Experts in Phuket discuss ways to tackle Southern road accident toll

[Lite Beer]

Experts in Phuket discuss ways to tackle Southern road accident toll
Wiparatana Nathalang

Dr Sophon Maekthon, Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, was the main speaker.

PHUKET: Doctors, nurses, police and media from the country’s 14 southern provinces began a two-day meeting today (January 23) to share ideas on how to reduce accidents on the roads and take the ideas back home.

Opening the meeting at Boat Lagoon Resort, Dr Wiwat Ketamanoot, from the Provincial Traffic Accident Support Team, said, “Every half an hour one person dies on the roads in the southern provinces.

“In Phuket alone, two people die every three days. We have been discussing all the cases on the island to see if we can establish why people died in these accidents.

“We have funding from taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. We are going to use this money to develop our network to reduce road accidents.”

He gave an example of how analysis of accidents can save lives.

“There were several accidents at the Darasamut intersection [next to Central Festival]. We found that many were caused by the flashing amber traffic lights during the night. So we asked the Highways Department to change the lights back to red, amber and green.

As the result of this being done at 10 sets of lights, the death rate dropped from 200 people a year to 147.

“In Phuket, only 40 per cent of drivers used to wear helmets while riding a motorcycle. Since we erected ‘Wear a helmet’ signs around Phuket, the number of people wearing helmets grew to the point where the number of helmets for sale was not enough to meet demand.”

Drink driving is another problem.

“To reduce the number of accidents from drunk driving, Governor Maitri Inthusut has supported us by giving us the funds [for the police] to buy more breathalysers.”

Dr Kajornsak Kaewjarat, Director of the Phuket Public Health Department, said, with a grin, “I admire the foreigners who, although they do not wear their shirts while riding their motorcycles, still wear helmets.”

The most senior official at the meeting, Dr Sophon Maekthon, Director-General of the Department of Disease Control at the Ministry of Health told the meeting the role of the media was important. “[stories in the] media [about accidents] help to raise awareness that we need to behave according to the rules – which can reduce the number of road accidents. Our target is to halve the number of fatalities per year by the year 2020.

“Our safety management policy has six main elements: the network power of doctors, hospitals, police and media; roads and highways, vehicle inspections by the Transport Department; tackling people not wearing helmets, speeding and driving drunk – which involves the police; the Health Department; and Information Power.

“Our duty at the Ministry of Health is to ensure trauma centres to develop emergency procedures that reduce the annual death rate to no more than 20 per 100,000 population.

“To do this, we need information on every accident – time, place and personal details [of the victim] to carry out a deep investigation that will reveal what caused each accident.

“It is not just the power of information; network power is also a main factors in reducing the number of road accidents. We have a policy to reduce the accidents by 50 per cent. We also need the police to get people to wear helmets, not to drive drunk and to wear safety belts.”

He noted that national statistics for last year and the year before showed that roughly two thirds of the people who die from road accidents do so at the scene of the crash, and said there were five main contributing factors: speeding, not wearing a helmet, drunk driving, falling asleep, and hitting dangerous objects by the road side, such as trees, road signs, and concrete blocks.

In the past five years, the number of people dying on the road has not fallen at all, Dr Sophon said.

However, the death rates vary considerably from one province to another. “[Last year] there were no road deaths in Trad, Bung Kan, Mae Hong Son, Phang Nga and Pattani.

“The highest death rates were in Nakorn Ratchassima, Surat Thani and Udon Thani.

“The highest percentage of accidents was between 4 and 8 pm.

“We are offering bonuses for police who catch law-breakers on the road, and to citizens who help them to do so.”

The discussions continue tomorrow (January 22), with the meeting breaking up into a variety of workshops.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/experts-in-phuket-discuss-ways-to-tackle-southern-road-accident-toll-44200.php

-- Phuket News 2014-01-23

[clockman]

I wish them good luck, but T.I.T.!

[bubblegum]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

[spirit47]

Stop drunken drivers...

[NamKangMan]

Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT."

Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet.

As I post, 10 threads out of 29 threads on the front news page of the Phuket forum are roads and/or traffic and/or accident related. That's 35% of the front page threads.

