New safety measures for foreign visitors to be established: Thailand

[Andre0720]

Be positive.

At leat they are working on it.

Give it some 20 years or so...

[Jim walker]

To have proper safety measures in place you need to honestly and properly police them with no corruption involved but regarding traveling on Thai roads the drivers also need a brain to drive safely how will the working group get round this one.

[Lupatria]

Those problems include, among others, the lack of maturity of public transport drivers, driving licenses of foreigners, and vehicle rentals which were causes of several accidents happened to tourists

Smart guy, or stupid? He mentioned (only) 3 Problems of which 2 can always be construed to be in the responsibility of the tourist.

[transam]

Rambo on a tuk tuk, SBS taking care of jet sky renters.................................................................................................................

[davejones]

its not only the safety of tourists which is essential but the safety for everybody using roads , trains or ferry ...... Thats what you expect from your government in any other country.

Yes, that's what I thought. As a foreigner traveling on a bus with Thais, how will they manage to protect me without protecting the Thais. Seems a very odd thing to say. Don't they care about Thai people?

Edited November 27, 2013 by davejones

[SimonF]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

I am sure they are aware of the standards of driving, I think the problem might be that most people on the road, including the "driving instructors" ( yeah right ) come from first time car owners ( nobody in the family have ever owned a car before ) so who sets an example ? I'm sure most of you who post can remember sitting in a car when your grand parents where driving, we grew up in cars, most of us already knew how to drive before we got a license by just watching. The Thais didn't get this advantage, it's not an excuse, they scare the s*** out of me too! it's just a fact, driving is still a relatively new experience, it will take years before we can expect any better.

[PaullyW]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

Japan.

51 countries left to go.

Some others in no particular order

Singapore

South Korea

Myanmar

Malaysia (due to better road infrastructure -- thx Brits)

Bali (OK, not a country but an island)

[thailiketoo]

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

Japan.

51 countries left to go.

Some others in no particular order

Singapore

South Korea

Myanmar

Malaysia (due to better road infrastructure -- thx Brits)

Bali (OK, not a country but an island)

So 46 to go.

[PaullyW]

thailiketoo

Why don't you instead list the countries in Asia that have worse driving skills.

We'll be waiting.

Edited November 27, 2013 by PaullyW

[tingtongteesood]

Best ways to protect foreigners are to give drivers proper driving tests, make sure licences are properly issued, vehicles are actually road worthy, actually punish criminals to discourage people from committing crimes and get the police to do their damn jobs properly. Stop the scams and the corruption. Dreamland, never happen here....

[Lobo4819]

There used to be a joke in the US:

"How can you tell when the Asians have moved into the neighborhood? When the Mexicans start buying car insurance."

[noitom]

This abbreviated list of "measures" won't satisfy too many Russian or any foreign tour managers. The basic problem is that the tourist trade never really factored in safety and security, so the prices are low. Once they start actually doing regulated tourist business, the prices will accelerate or the Thai tour operator will be forced out of business. The problem was always travel at your own risk, but until recently, foreigners got snookered out of follow up and claims. Now foreign tour companies are much more willing to pressure Thailand and/or find other options.

[EricBerg]

"Those problems include, among others, the lack of maturity of public transport drivers, driving licenses of foreigners, and vehicle rentals which were causes of several accidents happened to tourists."

"The committee will employ officials from both Transport and Tourism & Sports Ministries as well as tourism police and tourism related private agencies in formulating appropriate solutions within 2 weeks."

Brilliant. Traffic probs will be solved soon nation wide. Next.

Edited November 27, 2013 by EricBerg

[balo]

How can they suggest that millions of Thai drivers will change their driving habits . It will not happen , just more accidents to read about in the daily news, TIT , you can't suddenly change the mentality of the whole population .

Russians can complain as much as they want , as long as its cheap for them they will come back .

[pomchop]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

Japan.

51 countries left to go.

