Underage students driving to school

[Bung]

Madness. I have been noticing students hopping into cars driving off from my sons school for a while now obviously too young to drive legally (one lives down the road and I know he is only 14....) and today had a near accident from a very aggressive move then seeing a 15-16 year old getting out of the car and walking into class.....No raining, no license, no insurance....

It has become a bit out of control around the carpark and this school (V***e in Chiang Mai) has a lot of young kindergarten kids so I guess it is only a matter of time before a tragic accident happens then they decide to do something about it. Also a lot of kids on bikes, no helmets roaring off, one kid is on a 650cc bike! I guess their parents are so proud their kids can drive and what a relief they don't have to drive them any more!!

Very disappointed that they allow this to go on, there are teachers there every day, they see it too. Like everything here they allow it until there is a tragedy then do something.

[masuk]

Leave it to the B. i. B.

They'll do exactly nothing.

[Briggsy]

Thailand has had an appalling traffic accident injury and fatality rate for decades. They have chosen to do very little about it. Your observations record just one of many serious failings in a chaotic system that endangers the lives of not only the dangerous drivers, but of innocent road users too.

[crazygreg44]

Mai pen Rai. If they all have decided to bear the risks, what can you do ? Buy a fat amulet and start looking into every direction before crossing a road or a parking lot

[A1Str8]

Nothing will be done until a few kids die. Then they will probably blame it on bad spirits and foreigners.

Edited December 19, 2014 by A1Str8

[otherstuff1957]

I don't mean to Thai-bash, but I have noticed that parents of young children tend to by wildly overprotective. Then, when the kids turn 13 or so, the parents just 'turn off' and the teenagers are free to do whatever they want. It's not uncommon for M2 or M3 students to miss a day because they were 'up playing games all night'. Apparently the parents are unable to tell their kids to turn off their computer and go to sleep.

[lostinisaan]

You would be shocked, when you'd see how people are driving in Sisaket area. And how old these drivers sometimes are. You seem to be new to Thailand as this is pretty much common here.

In a country where the majority of adults don't even have a permit to drive a car, or motorbike, it's pretty much common to see little kids driving motorbikes who can't even reach the road with their feet, because they're so small....

I made it clear and told my son that he won't drive without a license and all in a sudden almost half of his classmates followed and made their license too.

I've seen quite a few teenagers dying on Sisaket's roads in my 12 years here and nothing could surprise me anymore.

I've seen completely destroyed skulls and the kids' brains, etc....I hope one day they'll start and show such photos to all kids at school.

[Bung]

I emailed the school but haveing lived here for 16 years wseen enough that nothing will happen. They will make a big deal about it once someone dies.

I asked why not set up a friendly police road block at the school and just check for licenses? Issue a warning and have the kids call there parents to come collect their cars. It would be nice for us adults to set an example to kids, how can it ever change if we dont?

I guess the parents are prepared to pay up the money if their child kills someone? Better hope it is a poor person....

[alfieconn]

I emailed the school but haveing lived here for 16 years wseen enough that nothing will happen. They will make a big deal about it once someone dies.

I asked why not set up a friendly police road block at the school and just check for licenses? Issue a warning and have the kids call there parents to come collect their cars. It would be nice for us adults to set an example to kids, how can it ever change if we dont?

I guess the parents are prepared to pay up the money if their child kills someone? Better hope it is a poor person....

Yes they will make a big deal of it, like when my daughters 3 best friends died in a motorbike accident approx 18 months ago but like most things here it soon got forgotten.

To be fair it is down to the parents rather than the school as even if the school said "if you have no license or crash helmet your not allowed in the school grounds" they would just park down the road.

When you say "for us adults to set an example to kids" I wouldn't put a majority of Thai adults in that "us" bracket.

[lostinisaan]

I emailed the school but haveing lived here for 16 years wseen enough that nothing will happen. They will make a big deal about it once someone dies.

I asked why not set up a friendly police road block at the school and just check for licenses? Issue a warning and have the kids call there parents to come collect their cars. It would be nice for us adults to set an example to kids, how can it ever change if we dont?

I guess the parents are prepared to pay up the money if their child kills someone? Better hope it is a poor person....

Please do yourself a big favor and just live with it. You can't change a system, where people lose so much face. Good weekend from Sisaket.

[SlyAnimal]

Yeah it's a little crazy, especially as the legal age to drive in Thailand is 18 (Or 15 is the bike is under 100cc).

Although apart from it being against the law here I wouldn't see it as a problem for teenagers to be driving.

As the legal age to drive in NZ is/was 15 (maybe 16 now, I can't remember), although that of course comes with quite a few restrictions.

The difference is just "Thai style", of creating a quite restrictive law, and then not enforcing it, as opposed to creating a less restrictive law and the regulating it.

So many problems in Thailand could be solved if they eased up the laws but then started actually enforcing them and regulating industries which are currently operating with impunity outside of the law.

