Thailand ranks among countries with highest road deaths

[captainhornblower]

Topping the list was the Maldives....

This is not really surprising in a Republic which is 97% ocean and the only place that has any real volume of cars is Male the capital island. The problem is there are so many cars it is one big traffic jam all day and all night. The island is about six square km and has a population of 155,000 people.

I am actually surprised anyone ever dies in road accidents..

[webfact]

Thailand ranked third among countries having highest road fatality rates



BANGKOK: -- Thailand was ranked the third among the countries that had recorded the highest road fatalities in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

NNT reported that Libya in the Middle East came on top of the highest road fatalities, followed by Iraq.

It named Maldives as the safest country with the lowest rate of road fatalities.

WHO listed five countries with the highest road fatalities in the world, among them is Thailand.

WHO conducted survey on countries around the world in regard to the rate of traffic-related deaths.

As a result, the country found to have the highest death rate was Libya, with a record of 48.4 per 100,000 people, followed by Iraq at 40.5.

Thailand was placed at number three, with a fatality rate of 38.1 per 100,000 people.

South Africa and the United Kingdom came at the fourth and fifth rankings respectively.

On the other hand, WHO also compiled a list of countries with the highest road safety.

Topping the list was the Maldives, with a road fatality rate of only 1.9 per 100,000 people, followed by Norway at the second place, Denmark and Sweden at the third, and Switzerland at the fifth.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailand-ranked-third-among-countries-having-highest-road-fatality-rates


-- Thai PBS 2015-09-09

[meltingpot2015]

Foreigners just arriving in Thailand, please take additional care. Especially if you are riding a motorcycle or bicycle. I am speaking from experience (had a close call) and the amount of road accidents involving foreigners you read about here on this very forum.

[itsmylife]

I see many pick up truck here drive like Lunatic .

[sawadee1947]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

[hugh2121]

Well, let's see, the last report I read, which was 2012, had Namibia as #1, and Thailand as #2. Now this report says Thailand is #3, and Namibia isn't even mentioned. Even that aside, placing Thailand at #3 behind two war torn countries is a joke in itself.

WHO website data is for year 2010. Even so, it has been inaccurately copied.

[hugh2121]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

Clearly you do not know the reason behind driving on the left. it is historical and dates back to knights in armour riding horseback. Oops, some countries don't have that much history.

[BuaBS]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

Ergonomicly , I think the Brits got that one right. Now if they could only follow the rest of the modern world and think decimal : instead of miles, feet, inches, oz, pounds ,gallons,....metre, liter , gram .

[zaphod reborn]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

And the Thais copied them!

[Paul Hancock]

The latest data I can find is for 2010 which can be found here: http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/traffic_deaths_rates/en/

The UK is among the lowest in the table at 3.7 deaths per 100,000. Thailand is indeed close to the top at 38.1 - not sure if someone moved a decimal point for the UK.

[MartinL]

Utter Garbage !!

UK 5th most fatalities ??? I don't think so.

The UK has a fine safety record.

Shame on the author of this nonsense.

Well I doubt the author used wrong or bogus numbers. If, like me you haven't been to your former home for a while, you might be surprised at the relationship between immigration (from non-English-speaking countries) and road driving skills. Not politically correct I know, but life's a bit like that sometimes.

London is already a city where native British people are in a minority. It's like Bangkok being a predominantly Uighur or Indian - or farang city. Imagine the impact.

I don't personally have a problem with immigration, but then I don't live there so I don't have a reason, but to ignore the obvious cultural and educational impact on the basis of political correctness seems a bit like negligence.

Have a look at the data presented in the link in Post 17, although it dates from 2010 - Thailand 38.1 deaths/100,000 pop., UK 3.7. It's clear that the OP has made a massive error in the interpretation of the data.

This http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/road-traffic-accidents/by-country/ (data from WHO 2014) which has Thailand as 14/172 and UK as 169/172 and this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate where Thailand is 3/185, UK 176/185.

