Anti-drink networks urge Thai police to clamp down on drunk driving

[webfact]

Anti-drink networks urge police to clamp down on drunk driving

BANGKOK, 28 March 2014 (NNT) - Anti-alcohol networks are urging highway police to toughen the ban on drunk-driving during the upcoming Songkran Festival.

Over 30 activists submitted a petition to the agency to call for a strict enforcement of the Alcohol Control Act in a bid to reduce mortality rates during the holiday.

According to the networks, during the “Seven Dangerous Days” period last year, 321 people were killed and over 3,000 injured on the road.

The leading cause of death has consistently been drunk-driving and more than 90 percent of those killed has blood alcohol content over the safety limit at the time of their death.

They further expressed their concern that teenagers can easily purchase alcoholic drinks on the side of highways and major roads during the long weekend.


-- NNT 2014-03-28

[Why ask]

Mmmmm. Let's wait for the count to begin, and expect huge changes via police action. As if.

[selftaopath]

Pathetic Thai police .... they are URGED to enforce laws. Please stop calling them Royal. What a bunch of BUMS.

[Borzandy]

Thai police doesn't have any tool to control drunk drivers.....

[Yunla]

Drinking and driving completely destroys families' lives. My best friend at school was killed by a drunk-driver one week before her sixteenth birthday. It completely destroyed her parents' lives, and left a big number of schoolchildren in tears for a long time afterwards.

Being killed by somebody just because they are drunk, is harder to deal with than if the person was killed by a lunatic murderer, because as tragic as murder is at least it was intentional and you can tell yourself that society has always had psychopaths murdering others for their own reasons, the low chances of meeting a psychopath murderer are a risk factor we accept as part of being alive. But to be killed by somebody just because they are drunk and careless, is far harder to deal with because the driver had no animosity towards the deceased, no reasons (not even delusional psychotic reasons) to kill them, so it is completely avoidable and needless. This makes it a lot harder to find closure.

I took my clean driver's licence (with zero points on it) back to the DVLA around twenty years ago, and I insisted they cancel it, because my MS had got to the "epilepsy component" stage where I felt I should not be behind a wheel ever again - for the safety of other people.

I will echo the sentiments in the OP, although I don't see it as a short-term "Songkran / New Year" issue - this needs to be year round regulation. Drink-driving is not a joke, it is not a test of a person's skills to be able to "handle it", it is the real world and real people whose lives will be destroyed just because somebody chose to drive after drinking heavily. Road safety regulations are one of the most urgent priority issues over here, along with driver-proficiency regulations. Even in a developing nation, these things should be taken seriously and regulated harshly.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Yunla

[noitom]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Thai police doesn't have any tool to control drunk drivers.....

They can arrest them and suspend their driving licenses. Put them in jail - that will help.

[tomyummer]

What are the stats between cars and motorcycle deaths due to alcohol during Songkran? I would assume escalated for motorcycles during that time.

[madmitch]

Same, same every year at this time.

It's time they enforced the law year-round but in a country where the police are obliged to boost their salaries with unofficial "fines" it ain't gonna happen.

[art vandelay]

'Over 30 activists submitted a petition to the agency to call for a strict enforcement of the Alcohol Control Act in a bid to reduce mortality rates during the holiday.'

crikey, there are more than 30 people in thailand who care enough about drunk driving to do something about it. quite a result.

[Bkungbank]

The main factors will only enforcement officers, it's more on to educate family members by not letting the drunk drivers drove as police cannot control millions of cars and motorcycle but family members can supervise the situation of their love one.

[JesseFrank]

So, it is only during Songkran that drunk driving is banned ?

[spidermike007]

Law enforcement. What a concept. I consider the cops here to be revenue collection agents, and not law enforcement officials. I rarely seem them actually enforcing the law. Especially in the lawless zones of Samui, and Phuket. Would be nice if there was some law enforcement. We do not need the big brother enforcement found in the UK, and the US. But some kind of balance? Until the central government starts devoting billions of dollars annually to improving law enforcement, nothing will change. Increase the salaries, start providing multi million dollar forensic labs, start training detectives overseas (simply admit you do not have the "stuff" to train them yourselves), and make the police into real detectives, and policemen. Imagine such a concept?

[fred007]

Pathetic Thai police .... they are URGED to enforce laws. Please stop calling them Royal. What a bunch of BUMS.