It's sure not Cambodia...Just did a trip there...if you take a van from Phnom Phen to sihanoukville it is mostly a two lane road and I am pretty sure the van drove more along the incoming lane of traffic than on his side of the road....can't begin to imagine how many head on collisions there must be...plus Cambodian roads leave a LOT to be desired to say the least.

[fareastguy]

Make it mandatory for all to drive/ride a vehicle with a valid driving license

Sent from my ME172V using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Owning a valid driving license is not the issue or the answer, they can easily be bought by drivers from so called "instructors/testers (which is what most Thais do now).

It's the actual driving skills which are needed!!

[khunron13]

Blah, blah, blah! Nothing will change and the Rooskies won't stop coming.

[captspectre]

Rinse and repeat. Same hot air as always.

what safety measures will prevent a druken Thai from driving his vehicle into a parked tour bus? what safety measures will prevent a drunken tourist from wondering into a dark street and getting mugged? you come to Thailand at your own risk. the people who have normal intellengence and have traveled before know where to go and not to go, and to always be on the alert, the rest are just like "Charlie Tuna" food for the bad guys!

[falangadang]

"New safety measures for foreign visitors to be established"

Thank heavens for that. Now Thailand will be a much safer place for all foreigners!

Long overdue but better late than never,.... I feel a lot better about this now!

[espinoza]

555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

every country in Asia has better driving skills than Thailand.

According to this recent study from Pulitzer organization the only country with worse skills is Dominican Republic.

But not by much. Thailand could finally be #1 in something.

http://roadskillmap.com/

[tomacht8]

Change the visa rules.

Make it possible that all tourist can extend there visas direct in the tourist centers.

So the tourist can spare then, the Harakiri Border run trips in the minibuses.

Guess that can bring down the accident and death rate for foreigners by 10%

All motorcycle lender would have to do with their renters a 5 minute test drive and give proper briefing.
Guess that can bring down the accident and death rate for foreigners by another 20%.
The death toll is here very high. Many tourists do not know how to drive a scooter. Fact.

[householder]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

every country in Asia has better driving skills than Thailand.

According to this recent study from Pulitzer organization the only country with worse skills is Dominican Republic.

But not by much. Thailand could finally be #1 in something.

http://roadskillmap.com/

This seems to be a fatality map. From spending time in Pnomh Penh and living in Yangon, Myanmar, both those cities definitely don't - from observation - display a collective improvement of driving skills compared to Thailand, and Yangon in particular is arguably worse, though there's not so many accidents because nobody has insurance and can't afford collisions and the damage and payments that follow.

Edited December 6, 2013 by householder

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

They forgot the general driving skills in Thailand, but maybe they do not want to do anything about it ?

What country in Asia/India has better driving skills?

every country in Asia has better driving skills than Thailand.

According to this recent study from Pulitzer organization the only country with worse skills is Dominican Republic.

But not by much. Thailand could finally be #1 in something.

http://roadskillmap.com/

This seems to be a fatality map. From spending time in Pnomh Penh and living in Yangon, Myanmar, both those cities definitely don't - from observation - display a collective improvement of driving skills compared to Thailand, and Yangon in particular is arguably worse, though there's not so many accidents because nobody has insurance and can't afford collisions and the damage and payments that follow.

Well it would indicate Thai drivers lack the relative skill or at least motivation to remain alive while driving.

Staying among the living is usually a high priority of drivers.

Edited December 6, 2013 by CobraSnakeNecktie

[MaiChai]

Within the space of a couple of hours yesterday i saw two car crashes on the Rama 2 road near Samut Sakhor yesterday, a man lieing on the road looking very dead with blood poring out of his head after being knocked off his motorbike, and almost plowed into a broken down pickup on the same road in the fast lane, in the dark, with no lights on or attempt to push the vechical off the road. I can only conclude its very dangerous on Thailand's roads and i am lucky to be alive today to tell you this!