Seven dangerous days: Road toll worse than last year on fifth day

[Assurancetourix]

. Cement trucks and semi drivers should be Jailed Immediately

Strange answer...

Cement driver on Koh Samui, I'm ok with you ;

but semi drivers ...!!??

Most of them drive slowly ;

follow a Fox truck for example ;

there are thousands of FOX trucls in Thailand ..

I like to shoot photo of truck drivers when cycling on main rd 22 between Udon Thani and Nakon Phanom ; I never saw one doing a dangerous operation ;

I cannot say or write the same with bababobo bus and minivan drivers .

And I know what about I,m writing; it was my job during nearly all my active posts when working ;

coaches and semi driver all over Europe; from 1971 to 2007 .

[Si Thea01]

Just passed thruogh a check point coming into Loei, waved down,almost stopped, then waved on. Only checking for current tax labels. Maybe checking those who were stopped for alcohol but would bet my left titty on it not happening. if they were serious about alcohol or drugs and one of the most dangerous, fatigue, then they woud have been checking all, not just a select few who they can get any easy payment from. The biggest joke is the Highway Patrol, drivers speeding past them, do they stop them, haven't seen any do so. They just drive along and appear to be quite oblivious to anything happening around them. If they enforced the law, then it might help in reducing the road toll but then this is Amazing Thailand, where if anything was enforced as it should be then we would all be truly amazed.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Si Thea01

[featography]

26 per cent of road accidents were caused by drunk driving.

17 per cent speeding.

And the remaining 57 per cent ???

Fatalities, injuries and accidents were ""significantly"" higher than during the same period last year.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd praised the campaign of seizing vehicles of drunk drivers, as it had been ""successful"".

300 people killed in the 5 days ??

These statistics have no accuracy.

The average road-deaths per day is 72.

3,046 vehicles were seized and 30,152 people were charged with drink driving since December 25 ??

That's 10 drivers charged per vehicle.

This entire article is nonsense !!

I'm telling you, Thailand has adopted Common Core Math.

[ignis]

All these U-turns are dangerous, appear many cars and motorbike drivers/rides have no idea what a turn signal [indicator] means on a bus or truck in the middle lane at such a U-turn..

Simply it impossible for these vehicles to make a U-turn by keeping to the right, yet almost every day I see car/trucks and motorbike going under trucks making these U turns.

Is it poor training ? appear so many have no idea how much room a big truck needs to make a turn........ and yes have seen the same on trucks turning left, they have no option but to be well out to make the turn, yet cars motorbikes try to undertake...... once the cab starts turning the mirrors can no longer see what is behind or alongside, they only know if they run over someone or over a car.

You're quite correct that lorries and busses cannot manage a U turn from the far right hand lane.

Perhaps they should not be allowed to make U turns?

Not far from me, until they made the new road 2 and 3 lanes each way, big trucks could simply turn into there yards with no problems, the big buses could turn in there depot... all that changed 2 years ago with a centre wall or drainage deep gully with U-turn all along the 20 odd km. [no point going to the end as you can turn right or left = same thing both ways, the only way to come back is to U-Turn]...... OK the road is very busy, but it is way out in the sticks and a lot of these companies have been here for many years. If you turn off the main road before the new road every road that joins up to the new road you cannot cross over, you must turn left and then U-turn.. so there is no real way around it..

Industrial Estates way outside a Town or City, very good, unless someone build a new road with only U-turns to get into there Yards... there are many big rigs just one yard has 30 of these, many have the truck and same size trailer, one Company has very large machinery, have seen these low loaders trying to U-Turn, fully on the left, and still some cannot make it in one go.. Maybe the road planers need there heads examined ??

[LennyW]

A resounding success in lining the pockets of the BIB, but did bugger all in reducing fatalities.

[sugarcane24]

Thais want absolutely to be the number one in the world.

That wouldn't be very hard to achieve.

List of countries by traffic-related death rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

[silent]

26 per cent of road accidents were caused by drunk driving.

17 per cent speeding.

And the remaining 57 per cent ???

Fatalities, injuries and accidents were ""significantly"" higher than during the same period last year.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd praised the campaign of seizing vehicles of drunk drivers, as it had been ""successful"".

300 people killed in the 5 days ??

These statistics have no accuracy.

The average road-deaths per day is 72.

3,046 vehicles were seized and 30,152 people were charged with drink driving since December 25 ??

That's 10 drivers charged per vehicle.

This entire article is nonsense !!

57% miscellaneous 30,152 vehicles stopped. 3,046 charged with impaired and vehicles impounded since December 25 is another possibility that isn't really quite as much nonsense as taking the time to write about questioning the intelligence, or the integrity of the person who wrote it really. I've got to question my own intelligence now..

[connda]

A yearly migration, lemming inexorably marching to their doom.