Beware these Bums have your Photo.

[VocalNeal]

These so called anti-alcohol networks couldn't be by chance sponsored, supported or even organized by Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons or other US based religious nutters.

Edited March 28, 2014 by VocalNeal

[OZEMADE]

So they had better start breath testing the Police before they start duty, as I know a lot of them that get on the grog before, during and after work.

[darren84310]

They also need to clamp down on the scam in Ubon, where Thais go and pay 1000 baht under table for a driving license.

[Fiddlesticks]

Lately, alcohol is the least of our worries with Thai teenagers. Now they are getting their hands on grenades! Gotta love this place!

[Nickymaster]

I think it is fair to say that one should not pin a lot of hopes on the Thai police with regards to law enforcement. Ok, I should be fair. They of course do enforce the law, and in some cases very good albeit selective.

[godden]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Thai police doesn't have any tool to control drunk drivers.....

They can arrest them and suspend their driving licenses. Put them in jail - that will help.

What driving license, was it last year they stoped 48000motorists and 34000 couldn't produce a license

[Gsxrnz]

Thai police doesn't have any tool to control drunk drivers.....

The Thai Police Boys in Brown are nothing, if not a bunch of Tools.

[loongdavid]

Firstly, I am an atheist but I find it very offensive when some alcohol induced slob calls Mormons (amongst others) "religious nutters". Obviously you know nothing whatsoever about their religious beliefs or you wouldn't make such stupid and outlandish remarks. Secondly, I concur with statements posted regarding the abysmal conduct of the police not only in Ubon but from what I have seen, most of Isaan as well.

[h90]

Pathetic Thai police .... they are URGED to enforce laws. Please stop calling them Royal. What a bunch of BUMS.

stop calling them police as well

[allan michaud]

Snow balls chance in hell of the police doing jack. And if we are going to provide statistics, the simple fact is the so called 7 dangerous days are far less dangerous that an average day on the Thai roads as the national average is closer to 55 deaths per day, so 45 per day during the holiday seems pretty good to me.

UNTIL YOU SACK ALL THE POLICE AND START FROM SCRATCH NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

They also need to clamp down on the scam in Ubon, where Thais go and pay 1000 baht under table for a driving license.

1000 baht wow, used to be 300 baht before in Phuket.

[kbelyeu]

Firstly, I am an atheist but I find it very offensive when some alcohol induced slob calls Mormons (amongst others) "religious nutters". Obviously you know nothing whatsoever about their religious beliefs or you wouldn't make such stupid and outlandish remarks. Secondly, I concur with statements posted regarding the abysmal conduct of the police not only in Ubon but from what I have seen, most of Isaan as well.

Umm anyone claiming to have the "healing hand" like the Mormons do is a complete nutter so please crawl back into your shell.

Kurt

[kbelyeu]

Snow balls chance in hell of the police doing jack. And if we are going to provide statistics, the simple fact is the so called 7 dangerous days are far less dangerous that an average day on the Thai roads as the national average is closer to 55 deaths per day, so 45 per day during the holiday seems pretty good to me.

UNTIL YOU SACK ALL THE POLICE AND START FROM SCRATCH NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE.

I hate to say it but I will.. if you guys are so hell bent on having a police state why not return to your country of origin?

Regards,

Kurt

[Bluespunk]

Snow balls chance in hell of the police doing jack. And if we are going to provide statistics, the simple fact is the so called 7 dangerous days are far less dangerous that an average day on the Thai roads as the national average is closer to 55 deaths per day, so 45 per day during the holiday seems pretty good to me.

UNTIL YOU SACK ALL THE POLICE AND START FROM SCRATCH NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE.

I hate to say it but I will.. if you guys are so hell bent on having a police state why not return to your country of origin?

Regards,

Kurt

Preventing needless deaths by enforcing drink driving laws equates to a police state? Don't think so. However

"The leading cause of death has consistently been drunk-driving and more than 90 percent of those killed has blood alcohol content over the safety limit at the time of their death."

I am seeing a potentially alternative solution to bringing down the number of deaths.

[loongdavid]

kbelyeu. Regrettably, you have sunk to the level of personal abuse so now we all know your level of education and/or intelligence. Perhaps when you post comments, the like of which we have had to endure, you may like to precede them by doing a little research. The LDS faith (Mormans) and the Royal Thai Police are but two examples. Anyway Kurt , you try to have a nice day.