The never-ending PARADE of daredevils on Thai roads

[Asiantravel]

How to make people care enough to do something about the problem? I just don't see the will to do anything about the horrendous death toll on the roads here.

The police ignore helmetless riders, ignore appalling driving, ignore unlicensed drivers/riders............

Everybody knows several people who have died in rta's yet it does nothing to raise standards.

It won't change and all I can do is drive as safely as possible to protect myself and loved ones.

" The police ignore helmetless riders "

Two mornings ago they had their usual group of five or six police officers just outside Pattaya police station pulling up many motorcyclists to check papers etc when suddenly all the police officers started saluting an older uniformed guy who rode up on a motorbike...... who was riding without a helmet

[chrissables]

As far as motor bikes are concerned, how many fatalities are caused by dreadful road conditions? Highway 1 and 32 between Nakhon Sawan and Bangkok is very bad for the damage

caused by overloaded lorries in the first lane.

On Highway 117 about 30 Ks north of Nakhon Sawan there is one part caused by a heavy truck in the first lane, about 1 ft deep, imagine a motor cyclist hitting that, it would be instant death.

It is my opinion that if Thailand had decently maintained roads, the motorbike fatality rate would drop.

Spot on!

The sooner the causes of accidents are dealt with the better. Rather than bleating on about "should wear this" etc.

The amount of times i have read an article regarding a motorcycle rider loosing his life due to a drunk car driver (for example). The replies always seem to bleat on about if he was wearing a helmet or not! As if wearing one would stop the dam accident.

Stopping the cause of accidents should be the issue! Be it the state of the roads or other road users.

[chrissables]

A few years back I was on my CBR. Full kit and helmet. I was on Huey Kaew Road at the stoplight heading towards Computer City. A group of 6 young boys, Aussies I gather, pulled up beside me on rented scooters, short pants, flip flops, tee shirts, no helmets. One of them looked at me and said: "What's the matter, old man? You scared?" indicating my kit. "No, just sensible," I replied. Light turned green, he shot away....and promptly got smashed by a pick up who ran the light. I watched his head explode like a melon when it hit the pavement. So it's not just the Thai.

So a Thai driver broke the law and jumped a red light and you make a smug comment like that!

If the driver had not jumped the light, all would be ok, but.........blame the victim!

[LannaGuy]

A few years back I was on my CBR. Full kit and helmet. I was on Huey Kaew Road at the stoplight heading towards Computer City. A group of 6 young boys, Aussies I gather, pulled up beside me on rented scooters, short pants, flip flops, tee shirts, no helmets. One of them looked at me and said: "What's the matter, old man? You scared?" indicating my kit. "No, just sensible," I replied. Light turned green, he shot away....and promptly got smashed by a pick up who ran the light. I watched his head explode like a melon when it hit the pavement. So it's not just the Thai.

no but it was a Thai who ran the light? anyway stupidity respects no nationality and because of lax laws here farangs do things they would not 'at home'

RiP that kid who probably though he was indestructible (didn't we all when we were young?)

Thais respecting road laws and traffic lights is like the girls on Loi Khro respecting celibacy

[LannaGuy]

When I first moved to Chiang Mai 7 years ago, at a stop light you might see 1 person out of 10 on bikes who was wearing a helmet. Now it's more like 7-8 out of 10 wearing them. Friend came up here and was stunned, saying he saw more people at one stoplight, on one day, wearing helmets than he could see in a week in Samut Sakon. One of the first "rules" in insisted on with my wife and her 25 year old son was: "No helmet, I take the keys and you don't go anywhere." Then took them both out to buy good quality helmets.

it IS true a dramatic increase in CNX of helmet wearers. I'd say 90% now when it used to be 10%. A good thing... and nothing to do with the 'change' in democracy here I think it was the arrival of a new Police Chief around 4 or 5 years ago? anyway must save lives

[Seastallion]

2 words: law enforcement!

2 more words: pee poor!

Do it like Singapore. Penalty fine for the first offence, attend court for the second offence, and jail term for the third and subsequent offences.

That would be good...but do the cops on the road have instant access to the relevant databases?

[Seastallion]

"Parade of daredevils"

Many of the teenagers are that, but most older drivers are just ignorant, inconsiderate, and oblivious to safety. I am convinced that with most offences we see every day, the driver does not even realise he's in the wrong. He sees everyone else doing it all his life...it's normal, and thus it's not given a 2nd thought.

I was on a roundabout a few weeks ago, going straight through, when a tuktuk on the road to my left pulled straight out in front of me. I braked hard and came to a stop a cm from hitting him, and with my thumb on the horn. He stopped, I went around behind him and he yelled after me with swear words. He doubled around and followed me. I stopped to let wifey off at the hairdresser's shop, and this aggressive tuktuk driver stopped across the road and angrily lectured my wife on how I was such a bad driver. She asked me who was in the wrong and I explained about roundabouts and give way to the right (there's even a sign on the roundabout) and that since I was approaching from the tuktuk's right, he should not have pulled out into the roundabout. She said to me to go and tell him off as he was still stopped across the road...I said he might have a gun or a knife, it was a face thing because he had a full load of passengers...wifey said "good point, leave him alone...just ignore him". So I left.