The lack of public transport on Phuket continues to be the number one negative issue here, day after day, week after week - as people continue to lose their lives or be maimed on the roads here, and the best they can do is have a few experts have a meeting while only 1000kms away, in Pattaya, a baht bus system transports thousands of people evreyday, all over the tourist city.

Edited January 23, 2014 by NamKangMan

[Somtamnication]

So simple. Enforce traffic laws.

[patongphil]

Just get the police to do their job. Cars and motorbikes wrong way down road, run red lights, pull out in front of, lane changes etc etc etc. like to see some tickets get given out for these offenses which endanger other peoples lives as opposed to not wearing a helmet which endangers the life of only the offender.

[NamKangMan]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

[LivinginKata]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

You have to wonder how many of those tourists renting motor bikes have a valid motor bike licence in their home country. I suspect not very many have passed a motor bike driving test. The solution should be that the vehicle rentors really check who is renting their vehicle and whether they are licenced to drive that vehicle - but I dream on, that would make a serious dent in rentor's business if they turned away people with no licence.

[andreandre]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

You have to wonder how many of those tourists renting motor bikes have a valid motor bike licence in their home country. I suspect not very many have passed a motor bike driving test. The solution should be that the vehicle rentors really check who is renting their vehicle and whether they are licenced to drive that vehicle - but I dream on, that would make a serious dent in rentor's business if they turned away people with no licence.

Same post i made in another thread is relevant here also IMO

Would it not be more feasible for people who have never ridden a motorcycle in their lives to engage the brain and think ''why would i ride a bike in Thailand when i never ride one in my own country?"

We're not talking about schoolkids who may need guidance here, are we talking about adults mainly..so let them think like adults!

You really want all the''wrapped in cottonwool" BS that the west is smothered in to protect ignorant fools from themselves?

I for one don't.

[aussiebrian]

This would be laughable if not so serious.

Look at Vietnam, back in 2003 no one wore helmets, then they made it a law, and enforced it, and now you don't see anyone without a helmet on.

Make the helmets conform at least to the DOT safety standard.

Make sure people do them up properly, not with chin cups, which are banned in most western countries.

The article says "We also need the police to get people to wear helmets, not to drive drunk and to wear safety belts.” Maybe it would be a good start to get the police to wear helmets as a good example to the public, and not to have the strap hanging down, or use the stupid chin cup and to do it up firmly.

I told a policeman that the helmets people normally wouldn't protect them in the event of a collision, he sad they protect you from the police.

I have attached a presentation I gave to the road safety department in Bangkok back in 2006 and told them I have many more ideas and this was a presentation made up quickly to give them an idea of some of my thoughts. I said would help them to cut the road toll for free. This was given them through a very influential friend who had just retired as minister for the interior. My response was they weren't interested.

Well, I have clocked up another 200000 km around mostly Thailand since them, on my motorcycle and 80000 km in my car since then. I bet they still aren't interested.

I know many of you won't agree with my thoughts of Thai drivers, but I still believe this.

I have also omitted my details for here.

Plan To Reduce Road Trauma and Congestion.ppt

Edited January 23, 2014 by aussiebrian

[andreandre]

Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT."

Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet.

As I post, 10 threads out of 29 threads on the front news page of the Phuket forum are roads and/or traffic and/or accident related. That's 35% of the front page threads.

The lack of public transport on Phuket continues to be the number one negative issue here, day after day, week after week - as people continue to lose their lives or be maimed on the roads here, and the best they can do is have a few experts have a meeting while only 1000kms away, in Pattaya, a baht bus system transports thousands of people evreyday, all over the tourist city.

You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS.

Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark

.

Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS..

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/577559-chiang-mai-ranks-3rd-in-the-nation-for-road-accident-deaths/

People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice, and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work.

Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport' combined with LOS terrible driving standards, encouraged and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing/rules,starting from initially obtaining a drivers license, right through to road conditions ,poor signage,non stringent enforcement of traffic laws[tea money instead of heavy fines eg] which i believe ,if rectified would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here.The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of license soon gets through, even to the most dense minds.