The Thai people do not yet have the will to change the narrative. Until they do, they'll play this dance ad-infinitum.

Edited January 4, 2016 by connda

[MadMuhummad]

Education

They do not keep left at all times except to overtake.

They have no clue that cars on round about

Have priority .

Flash headlight should mean I see you please pass .

Not I see you and you wait for ME to pass.

Keep distances .drive with due care

Zip system on reduce lanes.

Respect strictly traffic lights .

Register all offences on common data base

Punish severely multiple offenders

By confiscating then repossessions

Ban from driving only to be re admitted after schooling .

No exceptions

Wow. You really got on a roll there didn't you?

It's funny, a large % of people commenting are just respeating each other's statements over and over.

Is it some kind of cathartic release? You don't speak a lick of Thai and this is your only way to get your 'voice' heard? Or you just want to be one of the cool 'I know everything' Thai bashers.

I'm sure a large number of TV commenters are from the U.K. I just left there and to say the driving is absolutely disgusting is being extremely polite. But I digress, this particular articles replies makes for very boring reading. I'm definitely discontinuing perusing the comments section for the hope of any inspired posts.

p.s. There are the odd one or two but wading through the BS to come across them is far too difficult.

[SOTIRIOS]

....what do you call it when a people(?) of a particular race(?) ....'can do no wrong'.....

...see it repeated over and over again....

...even a certain group that caused the loss(?) of tens...if not hundreds of billions of dollars through their scheme(scam?)...'It was for the good of the people'

....one word....'psycho'....comes to mind

[Jonmarleesco]

'... injuries and accidents were significantly higher than during the same period last year ... Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd praised the campaign of seizing vehicles of drunk drivers, as it had been successful ...' What sort of statistics would it have taken for the campaign to have counted as unsuccessful?

[Jonmarleesco]

Education

They do not keep left at all times except to overtake.

They have no clue that cars on round about

Have priority .

Flash headlight should mean I see you please pass .

Not I see you and you wait for ME to pass.

Keep distances .drive with due care

Zip system on reduce lanes.

Respect strictly traffic lights .

Register all offences on common data base

Punish severely multiple offenders

By confiscating then repossessions

Ban from driving only to be re admitted after schooling .

No exceptions

Wow. You really got on a roll there didn't you?

It's funny, a large % of people commenting are just respeating each other's statements over and over.

Is it some kind of cathartic release? You don't speak a lick of Thai and this is your only way to get your 'voice' heard? Or you just want to be one of the cool 'I know everything' Thai bashers.

I'm sure a large number of TV commenters are from the U.K. I just left there and to say the driving is absolutely disgusting is being extremely polite. But I digress, this particular articles replies makes for very boring reading. I'm definitely discontinuing perusing the comments section for the hope of any inspired posts.

p.s. There are the odd one or two but wading through the BS to come across them is far too difficult.

'I'm sure a large number of TV commenters are from the U.K. I just left there and to say the driving is absolutely disgusting is being extremely polite.' Driving on a Thai 'licence', were you?

[TPI]

Ask yourself.."why did I come here?" Was it to bring civilization to the poor masses? It's very cheap to live here? It's a no hassle lifestyle? Or, was it because it is soooo comfortable here...the police don't do their job, a big plus if not obeying the rules is part of your lifestlye, you can speed whenever or wherever you like, you can buy a beer 24 hours a day, drugs a very available, working girls are just down the street, no-one cares what you do or how you live & best of all, the "do-gooders" leave you alone!

So, the Thai's want to kill themselves on the roads, in the thousands, so what! It's their choice, it's also their choice not to do much about it......get used to it! "Som nom na" and "Mai pen rai" are major tenets of the society in this country, if they don't care why should you??

[superal]

So 26% of accidents caused by drunk drivers and 74% of accidents caused by Sober drivers ? doesn't say much for the sober drivers

[Patje55]

"Therefore, I ask the drivers to drive carefully, comply strictly with traffic rules and stop driving if they feel sleepy."

As far as I know from living and driving in LOS for 5 years: the only traffic rule in Thailand is : there are NO rules

[Artisi]

"Therefore, I ask the drivers to drive carefully, comply strictly with traffic rules and stop driving if they feel sleepy."

As far as I know from living and driving in LOS for 5 years: the only traffic rule in Thailand is : there are NO rules

No no no, the rule is, do what ever you want, if by chance you have an accident or get caught doing the wrong thing - accept it and get on with the main rule, easy - no brain strain no worries.

But bear in mind that every Thai driver is a potential enemy and will inflict much harm on you unless you pay very careful attention while on the road.

[tartempion]

More deaths because more cars, basic maths.

