Stars shine at Phuket teen road-safety campaign

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Stars shine at Phuket teen road-safety campaign


Thai celebrities Sophie and Chinawut Indracusin at the event in Phuket Town today. Photo: Yonlapahat Boonsusong

PHUKET: -- Thai celebrities Sophie and Chinawut Indracusin today spearheaded a campaign to raise road-safety awareness among Phuket teenagers at an event at Phuket Technical College in Phuket Town.

The campaign – organised by Siam Guardian Services and the Phuket Community Foundation – aims for a new generation of Thai drivers to become a good example for other teenagers to follow, namely by wearing helmets when riding motorbikes and be concerned about their own safety and the safety of others when driving on the road. (See story here.)

In achieving this, the campaign today taught young drivers about traffic regulations and to teach them the necessary skills to drive safely.

“I’m 17 years old, and I know that teenagers want to be cool and hang out with friends,” Sophie told The Phuket News today.

“I’ve seen many of my friends go out on their motorbikes without helmets or even a license, which is very dangerous," said the teen star, who spents years groing up in Phuket.

“I want to tell everyone that they should take better care of their own safety and protect their lives, and they should be more concerned about how this will affect their families. When accidents happen, it is the family that suffers greatly.”

Sophie’s brother, singer-actor Chinawut, better known as “Chin” among his adoring fans, agreed.

“The reason that people – including teenagers – do not care about wearing helmets is because they think that accidents won’t happen to them,” he said.

“They’re not even aware of the risk of not wearing a helmet until an accident happens.”

After a series of classes on traffic regulations and lessons on how to drive safely, the about-100 participants took to the streets to practice their new-found skills.

On their return to the college, they received an autographed helmet from Chin and Sophie, and a certificate of completion signed by the Head of Academics at the Department of Transport and the Head of the Traffic Police.

– Yonlaphat Boonsusakul

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/stars-shine-at-phuket-teen-road-safety-campaign-53383.php


-- Phuket News 2015-07-28

[Anthony5]

I'm sure this campaign will raise helmet awareness in Thailand, and increase the number of people who actually wear a helmet to 8% of the Thai population from the 7% as found by a study done by insurance companies a few months ago.

Maybe they could also try to have the policemen who stand at the school exits, to enforce the laws, and stop all the students that leave the school without helmets and with 4 on the bike.

Silly me, I forgot that Thai students are untouchable, and immune to accidents.

[gandalf12]

How many police do you see without a helmet on? I have seen quite a few

[gandalf12]

I'm sure this campaign will raise helmet awareness in Thailand, and increase the number of people who actually wear a helmet to 8% of the Thai population from the 7% as found by a study done by insurance companies a few months ago.

Maybe they could also try to have the policemen who stand at the school exits, to enforce the laws, and stop all the students that leave the school without helmets and with 4 on the bike.

Silly me, I forgot that Thai students are untouchable, and immune to accidents.

Most of them have heads thick enough to be immune

[jacky54]

They need to bring in a real driving test for bikes and cars, hard test on the highway code and more severe penalties for idiot driving. At the moment far too many use the roads as if they were either trying to kill themselves or others.