Face is another thing...drivers simply will not concede ground or wrongdoing.

[Tomtomtom69]

When I first moved to Chiang Mai 7 years ago, at a stop light you might see 1 person out of 10 on bikes who was wearing a helmet. Now it's more like 7-8 out of 10 wearing them. Friend came up here and was stunned, saying he saw more people at one stoplight, on one day, wearing helmets than he could see in a week in Samut Sakon. One of the first "rules" in insisted on with my wife and her 25 year old son was: "No helmet, I take the keys and you don't go anywhere." Then took them both out to buy good quality helmets.

it IS true a dramatic increase in CNX of helmet wearers. I'd say 90% now when it used to be 10%. A good thing... and nothing to do with the 'change' in democracy here I think it was the arrival of a new Police Chief around 4 or 5 years ago? anyway must save lives

Baby steps maybe, but it's a good start.

[Tomtomtom69]

"Parade of daredevils"

Many of the teenagers are that, but most older drivers are just ignorant, inconsiderate, and oblivious to safety. I am convinced that with most offences we see every day, the driver does not even realise he's in the wrong. He sees everyone else doing it all his life...it's normal, and thus it's not given a 2nd thought.

I was on a roundabout a few weeks ago, going straight through, when a tuktuk on the road to my left pulled straight out in front of me. I braked hard and came to a stop a cm from hitting him, and with my thumb on the horn. He stopped, I went around behind him and he yelled after me with swear words. He doubled around and followed me. I stopped to let wifey off at the hairdresser's shop, and this aggressive tuktuk driver stopped across the road and angrily lectured my wife on how I was such a bad driver. She asked me who was in the wrong and I explained about roundabouts and give way to the right (there's even a sign on the roundabout) and that since I was approaching from the tuktuk's right, he should not have pulled out into the roundabout. She said to me to go and tell him off as he was still stopped across the road...I said he might have a gun or a knife, it was a face thing because he had a full load of passengers...wifey said "good point, leave him alone...just ignore him". So I left.

Face is another thing...drivers simply will not concede ground or wrongdoing.

A bit strange that any Thai driver would even react to you in the first place. Thai drivers are normally oblivious to all the bad driving that goes on, nobody cares if you cut them off (and they assume the same if you cut them off - they let it go) and nobody would waste their time lecturing anyone on their interpretation of "road rules".

We all know it's a free for all here and that nobody cares.

I think your report is probably one of very, very few where a driver actually developed road rage, which is generally a non-existant concept in Thailand except maybe if your bad driving happened to result in an accident. If it doesn't, then nobody cares, there's nothing to see here.

In many years of driving here and encountering many bad drivers, people cutting each other off, I have yet to see more than 1 incident of road rage, but that incident only occurred because a pickup truck driver happened to be sideswiped by a larger truck thus causing damage. The pickup truck driver tried climbing up in the cab of the much higher truck, who didn't allow him to open his door. This all unfolded next to me, as I was in the lane next to the big truck, and could spot the damage to the pickup ahead of the larger truck.

I have seen a number of Youtube videos on bad driving and road rage here in Thailand, but only the one incident in person.

[dageurreotype]

I think your report is probably one of very, very few where a driver actually developed road rage, which is generally a non-existant concept in Thailand except maybe if your bad driving happened to result in an accident. If it doesn't, then nobody cares, there's nothing to see here.

Are you serious??? Almost every day here on Phuket I see some dick or two on a Click pulling in front of another driver shouting and swearing at them and making 'pulling gun' gestures. Some even pull guns as per poor bastard on a main road in town recently gunned down in front of his kid. Some years ago, I was driving too slowly towards a main intersection as the lights had turned red. Four Thai guys honking at me got out of their pickup and strode angrily towards me. They weren't about to ask me out for a drink. Fortunately the inside lane had cleared and so did I, off Another time I happened to walk in front of some hi so git in Central's inside car park, the middle aged guy stopped, opened his door, let out a stream of abuse and then tried to reverse over me!

I remember someone writing in a local opinion piece re bad driving here 'What happens to the gentle Thai when he gets inside a car?' True that.

[Shawn0001]

How to make people care enough to do something about the problem? I just don't see the will to do anything about the horrendous death toll on the roads here.

The police ignore helmetless riders, ignore appalling driving, ignore unlicensed drivers/riders............

Everybody knows several people who have died in rta's yet it does nothing to raise standards.

It won't change and all I can do is drive as safely as possible to protect myself and loved ones.

While people continue to firmly believe in luck, fate, destiny, karma, call it what you will, if they don't believe their life course is in their own hands then they will fail to "care enough". They have the same problem is other highly religious countries.