Yesterday I had to make 2 trips to the Airport,the first very early

in the morning,to drop my daughter off for return flight to UK,

the 2nd ,late at night to collect my other daughter arriving from

Bangkok.

Driving in the dark ,I passed 5/6 motor bikes,both

times without rear lights,the riders wearing dark clothing,

the downside I suppose would be the driver that happened

to run into one of these motor bikes would be held at fault.?

So for the price of a bulb,20-30 THB ,they are prepared

to risk their lives and maybe the lives of others,no wonder

so many road deaths occur here,

regards Worgeordie

Actually one young man told me he doesn't use lights because it saves the battery!

Pathetic and dangerous, totally agree with you WG.

You can't fix stupid.

The answer to your topic heading is simply..................... yes they do..................not all but a vast majority.

Not sure it's a death wish, more no idea of consequences.

Interesting comment i see about not using lights to save battery,my gf has the same idiotic idea and me being a biker of 45 years i keep telling her use the bleeden lights at all times,utoh she giving me the famous thai blank look again.

not the same thing but similar see many cars at night with no lights on,even if you flash them it never registers.

reminds me of all the people i see angle grinding or cutting concrete without safety glasses, crazy

Flashing your headlights at them doesn't work in Thailand here it just means ( to the flashed ) get out of my way I'm comming through like it or not.

Yep, good post.

It's one of my pet concerns that many (the majority?) of Thai motorcyclists have no rear light and that the front light is obscured by a basket. I nearly collected one a couple of nights ago as I turned left from my small soi and even though I looked right, I just didn't see the ninja motorcyclist 100 meteres away with no front light (or rear light) and dressed in dark clothes hurtling towards me. Believe me, it was sheer luck that he swerved out of the way, just in time.

While we're on the subject it also pains me to see mum and dad on a motorcycle and a small child either standing on the front or squashed in between. Generally, all with no crash helmets.

These are all offences against Thai traffic regulations (yes, they do exist!) and although I often see police checkpoints with dismounted motocyclists looking glum knowing that they're going to have to pay a "no helmet" "fine", I can't remember a time when I've seen a Thai family (with a child) lined up for the same treatment! . Like Worgeordie, I don't know why the police choose to ignore the situation regarding rear and/or front lights, unless of course there's no "fine" attached for a first offence?

JL-T

I honestly believe Thai's have accepted the fact that they are going to die more than Westerners and are not that afraid of it.

a westerner will say sure we are going to die and then do every thing they can think of to prolong life. In many cases they don't have to think of it the nanny state does it for them. Remember the Thai's for the most part are Buddhists and believe in reincarnation.

What bothers me is not their lack of fear but that they will put my life in danger as I do walk a lot.

I honestly believe Thai's have accepted the fact that they are going to die more than Westerners and are not that afraid of it.

a westerner will say sure we are going to die and then do every thing they can think of to prolong life. In many cases they don't have to think of it the nanny state does it for them. Remember the Thai's for the most part are Buddhists and believe in reincarnation.

What bothers me is not their lack of fear but that they will put my life in danger as I do walk a lot.

I think their lack of fear puts everyone's life at risk.

It's just a lack of road education and survival. The ones that replace the white light with red at the front and the red at the back with any other color that really blow my mind.

The answer to your question is simple. No, they don't have a death wish.

You are surrounded by Thais and from what I gather, you have been for quite a long time. If you want to know what a Thai thinks, why don't you ask them?

I think they have a similar mentality to the Arabs.

Their life is beyond their control, so why worry about it?

It's just a lack of road education and survival. The ones that replace the white light with red at the front and the red at the back with any other color that really blow my mind.

Also the cars ,pickups with darkened lenses,the only drivers that

seem to get the message,are large truck drivers they are sometimes

festooned with lights,of all colours.

regards Worgeordie

I don't think they have a death wish or want to save 20 baht. I think it's the people you see have never given it a thought. They have an empty head on these subjects. Just get on the bike and go with no cares.

To me this is an issue of no consequences for Thais.

By this I mean if they die (my wife and siblings) earnestly believe that they will have a next life. I on the other hand see "game over". This is a huge belief gulf (in my family).

For me it's the same when young Thais suicide over failed relationships at a rate I never observed in the west. Again the family do not see this as an "escape" from the suffering but rather a "reset" so you can have a better chance "next life".

My family do think my game over belief is totally absurd though......cannot grasp that at all.

I guess it's fate verses fatalism.

Forethought of grief...

It doesn't exist in a chicken's mentality, nor does it exist in a deer's. There is no forethought of grief in any animal... nor, it would seem in the way of thinking of most Thais.

99% of the time this is a very good thing. It makes a harsh life pleasant. That other 1% makes them dead.

Isn't this just an old rehashed topic?

Lack of a properly run DMV office in conjunction with driver training, regulatory enforcement and legal consequences for non-conformists...

And yes a nanny state for some things work pretty damn well...

CB

So if I was to crash into one of these 'invisible' miscreants who would I sue over the damage to my car ?

So if I was to crash into one of these 'invisible' miscreants who would I sue over the damage to my car ?

