but the highway police still man the checkpoints even though the traffic is reduced) and then everyone rushing to go home absolutely knackered but largely sober. Presumably the majority of the motorcycle accidents are in and around the celebrations, but these are local police responsibilty not the highway police.

Are the majority of accidents on the highway at high speed (Highway police responsiblity) or in the cities around the celebrations. One could deduce that by achieving results that match the usual average, but considering the amount of traffic and amount of kilometres travelled on the highway by the people travelling for Songkran, the measures taken by the coppers are a roaring success.

[ignis]

And how many new cars - 1st time buyers on the road since this time last year ?

Would guess % wise would = less accidents/deaths

The only way to know would be to know how many cars were on the road last year and how many this year.over the same days.

If the Law is not changed maybe next year make a BAN of all road users that have not got Airbags and ABS, see if the deaths are cut with simple safety features, fitted as a normal fitment in many part of the world.

Loads of people stood or sat in the back of open pickups ??

Edited April 24, 2013 by ignis

[Markaew]

What they are saying about the problems Songkran is the same problem for all year. There's just more people on the road during the holiday.

Fixing the problem cannot be done because it's a culture issue. You aren't going to change the culture. I have asked many Thais if there is something about Thai culture you would change, what would it be? 100% of responses were "nothing". This goes back to the education system and indoctrination that is truly the objective. That objective is Thai culture is flawless and you cannot speak against it.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Markaew

[noitom]

Did the number of "Thai runners" decrease or increase? Thai runners - that's the key to cutting road accidents. How many Thai runners could have helped accident victims instead of running?

When they know they can't run and if they do, will be seriously penalized with jail time, then that will help a lot. Naturally the newspaper here never even looks at that issue. The issue of Thai accident runners - a very serious national Thai problem. The newspaper should wake up and cover this Thai phenomenon instead of remaining in Thai denial.

[slapout]

Thailand will hire/contract legal advisors for a piss fight over a plot of land, high speed rail transport, flood control, so why not ask Norway, Sweden, and/or Germany how they have accomplished the death ratio/100,000 that they have.?

Granted it will open a can of worms from equal enforcement of law, drivers training/testing, BIB, judical system, etc but then those with a real intrest, can see just how broke the system is, from top to bottom.

[richard_smith237]

Root Cause: No proper driver education, simplistic driver tests and qualification requirements and a general lack of safety culture in Thailand. Its not just on the roads that they act in unsafe manners. At home, in the factory and on the construction sites.

If statistics are to be meaningful, more comparisons should be made. For example, what was the mean age groups and sex of the offenders? Educational background? Another statistic that was not mentioned and bares scrutiny is a comparison of new vehicles on the road this year compared to last year. If more vehicles on the road this year and accident levels year-on-year more or less the same, then there is a lower relative number of accidents/deaths. Simply reporting the same old figures is basically meaningless.

The biggest issue is working out exactly WHERE are these accidents happening. Songkran goes in 3 distinct stages. Main highways packed with people going home. 2/3 days. Cities packed with revelers, everyone absolutely hammered, massive traffic jams in the city (but the highway police still man the checkpoints even though the traffic is reduced) and then everyone rushing to go home absolutely knackered but largely sober. Presumably the majority of the motorcycle accidents are in and around the celebrations, but these are local police responsibilty not the highway police.

Are the majority of accidents on the highway at high speed (Highway police responsiblity) or in the cities around the celebrations. One could deduce that by achieving results that match the usual average, but considering the amount of traffic and amount of kilometres travelled on the highway by the people travelling for Songkran, the measures taken by the coppers are a roaring success.

Is it really ?

There has been plenty of debate regarding the accuracy of the statistics for traffic related deaths in Thailand (lets try not to go off topic and rehash that debate).

According to http://www.thaiwebsites.com/caraccidents.asp the were 8093 traffic related deaths in 2010, 8305 deaths in 2011 and 7784 deaths in 2012.

Thats an average of 22 deaths per day.

The Songkran figures are: 320 deaths over 7 days: An Average of 45 per day.

Thus twice as many people are killed in road traffic accidents over songkran than the yearly average.

However, there are probably twice as many cars on the road.

So, is there really any change at all due to Songkran? Could the cause in statistics be simply due to an increase in traffic and nothing more?