[bangmai]

They couldn't possibly be worse drivers than their parents. I don't know if it was your school in CNX, but I was in the area of Mccormick Hospital one afternoon at about 15:30 close to one of the schools, and I was completely shocked at the careless disregard for others exhibited by the parents picking up their brats, or perhaps the brats picking up their brat kids. I had an epiphany, and that was that I would never do any of these schools a favor by working long hours at substandard wages if this is their style. In other Words, if the parents drive their cars like stupid a-holes near the school, that is a sure sign that they will have to pay a premium for my presence.

[Scott]

Years ago, we had a student who was very young who started driving to school. Several teachers were quite concerned because when he left school there was a car full of students who rode with him. It was particularly dangerous because the school was on the edge of BKK and the student was headed into some pretty major roads.

A couple of teachers decided to tell the police officer who directed traffic in front of the school. It turned out the student driver was his nephew.

So much for any action on that matter.

[cgphuket]

I know its wrong, but when I see how many teachers (foreign) at my school drive a car without a license, and brag about it, or come to school on a motorbike with no helmet, its hard to set a good example.

[lostinisaan]

Yeah it's a little crazy, especially as the legal age to drive in Thailand is 18 (Or 15 is the bike is under 100cc).

Although apart from it being against the law here I wouldn't see it as a problem for teenagers to be driving.

As the legal age to drive in NZ is/was 15 (maybe 16 now, I can't remember), although that of course comes with quite a few restrictions.

The difference is just "Thai style", of creating a quite restrictive law, and then not enforcing it, as opposed to creating a less restrictive law and the regulating it.

So many problems in Thailand could be solved if they eased up the laws but then started actually enforcing them and regulating industries which are currently operating with impunity outside of the law.

But would this country have for example German traffic laws with their harsh fines, doing a traffic light gives you a one month break and costs a lot of money. Do something similar again and you don't drive for one year and pay a lot of money.

Drive your car with one beer too much and you'll have to see a psychologist, who decides after a year not driving, if you're allowed to do so.Etc....

Then take 50 % of unmarried peoples' income and name it tax, would you be okay with that?

Don't you think that certain things make this country to a place why many people decide to settle down here?

Edited December 20, 2014 by lostinisaan

[SlyAnimal]

Yeah it's a little crazy, especially as the legal age to drive in Thailand is 18 (Or 15 is the bike is under 100cc).

Although apart from it being against the law here I wouldn't see it as a problem for teenagers to be driving.

As the legal age to drive in NZ is/was 15 (maybe 16 now, I can't remember), although that of course comes with quite a few restrictions.

The difference is just "Thai style", of creating a quite restrictive law, and then not enforcing it, as opposed to creating a less restrictive law and the regulating it.

So many problems in Thailand could be solved if they eased up the laws but then started actually enforcing them and regulating industries which are currently operating with impunity outside of the law.

But would this country have for example German traffic laws with their harsh fines, doing a traffic light gives you a one month break and costs a lot of money. Do something similar again and you don't drive for one year and pay a lot of money.

Drive your car with one beer too much and you'll have to see a psychologist, who decides after a year not driving, if you're allowed to do so.Etc....

Then take 50 % of unmarried peoples' income and name it tax, would you be okay with that?

Don't you think that certain things make this country to a place why many people here decide to settle down?

You've missed my point :-p

I meant that if, for example, instead of making gambling & prostitution illegal, instead have every casino & brothel bribe the local police, if they instead obtained a licence from the government in exchange for annual fees + meeting certain standards etc.

Or if the street & beach vendors, who are being kicked off the streets/beaches by the military, could simply pay a monthly fee to the city council in order to run their stalls, rather than just paying the police directly as they did previously.

The same applies to driving, if instead of the police selectively enforcing driver's licenses etc, they instead lowered the age at which people could apply provided they took a certified driving course first.

There are so many ways which the government could maintain a similar "easy" style of living while improving it at the same time. As a lot of the situations where the police take bribes to not enforce the law, could be turned around, whereby businesses simply pay the government to instead grant them a licence in exchange for some regulations being met.

[Scott]

The most unpleasant part of any day I have is getting into a vehicle and battling the traffic and the complete disregard for driving laws. I've lived and worked in war zones and felt much safer than I do on the roads in Thailand.

I often hear about how many students are 'spoiled brats' based on the fact that the parents drive them to school and then pick them up each day. I certainly wouldn't entrust a child to the care of some of the public road transport or school buses.

Here's an example: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/785079-thai-school-to-compensate-family-for-running-over-boy-after-dropping-him-at-home/?utm_source=newsletter-20141218-1509&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

[transam]

In LOS nobody cares about anything, just the way it is......BUT, they soon moan if there is an accident involving their unlicensed/insured kid ..............

[garrya]

Beat this. The disciplinary officer of the popular local school is often taken to school by motorbike driven by underage students wearing no helmet.

[lostinisaan]

In LOS nobody cares about anything, just the way it is......BUT, they soon moan if there is an accident involving their unlicensed/insured kid ..............

Please visit "YES", a private school, way out of town and you'll see what "spoiled kid" look and act like.