Edited September 9, 2015 by MartinL

[jaywalker]

I blame WHO for this error. They published their information in Country name order requiring the need for copy, paste, and SORT rather than just copy and paste.

Original data here if anybody is interested http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A997

As pointed out above. UK way down the list and rightly so.

I Googled all over about this.

Latest data I could find was 2012 I think on Wikipedia. It showed UK at 3.5 per 100K & Thailand at 38.1 deaths per 100K.

Same report had the US tied with Bangladesh though at 11.6 per 100K, so methinks they are full of bull no matter what.

I've been to Bangladesh. They make Thailand look 1st world.

[Jeremy50]

If transparency was part of it. Thailand is maybe No 1?

Well, I've driven in France and Italy, both legendary for bad and/or aggressive driving. Even so, driving in Bangkok came as a bit of a shock.

I've just come back from 2 months cycle touring in France, and I thought the standard of driving very high, only 2 times in 3000K did I witness a potentially dangerous situation on the roads. There are constant reminders for drivers to keep their speed down. The police are professional and alert.

The UK has a population 10 million larger than Thailand, UK road deaths are about 1500 a year.

Road deaths in Thailand average 26000 a year. So clearly the so called journalist made a stupid mistake which he should correct.

I never saw anyone ride or drive on the wrong side of the road in France, which I see hundreds of times a day over here, neither any of the dozens of other suicidal stunts Thai road users seem to relish.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

If I am not mistaken, last year Somalia was #1 and now they are not even in the top 5?

Also it has been said may times that the Thai death toll #'s only reflect those that die at the scene and does not count those that die later in hospital etc.

If this is true then Thai is likely #1 in the world and I am not surprised.

I hate traveling on the highways here. actually it is dangerous enough just walking on the street (no room to walk on the sidewalks and if there is room the sidewalks are in such a state of disrepair they present their own dangers).

[GarryP]

Thailand should be proud. It is also in the top ten for boating deaths. Once they open up the skies to Joe Public they will have a full monopoly, land, sea and air deaths.

[ianf]

Ah well according to this , things must be improving as Thailand was second a while back, preceded by Namibia , I think, and now it is in Third place , and what happened to Namibia in 1st place ?

Also do not forget that Thailand's body count only counts dead at the scene of an accident , and not those that don't survive the ambulance trip or hospital treatment, Government hospitals or others.

Yes. When Thailand was number 1, some bright spark decided to do something to improve the situation. They reduced the figures by no longer counting deaths after the accident - If the person wasn't dead on the road but died an hour later in the ambulance then that didn't count any longer. So in reality I quite believe that Thailand is number one.

Edited September 9, 2015 by ianf

[impulse]

Given that scooters are 20-40x more dangerous than cars, I'd bet any "safe" country with economics that force 70-80% of their private transport from 4 wheels and seatbelts onto 2 wheels and pickup trucks piled with people in back would show horrible numbers, too.

The stats would be a lot more meaningful if they showed deaths per 1 billion passenger miles (instead of per capita), and broke out scooters, public transport and private cars. But that ain't going to happen...

[Broken Record]

- It should be reminded that between 70 to 80% of road fatalities in Thailand involve motorcycle.

Don't bring that fact into it Johnny, it waters down the Thai Bashing frenzy that accompanies these threads, and they seem to appear quite often, ( wonder why ? ).

Edited September 9, 2015 by Broken Record

[duckmandon]

I blame WHO for this error. They published their information in Country name order requiring the need for copy, paste, and SORT rather than just copy and paste.

Original data here if anybody is interested http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A997

As pointed out above. UK way down the list and rightly so.

Wow a 2010 survey. Maybe a bit out of date me thinks.

[Kannikapor88]

Thailand is #1 Traffic Killer in the World when counting in the victims that dies in Ambulance and Hospital ...

The most reckless, selfish, idiotic drunk drivers in the World so congrats with that ...

[phiti]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

Clearly you do not know the reason behind driving on the left. it is historical and dates back to knights in armour riding horseback. Oops, some countries don't have that much history.