But consider that , no matter what is done re; lowering the road toll, worldwide people will still have crashes and many will still die..sadly, thats just the way it is!

EDIT..aussiebrian..i was writing my post whilst you had posted yours, and i may have said some things similar to you..Your post is spot on in every detail..

Edited January 23, 2014 by andreandre

[fiddlehead]

OK, so many adding their solutions, many good ones too.

I'll add mine: you want to slow down traffic? One thing works all over the world: Speed Bumps!
As much as we all hate them, if you put more in, the deaths will diminish because people will have no choice but to slow down.

Face it, Thai people are not going to stop at stop signs (even if they put stop signs at every needed intersection), the police are not going to pull people over for passing without a turn signal or going through a red light, Thai people are NEVER going to learn how to negotiate a traffic circle, too many won't wear helmets, law or not. And the tuk tuk mafia is NOTnot going to allow any baht buses to go to the beaches.

But, EVERYONE will slow down for the speed bumps.

And slower speeds WILL save lives!

Edited January 23, 2014 by fiddlehead

[LivinginKata]

OK, so many adding their solutions, many good ones too.

I'll add mine: you want to slow down traffic? One thing works all over the world: Speed Bumps!

As much as we all hate them, if you put more in, the deaths will diminish because people will have no choice but to slow down.

Speed Bumps !!! They tried that along the Karon beach front road. But the bumps caused far too many accidents by idiots still driving fast and crashing because of the bumps. Solution - the bumps were removed after a short time.

[NamKangMan]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

You have to wonder how many of those tourists renting motor bikes have a valid motor bike licence in their home country. I suspect not very many have passed a motor bike driving test. The solution should be that the vehicle rentors really check who is renting their vehicle and whether they are licenced to drive that vehicle - but I dream on, that would make a serious dent in rentor's business if they turned away people with no licence.

That's true LIK, but how many of these tourists would opt to use affordable public transport for the duration of their holiday, should it ever exist here?

[LivinginKata]

That's true LIK, but how many of these tourists would opt to use affordable public transport for the duration of their holiday, should it ever exist here?

[NamKangMan]

Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT."

Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet.

As I post, 10 threads out of 29 threads on the front news page of the Phuket forum are roads and/or traffic and/or accident related. That's 35% of the front page threads.

The lack of public transport on Phuket continues to be the number one negative issue here, day after day, week after week - as people continue to lose their lives or be maimed on the roads here, and the best they can do is have a few experts have a meeting while only 1000kms away, in Pattaya, a baht bus system transports thousands of people evreyday, all over the tourist city.

You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS.

Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark

.

Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS..

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/577559-chiang-mai-ranks-3rd-in-the-nation-for-road-accident-deaths/

People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice, and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work.

Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport' combined with LOS terrible driving standards, encouraged and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing/rules,starting from initially obtaining a drivers license, right through to road conditions ,poor signage,non stringent enforcement of traffic laws[tea money instead of heavy fines eg] which i believe ,if rectified would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here.The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of license soon gets through, even to the most dense minds.

But consider that , no matter what is done re; lowering the road toll, worldwide people will still have crashes and many will still die..sadly, thats just the way it is!

EDIT..aussiebrian..i was writing my post whilst you had posted yours, and i may have said some things similar to you..Your post is spot on in every detail..

I couldn't disagree with you more, and I will give my reasons.

"You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS." - as mentioned, 10 out of the 29 front page news threads are transport, roads, traffic and accident related. That's 35%. That's 1 in every 3 Phuket forum news threads, started by Thaivisa, are negative land transport related threads. In my opinion, the roads, traffic and accident threads are all connected, and related to the lack of transportation on Phuket.

There's no denying that transport is a big issue on Phuket. I don't start the threads, I only post on them.

"Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark." - what if one of those lives were your own, or a family member or friend???? So, don't give me the usual, "I'm an expat so the transport issue doesn't effect me" rubbish. You could be wiped out by a drunk tourist in a hire car coming back from Bangla Road just like anyone else.