Edited January 4, 2016 by tartempion

[crutchy26]

Drove north from Bangkok today, almost to Khon Kaen (North, obviously)

I have never seen so many vehicles in 1 day, ever before, in my 40+ years of driving. ALL heading south to Bangkok. Thousands & thousands of cars.

at least some of the traffic lights had been disabled (trying to get some flow?) Well I would not call that amount of traffic flowing...........

But aside from that, I lost count of the white painted 'U' on the road traveling north.

I am assuming the U was the 4 wheels of where a vehicle, involved in a MVA, came to rest. ALWAYS precede/followed by another 4 Us.

If there was 1, there was a 100!!!!! That's 100 + fresh MVAs.

If I am crystal-balling, these would be rear-end shunts.

Not surprising given the propensity to tail-gate, travel too fast for the conditions & failure to be in SAFE control of a motor-vehicle.

The only thing that astonishes me, I did not see any accidents, given that over a 4 day return trip over 24 hours of driving and over 2000 klms. Maybe, I am lucky. Or very careful. Some drivers you can second-guess what they are going to do. But, not in Thailand.

[Maggusoil]

2,542 injuries and 2,446 accidents? So. 96 people were injured that were not in accidents. No sure I understand that one.

[TPUBON]

I said this before and I'll say it again. Get the police out of those check points and get them cruising the roads where they can see what's going on. Hard to spot all that's wrong from a check point.

[Dumbastheycome]

In fairness I congratulate the efforts made by local plice in our area.The road in front of our property serves as a secondary highway and the volume of traffic over the last few days is annually incredible..For 4 days police were in attendance to control an intersection and attempt to prevent double laning drivers in the face of oncoming traffic on a crest with no passing lines. Usually there are several collisions but this year only a single near miss. An exasperated police officer did say at one point" Let them go...they are all stupid!" When I suggested he could stop the infringers and ticket them he replied " I would need all year to finish the paperwork! Is better I just stop them killing each other too near to here ".

I understood.

[swerver]

What a nonsense to impound the vehicles of suspected " drink / drug drivers ".

Most of the retarded morons of confiscated vehicles will be back on the roads causing even more carnage in / on a vehicle that they borrowed from their brother / sister / friend within a couple of hours.

The vehicles are not guilty of the crime, the drivers are ! lock up the drivers

A more appropriate course of action would be to stick these sicko,s in a metal cage on the roadside, for all to see for a period of 5 days to allow them to dry out.

Better still, stick them in the monkey house immeadiately for a period of 50 days, during which time they will have lost their face, jobs, vehicles and any standing they may have had within their community.

This would cause massive loss of face, and be would be an immeadiate deterant to any others who think that drinking and driving is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Driver license.

Thailand is were the Western world was some 90-years ago.

You bought a motor vehicle, got behind the wheel and started to learn how to manipulate this new finagled contraption a trap Ford (model T) when you had mastered to drive this contraption to the Police station you went inside told them you wanted Driver license, policeman asked how you came here and you took him outside and showed him your new toy, by having driven it to the police station was proof you could manipulate it making you eligible to be issued a Driver license. This is how my father who operated a transport company (Mules and carts) got his Driver license when he upgraded and bought his first Model T truck.

FF.

It wasn't long in coming when the Gov. came to the conclusion that this motor vehicle manipulation had to be learned in a proper way like all other things young people have to learn for which they go to school so driver education became part of the school system starting in High school for which the High school would have a fleet of instruction cars having dual controls to teach driving a motor vehicle.. After graduating you were issued a Certificate to the fact you were qualified to operate a motor vehicle. It wasn't long in coming that the Gov. jumped on the bandwagon and made the Certificate a requirement for the issuing of a Driver license by the Dep. of Motor vehicles.

FF.

Now with driving simulators on the market the ever increasing fleet of training vehicles became a headache so they have been replaced with driving simulators, everything else remains the same. You MUST have a Certificate from the driving instruction section of High school or College to be allowed to take the written, oral and driving tests. Then if you are found qualified a picture is taken of your eyes for identification because no two people in the world have the same eye identification, this eliminated the finger print identification which people are able to alter an absolute impossibility with your eyes. This change was caused by people who had their Driver license taken away by the court in no time at all had themselves a FALSE Driver license. This change came about 40-years ago.

As you can see Thailand has a way to go to make a clean sweep with their Driver education and issuing of Driver license.

I'm not holding my breath because I will turn blue around the gills.

[connda]

I said this before and I'll say it again. Get the police out of those check points and get them cruising the roads where they can see what's going on. Hard to spot all that's wrong from a check point.

Nice to see another 'like mind' banging the same drum. Kudos.

It's just common sense. Why the BIB can't adopt Western law enforcement techniques is beyond me. It ain't rocket science. They should start sending some of their Lieutenants to the US and EU to shadow the Highway Patrol and the EU conterparts, and then import those ideas. Yeah, nothing changes until moving violations are enforce, and the populace forced to, for a better word, "fear" the consequences of getting stopped and fined, and depending on the infraction, tossed into jail.