Yes, it was the norm to keep your horse and carriage on the left side of the road until the French decided to be awkward and switch to the right, thus the French colonies drove on the right and mainland Europe ended up doing the same.

[slapout]

Fatilities for any and all reasons end up being the same in every country of the world. 100% of every 100,000 population is going to die.for some reason or other.

Some use fatilities per miles / kilometers driven within the countries borders, do they figure tourist non residents traveling thru?Others road fatilities per 100,000 population, why not per 100,000 of those owning / driving, ok forget the pedistren.

Other use figures that exclude those that died away from the accident scene, who verified they were dead, the police sometimes never even arrive until the bodies and vehicles are moved / gone.

I think everyone will agree Thaland is not a safe place to be if vehicle traffic is within your sight, even from the relative safety of your front poarch, with possible exception of a condo/ townhouse.

Its all kind of a moot point as so many different parameters and number crunching methods are used.

[Mango Bob]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

Clearly you do not know the reason behind driving on the left. it is historical and dates back to knights in armour riding horseback. Oops, some countries don't have that much history.

My country has a history of killing the Brits butt not only once but twice.

[balo]

It was a nightmare to drive on the roads in the UK last I visited , no wonder they are high up on that list.

But Thailand is worse than anyone else , thats for sure.

[mercman24]

no rules here, i was crossing Rama 4 on the zebra crossing yesterday afternoon, cars stopped at a red light, when a people carrier pulled out from behind 2 of the leading stationary vehicles, jumped the red light big time. and nearly mowed me down.obviously could not wait the 2 minutes for the lights to change, bar steward.

[Ulic]

Nothing new here, Thailand near the top of the list even though they do not count victims that die

on the way or at the hospital, as they did not die at the accident. Also not news is the factual

errors in this article placing the UK at the 5th most dangerous country for road deaths. The normal

disregard for fact checking. Nothing new here.

[BuaBS]

If transparency was part of it. Thailand is maybe No 1?

Well, I've driven in France and Italy, both legendary for bad and/or aggressive driving. Even so, driving in Bangkok came as a bit of a shock.

I've just come back from 2 months cycle touring in France, and I thought the standard of driving very high, only 2 times in 3000K did I witness a potentially dangerous situation on the roads. There are constant reminders for drivers to keep their speed down. The police are professional and alert.

The UK has a population 10 million larger than Thailand, UK road deaths are about 1500 a year.

Road deaths in Thailand average 26000 a year. So clearly the so called journalist made a stupid mistake which he should correct.

I never saw anyone ride or drive on the wrong side of the road in France, which I see hundreds of times a day over here, neither any of the dozens of other suicidal stunts Thai road users seem to relish.

I have no problem with Thais driving on the wrong side , I do it myself too. Driving 500 m on the wrong side or 5 km or more for a f.. U-turn...when in Rome Thailand , do like the Thai do.

[KimSamui]

Well, let's see, the last report I read, which was 2012, had Namibia as #1, and Thailand as #2. Now this report says Thailand is #3, and Namibia isn't even mentioned. Even that aside, placing Thailand at #3 behind two war torn countries is a joke in itself.

Nah... I don't believe it Thailand IS the worst!

[mark131v]

UK's rank is not surprising to me:....They are driving on the wrong side of the street

Clearly you do not know the reason behind driving on the left. it is historical and dates back to knights in armour riding horseback. Oops, some countries don't have that much history.

My country has a history of killing the Brits butt not only once but twice.

Hey Bob, I wrote out a long reply and then thought why should I bother feeding the trolls, so I wont!

Edited September 9, 2015 by mark131v

[fitnesspm]

In Australia about 300 people die a year on their roads.

In Thailand it's 500 a week.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Road-death-toll-in-Thailand-among-highest-in-the-w-30202066.html

I don't need my coffee in the morning when I drive my bike on the roads here. Love the adrenalin rush!

Edited September 9, 2015 by fitnesspm