It would be your fault, of course

Go local buy a heap of amulets and you have divine protection get a few of the correct tattos and you can drive as fast as you want. Get your car fingerpainted with magical symbols in gold paint.....you dont even have to be afraid of bullets

Have you never been told the words, "your tail light is out".

Next!

I have a Thai Mechanic friend with a workshop and i once said to him that he should check all rear lights and fit a new bulb if required. He said ''I used to do that but when they see a bulb on the bill (10 Baht) they tell me they don't want it and i should take it out again ''

I asked him if it had occurred to him that he could fit them and disguise the 10 Baht on the bill as part of another charge ? I was met with a blank look, so i decided not to progress the discussion from there on.

Thainess

I have a Thai Mechanic friend with a workshop and i once said to him that he should check all rear lights and fit a new bulb if required. He said ''I used to do that but when they see a bulb on the bill (10 Baht) they tell me they don't want it and i should take it out again ''

I asked him if it had occurred to him that he could fit them and disguise the 10 Baht on the bill as part of another charge ? I was met with a blank look, so i decided not to progress the discussion from there on.

No surprise here, why spend 10 baht ... end of story,

I nag my wife to check the brake light works. She wonders why I bother with that unnecessary detail... oh well.

Was at the Lanna Hospital this afternoon visiting friend in ICU cleaned up on a car verses mc.

I left at shift changeover at dusk to see a gaggle of ER and ICU nurses leaving sans helmet straight on to the freeway. Only head protection was hairpins.

They have the knowledge and nurse the victims. Accidents are seen as an occupational hazard of Thainess rather than something that can be prevented or mitigated.

No doubt they will also complain about the extra Songkran workload. It must be a tremendous financial strain on families where a person sustains permanent incapacitation rather than death yet the body count will be rolled out again shortly with CM featuring prominently once more. So much for moderation and the middle path.

And worse for me...no one thinks of the children orphaned behind..inexcusable and hardly Buddhist right thinking.

Isn't this just an old rehashed topic?

Lack of a properly run DMV office in conjunction with driver training, regulatory enforcement and legal consequences for non-conformists...

And yes a nanny state for some things work pretty damn well...

CB

Those are the conditions where I lived. I am not looking for them here. I know the risk and take care to avoid it. Where as back home many people just assume the government will take care of them.

In a round about explanation for my point of view is a saying I had heard. Maybe here on Thai Visa

" Westerners live to work and Thais work to live." Crude but it means a lot to me.

To be fair though I have to admit I come from a generation where we could enjoy a card board box for a day of playing. Definitely not the case with this or the last generation or two.

The simplest answer to any question about the difference in Thai behaviour to ours is because they are stupid, and as you can see, a few simpletons have already made an appearance, making exactly that comment. Nothing new there.

How many years is it since road safety campaigns started in the west? My guess is 50 or more. Why did the respective governments introduce these campaigns? Because everyone was stupid, right? They were introduced because, like people the world over, most westerners had a 'it won't happen to me' attitude. Thais have the same attitude and just like Westerners back then, they have their superstitions/religious beliefs to protect them. Does anyone remember St. christopher, or lucky rabbit's feet?

Whereas we have had the benefit of 50 years of road safety campaigns I would say that the very few road safety campaigns here started only a few years ago. Consequently, Thais have the same attitude to road safety now, as we did before the campaigns. And despite the constant reminders of road safety back home, plenty of people living here, when given the chance, choose to ignore those words of advice and drive without helmets or seat-belts and possibly broken lights.

How many people back home would not wear a seatbelt or helmet if they knew for sure that they could get away with it, or if they hadn't had 50 years of constant reminders of the dangers? Plenty, possibly most, I would say. Most Westerners views on road safety have been shaped by the 50 years of reminders and it would be fair to assume that in the absence of those reminders we would probably be acting no differently to present-day Thais. If we were all so clever and so worried about dying, especially without the benefit of believing in rebirth, we should have always been so safety-minded and wouldn't have needed a government to spell out the dangers in the first place!

So, I hate to dissapoint so many people but it may well be that Thais are not as stupid as you think. They are at a different stage of development and are on average less educated or informed as we are on these matters but that is not the same as being stupid.

I will give some advice to those that live here and spend most of their days getting angry and frustrated because the locals don't do things the way that you do, and I know there are plenty of them on this forum. It's not that difficult really, and I still do it occasionally, even after all these years. Are you ready? Are you sitting comfortably?

Here is my advice, my theory, what I made up, what I figured out, by myself, just me, and no-one else. ........

If you don't understand why someone is behaving differently to how you would behave, then instead of jumping to the conclusion that they must be stupid, consider first that it may just be that they are different. If you discount the 'stupid' theory completely and look for an alternative explanation, the likelihood of you understanding people is greatly enhanced. The likelihood of you realising that they are not much different to anyone else in the world is also increased.

After a while of using this technique you'll soon discover that life is a lot less stressful, that you understand people a bit better and before you know it, you'll find that you no longer start sentences with the words "these people ..... " or say that Thais are Pathetic, stupid, idiotic, crazy, mind-blowing, empty-headed, miscreants,. All of which popped up in this topic. You may even find yourself not needing to go onto forums to ask daft questions!

One more thing..... Comparing them to chickens and deer doesn't help.