You may know how to ride/drive, and may be sober, but that doesn't mean the person coming the other way is experienced and sober. Let's be honest, they are riding/driving because it's cheaper than getting ripped off by a tuk-tuk and there are no taxis or baht buses. Nothing new about that. In any case, you have contradicted yourself. Even if it saves two lives - it has saved lives. In my opinion, it would save a lot more than two lives.

For example, picture Pattaya without their baht bus system. All the locals, expats and tourists would ride or drive - of course their accident, and therefore death toll, would skyrocket.

"Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS." - you do know Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city behind Bangkok, don't you????

Nowhere did you mention PER-CAPITA in your comparision. If you are going to compare Chiang Mai's road toll to Phuket's road toll - it should be done on a per-capita basis. If not, why not compare Chiang Mai to Shanghai - China or Mubai - India> I think you will find, on a per-capita basis, Phuket has one of the highest road tolls in South East Asia.

"People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice," - where's the choice????

200 baht minimum journey in a tuk-tuk or 250 baht a day to rent a bike. How about adding a hop on - hop -off baht bus system as a choice and some proper metered taxis like in Bangkok???? It exists in Phuket's biggest competitor destination, Pattaya, why not here????

"and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work." - REALLY???? I didn't think "Darwinism" involved the killing of an innocent law abiding road user.

"Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport'" - to be fair, they probably had no idea just how much they were going to get ripped off by tuk-tuks until they got here.

"and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing" - so, tell me, how do you get home after a big night out drinking????

"road conditions, poor signage, non stringent enforcement of traffic laws (tea money instead of heavy fines eg) which I believe, if rectified, would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here" - if they ever did seriously enforce the road laws here, particularly in relation to drink driving/riding, in my opinion, Phuket would lose what little it has left of it's western tourist market. Could you imagine the rise in tuk-tuk prices if the BiB did not take bribes and properly enforce the drink driving laws? We would be seeing 1000 baht tuk-tuk fares - it's pay, or risk going to gaol. Tourists would not come here.

"The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of licence soon gets through, even to the most dense minds." REALLY? Thailand has lengthy gaol terms, and even the death penalty, for drugs, yet, the drug use on Phuket keeps growing. Once again, with NO viable/affordable transport option, people will continue to break the road laws.

"people will still have crashes, and many will still die....sadly, that's just the way it is" - true. I have NEVER stated proper public transport would eradicate all accidents, but it would certainly save many lives on Phuket, which currently has no real public transport.

So, I will leave you with a question. In all major tourist destinations, all over the world, one can ring, or wave a taxi over, enter the vehcile, and in general, have the meter turned on, and get from Point A to Point B - WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS ON PHUKET, considering the TAT are advertising Phuket as a "World Class tourist desination?"

[keestha]

Island wide ban on privately using cars and motorcycles, and seeing to it there are enough tuktuks to meet all transport needs.

[steelepulse]

If I read the article correctly, this covers 14 Southern provinces and not Phuket, so a lot of the above is very pertinent to Phuket, but not necessarily to the 14 provinces. I think it comes down to a few different things. 1) Education and proper driving training. No licenses should be issued until every driver passes a certain number of hours learning traffic laws, then undergoes a rigorous driving test. 2) Enforcement needs to be implemented and more police presence and patrols are needed to catch drivers doing the wrong thing. Police could really fill their coffers if enforcement was actually enforced. To go along with point number one, if a driver is caught without a licence, they should not be allowed to drive for a number of years and if caught again with no license, a mandatory jail sentence should be handed out for 3 months.

Having said all that, none of the above will happen.

[monkey4u]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

You have to wonder how many of those tourists renting motor bikes have a valid motor bike licence in their home country. I suspect not very many have passed a motor bike driving test. The solution should be that the vehicle rentors really check who is renting their vehicle and whether they are licenced to drive that vehicle - but I dream on, that would make a serious dent in rentor's business if they turned away people with no licence.

Checking to see if a renter has a proper licence wont work.

How many bike rental agents can read English, German, or for that matter any language other than Thai.

I had a cop in Chang Rai pull me over, he got the shits as my Australian licence was not in Thai.