This is effective enforcement of traffic violations. Road blocks are a band-aide on a cut artery. Cops issue a ticket based on the infraction. If the offender doesn't pay the fine or make a court appearence, a bench warrant is issued for their arrest, and the next time the driver is stopped, the paddy wagon is called and off to jail they go. That's effective law enforcement on the roads. Thailand's road block policy is a joke, and their ranking as the second most dangerous roads in the world are the result of an apathetic, negligence concern for the welfare of the public.

Edited January 4, 2016 by connda

[poohy]

So 26% of accidents caused by drunk drivers and 74% of accidents caused by Sober drivers ? doesn't say much for the sober drivers !

Aha super news ............ so in this case it proves that in Thailand, drunk drivers cause less accidents

[Redline]

Road toll worse than last year on fifth day

THE NATION

Heavy traffic congestion is seen on the inbound lanes of Vibhavadi Rangsit Road yesterday as New Year holidaymakers begin returning to Bangkok.

BANGKOK: -- THE ROAD death toll passed last years figure on the fifth day of New Years so-called Seven dangerous days on the roads with nearly 300 people killed as of Saturday.

The Road Safety and Directing Centre (RSDC) yesterday revealed the road fatalities, injuries and accidents were significantly higher than during the same period last year.

As of Saturday, 292 deaths, 2,855 injuries and 2,753 accidents had been reported since Tuesday.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd praised the campaign of seizing vehicles of drunk drivers, as it had been successful and the government would consider enforcing this measure for all long holiday seasons.

"This measure has had good feedback from many organisations and road users. Moreover, it also resulted in officers inspecting cars for illegal things such as weaponry and drugs as well," Sansern said.

Last year by the fifth day there had been 260 deaths, 2,542 injuries and 2,446 accidents, meaning 32 more deaths, 313 more injuries and 307 more accidents had been reported this year.

The centre disclosed that 26 per cent of road accidents were caused by drunk driving, the major reason for road accidents. That was followed by speeding at 17 per cent.

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department director Chatchai Promlert said the accident statistics over the last five days were of concern.

"Today [yesterday] many people are on their journey home and many people drive very fast and cut in front of other cars at close range, which is very risky," Chatchai said.

"Therefore, I ask the drivers to drive carefully, comply strictly with traffic rules and stop driving if they feel sleepy."

Chanchao Chiyanukit, a member of the national road acci-|dent prevention committee, said yesterday was the last day of the |long New Year holidays, so many people were travelling back home. The long drive many faced, coupled with weariness as a result of the New Year celebrations, may increase the risk of road accidents, Chanchao said.

"The RSDC has ordered more intensive traffic surveillance on the main highways to Bangkok, so the traffic rules are strictly enforced," Chanchao said. "There will be more frequent inspections of drivers, especially for speeding and alcohol and to keep drivers alert and reduce the chance of dozing off."

Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, the National Council for Peace and Order deputy spokeswoman, revealed that 3,046 vehicles were seized and 30,152 people were charged with drink driving since December 25.

Taejing Siripanich, secretary-general of "Don't Drive Drunk Foundation", also complimented the measure.

"The measure has cut down some of road accidents, but not much. Therefore, such a measure should be expanded and implemented for the whole year, not only for seven days, and stricter law enforcement should be used in order to effectively decrease road accidents," Taejing said.

"This would be a good start that this government is paying attention to tackling road accidents."

Sansern said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha wanted more people to use minor roads when travelling over the holiday period, not drive too fast and not drive too tired.

He said the PM expressed his gratitude for the job done by officers who worked during the holiday.

Despite the number of road accidents being higher this year, he believed that all officers had done their best, Sansern said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Road-toll-worse-than-last-year-on-fifth-day-30276076.html

-- The Nation 2016-01-04

They should get a bonus

[oldsailor35]

26 per cent of road accidents were caused by drunk driving.

17 per cent speeding.

And the remaining 57 per cent ???

Fatalities, injuries and accidents were ""significantly"" higher than during the same period last year.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd praised the campaign of seizing vehicles of drunk drivers, as it had been ""successful"".

300 people killed in the 5 days ??

These statistics have no accuracy.

The average road-deaths per day is 72.

3,046 vehicles were seized and 30,152 people were charged with drink driving since December 25 ??

That's 10 drivers charged per vehicle.

This entire article is nonsense !!

57% probably Unlicensed, inexperienced drivers.

[oldsailor35]

What i cannot understand is that the RTP actually, knowingly allow unlicensed persons to ride a motorcy on the road sometimes with at least two passengers. Young kids, unlicensed, untrained, inexperienced, uninsured. Particularly around 4pm in the afternoon. In parts of Samui it is a nightmare. But the police just wave them on blindly.