This again suggest that the issue is not Songkran drunks, speeding and helmet-less riders, but driving standards and road safety culture on a whole throughout the year.

[NeverSure]

What they really need are more detectives defectives from the police force farce checking into things sleeping in tents and collecting more fines tea money.

[HOAX]

16. To sum up, next year's campaign must seriously focus on the first

three days, when drunk drivers/riders must be put in jail;

drivers/riders without licenses, as well as speed-limit violators must

have their vehicles impounded; and motorcycle riders caught not wearing

helmets must be made to walk home.

Yep, sounds like a fantastic idea. While waiting for next Songkran, traffic standards like this isn't so important. only 12 000 people will die. So that's why it's so much more important with these 7 days than the rest of the 358 other days

[Thai at Heart]

Root Cause: No proper driver education, simplistic driver tests and qualification requirements and a general lack of safety culture in Thailand. Its not just on the roads that they act in unsafe manners. At home, in the factory and on the construction sites.

If statistics are to be meaningful, more comparisons should be made. For example, what was the mean age groups and sex of the offenders? Educational background? Another statistic that was not mentioned and bares scrutiny is a comparison of new vehicles on the road this year compared to last year. If more vehicles on the road this year and accident levels year-on-year more or less the same, then there is a lower relative number of accidents/deaths. Simply reporting the same old figures is basically meaningless.

The biggest issue is working out exactly WHERE are these accidents happening. Songkran goes in 3 distinct stages. Main highways packed with people going home. 2/3 days. Cities packed with revelers, everyone absolutely hammered, massive traffic jams in the city (but the highway police still man the checkpoints even though the traffic is reduced) and then everyone rushing to go home absolutely knackered but largely sober. Presumably the majority of the motorcycle accidents are in and around the celebrations, but these are local police responsibilty not the highway police.

Are the majority of accidents on the highway at high speed (Highway police responsiblity) or in the cities around the celebrations. One could deduce that by achieving results that match the usual average, but considering the amount of traffic and amount of kilometres travelled on the highway by the people travelling for Songkran, the measures taken by the coppers are a roaring success.

Is it really ?

There has been plenty of debate regarding the accuracy of the statistics for traffic related deaths in Thailand (lets try not to go off topic and rehash that debate).

According to http://www.thaiwebsites.com/caraccidents.asp the were 8093 traffic related deaths in 2010, 8305 deaths in 2011 and 7784 deaths in 2012.

Thats an average of 22 deaths per day.

The Songkran figures are: 320 deaths over 7 days: An Average of 45 per day.

Thus twice as many people are killed in road traffic accidents over songkran than the yearly average.

However, there are probably twice as many cars on the road.

So, is there really any change at all due to Songkran? Could the cause in statistics be simply due to an increase in traffic and nothing more?

This again suggest that the issue is not Songkran drunks, speeding and helmet-less riders, but driving standards and road safety culture on a whole throughout the year.

Precisely my point, you would think that with all the extreme amounts of travel and drunken partying, the stats would be much much worse. An extra 20 per day nationwide, is sadly, equivalent to only one massive bus crash. Beyond that, we have re-hashed the statistics many times, and we all know that the measurement is difficult. But, to compare apples with apples, how many of these extra 20 per day are directly attributable to Songkran or not?

Someone driving off an empty country road is just another accident versus someone falling off a bike having a bucket of water thrown on them, etc. Probably, the safest thing they could do if the majority of accidents are returning too and from Songkran on the highways would be to lay on masses of extra trains and subsidise cheap aircraft tickets. to get everyone home.

Or ban holidays?????

[Time Traveller]

This is nothing new or surprising at all. This statistics expert hasn't seen how people drive in thailand. The reason motorcyclists make up most of the statistics is because they are the mostly likely to disobey traffic rules - like not stopping at red lights, not giving way to traffic at intersections, riding on the wrong side of the road, riding on the footpath etc - It doesn't matter if you are sober and not speeding, if you break the traffic rules then there is a much higher risk of an accident. Combine that with the buddhist philosophy of letting billions of homeless dogs run free on the street with cars, then you've got all the ingredients for high numbers of road accidents

More importantly where does "The Nation" find these idiot journalists?

Edited April 24, 2013 by Time Traveller