Being a smart individual he wanted to book my G/F,oops she no have licence

[madmitch]

I didn't know there were any Thai experts on road safety.

[deecee10]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

What has a "real driving test" got to do with the countless number of tourists who die on rented motorbikes here every year?

Hardly 'countless' numbers.

[andreandre]

Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT."

Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet.

As I post, 10 threads out of 29 threads on the front news page of the Phuket forum are roads and/or traffic and/or accident related. That's 35% of the front page threads.

The lack of public transport on Phuket continues to be the number one negative issue here, day after day, week after week - as people continue to lose their lives or be maimed on the roads here, and the best they can do is have a few experts have a meeting while only 1000kms away, in Pattaya, a baht bus system transports thousands of people evreyday, all over the tourist city.

You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS.

Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark

.

Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS..

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/577559-chiang-mai-ranks-3rd-in-the-nation-for-road-accident-deaths/

People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice, and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work.

Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport' combined with LOS terrible driving standards, encouraged and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing/rules,starting from initially obtaining a drivers license, right through to road conditions ,poor signage,non stringent enforcement of traffic laws[tea money instead of heavy fines eg] which i believe ,if rectified would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here.The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of license soon gets through, even to the most dense minds.

But consider that , no matter what is done re; lowering the road toll, worldwide people will still have crashes and many will still die..sadly, thats just the way it is!

EDIT..aussiebrian..i was writing my post whilst you had posted yours, and i may have said some things similar to you..Your post is spot on in every detail..

I couldn't disagree with you more, and I will give my reasons.

"You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS." - as mentioned, 10 out of the 29 front page news threads are transport, roads, traffic and accident related. That's 35%. That's 1 in every 3 Phuket forum news threads, started by Thaivisa, are negative land transport related threads. In my opinion, the roads, traffic and accident threads are all connected, and related to the lack of transportation on Phuket.

There's no denying that transport is a big issue on Phuket. I don't start the threads, I only post on them.

"Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark." - what if one of those lives were your own, or a family member or friend???? So, don't give me the usual, "I'm an expat so the transport issue doesn't effect me" rubbish. You could be wiped out by a drunk tourist in a hire car coming back from Bangla Road just like anyone else.

You may know how to ride/drive, and may be sober, but that doesn't mean the person coming the other way is experienced and sober. Let's be honest, they are riding/driving because it's cheaper than getting ripped off by a tuk-tuk and there are no taxis or baht buses. Nothing new about that. In any case, you have contradicted yourself. Even if it saves two lives - it has saved lives. In my opinion, it would save a lot more than two lives.

For example, picture Pattaya without their baht bus system. All the locals, expats and tourists would ride or drive - of course their accident, and therefore death toll, would skyrocket.

"Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS." - you do know Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city behind Bangkok, don't you????

Nowhere did you mention PER-CAPITA in your comparision. If you are going to compare Chiang Mai's road toll to Phuket's road toll - it should be done on a per-capita basis. If not, why not compare Chiang Mai to Shanghai - China or Mubai - India> I think you will find, on a per-capita basis, Phuket has one of the highest road tolls in South East Asia.

"People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice," - where's the choice????

200 baht minimum journey in a tuk-tuk or 250 baht a day to rent a bike. How about adding a hop on - hop -off baht bus system as a choice and some proper metered taxis like in Bangkok???? It exists in Phuket's biggest competitor destination, Pattaya, why not here????

"and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work." - REALLY???? I didn't think "Darwinism" involved the killing of an innocent law abiding road user.

"Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport'" - to be fair, they probably had no idea just how much they were going to get ripped off by tuk-tuks until they got here.

"and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing" - so, tell me, how do you get home after a big night out drinking????

"road conditions, poor signage, non stringent enforcement of traffic laws (tea money instead of heavy fines eg) which I believe, if rectified, would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here" - if they ever did seriously enforce the road laws here, particularly in relation to drink driving/riding, in my opinion, Phuket would lose what little it has left of it's western tourist market. Could you imagine the rise in tuk-tuk prices if the BiB did not take bribes and properly enforce the drink driving laws? We would be seeing 1000 baht tuk-tuk fares - it's pay, or risk going to gaol. Tourists would not come here.

"The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of licence soon gets through, even to the most dense minds." REALLY? Thailand has lengthy gaol terms, and even the death penalty, for drugs, yet, the drug use on Phuket keeps growing. Once again, with NO viable/affordable transport option, people will continue to break the road laws.

"people will still have crashes, and many will still die....sadly, that's just the way it is" - true. I have NEVER stated proper public transport would eradicate all accidents, but it would certainly save many lives on Phuket, which currently has no real public transport.

So, I will leave you with a question. In all major tourist destinations, all over the world, one can ring, or wave a taxi over, enter the vehcile, and in general, have the meter turned on, and get from Point A to Point B - WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS ON PHUKET, considering the TAT are advertising Phuket as a "World Class tourist desination?"

I've got no intention of feeding your trolling rave on tuk tuks ..you have tunnel vision on this issue and you twist and turn every comment to suit your sad wee agenda and compare all to the tuk tuk evils.

My point was simply show that even tho' CM has all manner of public transport available, the road toll is still very, very high..everything you have regurgitated in your reply above skirts around this fact!

You said "Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet. "

I have pointed out with full explanation to you that this line is a fallacy...

The rest of your post is just your usual ad nauseum rave...

[seabass69]

I didn't know there were any Thai experts on road safety.

That's why they called in the Director-General of The Department of Disease Control as the main speaker!

[Cylon]

Be honest about Phukets road toll, face the facts.Thais are not taught to drive.They just pick up their parents bad habits.No good sticking your head in the sand and pretending it doesnt happen.I have seen so many bodies with blood running from head injuries covered up on the road.But they do not get reported.The seven days of danger road toll was just the tip of the iceberg.We had 2 dead and 1 injured at the end of our Soi.never got a mention.

[Felt 35]

If I read the article correctly, this covers 14 Southern provinces and not Phuket, so a lot of the above is very pertinent to Phuket, but not necessarily to the 14 provinces. I think it comes down to a few different things. 1) Education and proper driving training. No licenses should be issued until every driver passes a certain number of hours learning traffic laws, then undergoes a rigorous driving test. 2) Enforcement needs to be implemented and more police presence and patrols are needed to catch drivers doing the wrong thing. Police could really fill their coffers if enforcement was actually enforced. To go along with point number one, if a driver is caught without a licence, they should not be allowed to drive for a number of years and if caught again with no license, a mandatory jail sentence should be handed out for 3 months.

Having said all that, none of the above will happen.

It will not happen because they who Govern Phuket and Thailand make money on the mayhem as it is.

[Paangjang]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

These are the solutions and don't really need discussing.

1. Education

2. Western sandard driving tests

3. Real law enforcement

4. Better school education for everyone to improve attitude in general.

End of meeting.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Paangjang

[fiddlehead]

We blame the Thais for the bad driving habits.
But, often it's the farangs at fault.
I've seen so many times when people from other countries get here, and think: "hey this is cool! No rules driving" and they do stupid stuff.

There are unwritten rules that Thai's follow that most of us who live here long enough understand.
Don't play chicken with a bus or cement truck. They won't slow down. (sometimes the green license plate dudes think they are a cement truck)
The guy coming at you on the wrong side of the road WILL bear to his right when he gets close.

Yeah, you can run a red light. As long as no one is coming.

etc. etc. etc.

We all learn to drive defensively.
All too often tourists are not yet aware of this.

[LivinginKata]

On the way over to Patong today I witnessed this accident. Tourists trying to overtake a minibus. Fortunately only scrapes and bruises. Ignore the time/date on the still taken from car video, I need to reset the clock.

[Felt 35]

Why, why, why look always at the wrong solutions???

Driving test would be a very good starter ! Real test

These are the solutions and don't really need discussing.

1. Education

2. Western sandard driving tests

3. Real law enforcement

4. Better school education for everyone to improve attitude in general.

End of meeting.

Well said! Unfortunately I don't think the participants at the meeting really want to hear it.